Questioning my Sanity

Sanity as definied by dictionary.com: sanity [san-i-tee] noun 1. the state of beingsane; soundness of mind. 2. soundness of judgment. I've never claimed to be sane. It doesn't appeal to my sense of self. Since seventh grade I've identified with the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper creeping around her room and imagining herself in the garden and behind the walls. And I believe every creative person is...

Emma Dryden

T minus 9 days until I attend the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles. I booked the conference during a time I was seriously depressed hoping that I'd get excited and enjoy the experience. True to my optimism I'm excited and can't wait to see some new and old friends and soak in all the wonders...

Read Across America

Today I participated in Read Across America at the Whitewater Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was flattered the school reached out to me and was nervous about speaking to a class of sixth grade middle schoolers about writing. On a wet, rainy day, I headed North on the 485, squeezed passed an all lane...

Best thing about being 40…

There are posts going up among my Facebook friends quoting the bests things about being forty...my favorite among them is: there was internet when I was twenty - so there is no evidence of my stupidity. The Huffington post ran this one yesterday by Amy Wruble: 40 Effed Up Things About Being 40 I'd like...

Gayle Forman, Just One Day

I met Gayle Forman at the LA times Festival of Books, years ago, when it was still held on the UCLA campus, when my daughter was still a baby, in 2009. She was part of a YA panel that included Jandy Nelson and Sonya Sones. It was a panel on death in YA. I was...

Mayday

I remember watching movies and hearing, "Mayday, mayday!" as an actor clutched a handset yelling for help into the great unknown. This May has been a whirlwind. I've been working hard on the Charlotte Leukemia Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Man of the Year campaign. We were tapped to participate a handful of days prior to kickoff...

Query Advice

So, most of you are aware that I wrote a Young Adult novel and am actively querying it to literary agents. I worked for years on my manuscript, worshopped it, paid for critiques, had trusted friends give me notes, started over, revised, killed darlings, filled out chapters and poured all that I am into this...

Defining Success

If you ask me to define success, my answer would depend on the day. Today, it means I achieved the literary goal of submitting my novel to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. I had to achieve four smaller goals on the ladder reaching toward the ultimate goal of having my book on your bookshelf (and...

Forwarding the blog post: I am Adam Lanza’s Mother

With so much debate about things I have the need to talk about people. I can't fathom the grief in Newtown. I don't want to. I cried when I brought my little girl to preschool this morning. My apprehension and fear to drop her off at school surprised me. I didn't want to get out...

Taste & Timing

I think I'm finished, totally finished with my manuscript LIFE-LIKE. It's in expert hands getting a grammatical once-over. Why can't I take a deep breath and enjoy the small success? Neurotic Holly is taking full shape behind me. She's typically spectral and whispers nonsense in my ears, encouraging me to doubt and second guess my...