Posted in Explore and Discover on January 24, 2017 at 6:00 am
By Erin Dodge My inner fangirl starts jumping up and down every time I find out that an author is coming to the library to give a reading or discuss writing. So you can imagine the backflips (my inner fangirl is much more flexible than I am) when I heard that three amazing authors are […]
Tags: adults, author visit, authors, books, events, reading, romance, romance series, writing
Posted in Explore and Discover on December 6, 2016 at 6:00 am
by Kelly Burgess As a long-time writer and editor, the most frequent question I get from people is, “How can I sell what I’m writing?” Becoming a writer is one thing (hint: it takes passion, discipline and dedication). Selling your work is quite another. I’m not going to lie: in some ways, it’s harder than […]
Tags: advice, publication, submission rules, writer's guidelines, writers, writing, writing articles, writing idea, writing market, writing submissions
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 27, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Claire Rudolf Murphy On October 30, longtime writing friend Sarah Conover and I will present a session on the writing life for the NaNoWriMo Readiness Conference. After two days of sessions about elements of craft at Moran Prairie Library, ours will be the final event of the weekend. I teach in a graduate writing […]
Tags: authors, classes, community, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, professional writer, writers life, writing
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 24, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Kris Dinnison So first I should say, this isn’t meant as advice so much as confession. These are things I do—some commonplace, some mildly embarrassing—that seem to make writing happen in my life. So take what you will from it and know that every writer I know has a list of their own that […]
Tags: writer, writing, writing advice, writing routine
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 20, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Kelly Burgess As with any profession, there is no guarantee of success in the writing business. However, regardless of whether you want to break into fiction or nonfiction markets, successful writers have some traits that are crucial to carving out a literary career. Passion Writers write because they feel the need to put words […]
Tags: fiction, nonfiction, professional writer, writer's block, writers group, writers workshop, writing, writing critiques, writing group, writing workshop
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 13, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Stephanie Oakes I have a confession to make—I’ve never successfully completed NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’ve tried a few times, and always start with huge amounts of enthusiasm, but I’ve never written more than 30,000 words in any given November. But the secret of NaNoWriMo is this—you don’t need to “win” NaNoWriM […]
Tags: challenges, community, events, first drafts, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, word sprints, writing, writing sprint
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 6, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Bruce Holbert Not long ago, I was asked in an interview, “What took so long?” I was then 52 and publishing my first novel. I don’t have the data at hand, but my guess is I am beyond the mean. The question struck me as impolite. I wasn’t sleeping in doorways or staggering through […]
Tags: author, book publishing, books, conference, NaNoWriMo, publishing, writing, writing life
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 4, 2016 at 6:00 am
By Kelly Burgess If you love reading, you’ve probably wondered if you could try your hand at writing. That’s not an unusual impulse. Many writers got the incentive to start writing either by reading a book that was so amazing they wanted to create that magic too, or by reading a book that was so […]
Tags: aspiring authors, fiction, memoir, NaNoWriMo, nonfiction, writers, writers workshop, writing, writing motivation, writing workshop
Posted in Explore and Discover, For You on August 26, 2015 at 6:00 am
By Brian Vander Veen I rarely had the attention span as a teen to tackle full-length novels. I read quite a few role-playing game manuals, comics, and various permutations of Choose Your Own Adventure books, but not a lot of actual novels. The Hobbit, Neuromancer, and several books from the Dragonlance franchise were among the few […]
Tags: books, science fiction, writing
Posted in Business and Careers, For You on May 27, 2015 at 6:00 am
By Aileen Luppert Last year I was lucky enough to participate in a grant studying career development strategies. The training I received included a review of recent resume trends. So much has changed in the last ten years—enough to make me blush and blanch about my own outdated resume. When was the last time you refreshed your resume? If […]