When it comes down to it, it’s pretty hard to tell a completely original story. In the most basic sense, stories are made up of the same pieces—a protagonist with a goal, an antagonist in the way of the goal, and the journey the protagonist goes on to either succeed or fail in getting that goal. A young kid finds out he/she is magical and … Continue reading Someone Already Wrote My Book (And Other Lies You Tell Yourself)
Five years ago, I attended a writing retreat with a large group of authors who all debuted in 2014. We spent a long weekend working and writing and talking about goals. One night, we were asked to talk about where we hoped to be in five years. There were a variety of answers: I want to sell foreign rights to my work. I want to … Continue reading Celebrate the Steps
You guys. Listen. Book Expo America (BEA) is an experience. If you ever have the opportunity to go, you should. I went in 2013 for the first time, which was overwhelming and awesome. You just can’t imagine how big it is, and they give you free books. What more could you possibly want in life? This year, I went as an author. I went … Continue reading Signing Between for the First Time!
Ben Folds is one of my favorite artists of all time. A lot of people are familiar with him because of his mainstream hit, Brick, from the late 90s. If that’s all you know of him, PLEASE dig deeper. He’s an incredible musician and songwriter, and his songs have fantastic lines such as: “Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there’s … Continue reading Be Somebody’s Ben Folds
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash We all know the One Hit Wonder, right? It’s a term typically used to describe a recording artist known for only one hit song. Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby, Eddie Murphy – Party All the Time, Eiffel 65 – Blue (I hate myself a little for even thinking of that song), Macy Gray – I Try, James Blunt – You’re Beautiful…you … Continue reading Pondering the One Hit Wonder
Usually, when I sit down to write a story, I have a pretty good idea of who my characters are. I know their names, I know their personalities, I know what their general roles are in the story. But they don’t become REAL to me until I figure out what it is that makes them different from every other character in every other book. … Continue reading Creating Memorable Characters
First off, back on October 24 I was like, “I’m gonna do a vlog every week!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Past Me is so cute. Alrighty. If you were on Twitter Monday night, you got to experience the most incredible thing with me. I announced that my book, the book that I’ve been working on forEVER and have rewritten a silly number of times all because I’m so … Continue reading Between + Spencer Hill Press = LOVE 4EVER
