One of the best ways to find out if a writer’s conference is worth your time—and money—is to talk to people who’ve attended. That’s why I Ioved what I heard from Laurie Garrison who attended our 2019 conference. Laurie had written a book titled In Sheep’s Clothing, and had gotten an agent but the agent…
When writers ask me what’s the best thing they can do for their writing careers and ambitions, I say just like my early writing teacher Kathryn Fanning did: Attend writer’s conferences. Here are a few things I gained from attending writer’s conferences that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else: At the first conference I attended,…
When writers ask me what’s the best thing they can do for their writing careers and ambitions, I say just like my early writing teacher Kathryn Fanning did: Attend writer’s conferences. Here are a few things I gained from attending writer’s conferences that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else: At the first conference I attended,…
I asked my daughter Ali how she saw self-discipline operating in my writing life since she was along for the ride, and here’s what she said: “Even if it was close to the deadline, you just did it. Your main method was—no matter what, you worked and worked and finished the manuscript by the deadline….
Above is a concept that Stephen King discussed in his excellent book On Writing, and it’s true as true can be. So in this blog, we’re going to look at the importance of writers reading. Reading novels is often a more effective method of learning to write than any college course you might take. Of…
Recently I remembered a pivotal moment that occurred at a small writer’s gathering I attended in my early, fledgling writing career. I was a few chapters into my first book entitled HOMELIFE: The Key to Your Child’s Success in School. I didn’t have an agent or any connections in the publishing industry, nor even a…
“But editing is hard work!” a new writer complained when I suggested she might need some help editing after I read her first chapters. “I’ve already had my mom, friend, and neighbor read my manuscript and they really like it.” When I asked the outcome of sending her manuscript to agents and editors, she answered,…
A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.—E.B. White Over the years when people found out I was an author, many have told me, “I have a book I want to write—it’s a great idea! But I just don’t have time to work on…
When I began the journey to become a working writer, I took a freelance writing course taught by Kathryn Fanning at the local library. Week by week, I learned from Kathryn how to study the markets, identify what topics I was qualified to write, query magazines with the article ideas, write and submit my work….
Why are we passionate about writer’s conferences? At my first writer’s conference at University of Oklahoma, I met Kathryn Fanning. A few months later I attended her freelance writing class at the library. That led to being in her critique group, and the first thing Kathryn taught was to write what you know, which for me was: children,…