Tag: writing
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18 Days to Launch
I feel like I’m about to be loaded into a cannon. Launch day (pun not intended, but completely embraced) is just 18 days away. My walls are covered with gigantic, easel paper sized post-it notes which, in turn, look like they’ve been shotgunned with traditionally-sized post-it notes. Each note has tasks to complete before either…
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Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Y’all! One of you won my Preorder Giveaway for Her Dying Day! You wanna know who it is? First, please note that my children drew this name. On Mother’s Day. Unwillingly. “Hey, get in here!” “Why?” “I need you to draw a name?” “For what?” “Does it matter? It’s Mother’s Day and I’m asking you…
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Y’all March Did Not Go Like I Hoped
Y’all, March did not go like I hoped. I had intended to send out a newsletter last week and do a blog post, but here we are. In the last days of the month as March continues to make up its mind as to whether or not it’s going to let spring arrive. I, for…
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My Word for 2022
Wow, 2022 has come in smacking everyone six ways from Sunday, hasn’t it. Snow, extremely cold temperatures for the East Coast, and I think everyday has see a celebrity that was an integral part of my childhood dead. Also, I’m “slimming” so I’m steadily working my way through a tub of salad greens and have…
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Word for 2021
There are many words I could use to describe 2021. Fraught. Joyous. Ulcer-inducing. Satisfying. Awful. Perfect. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. However, I’m writing today about my Word of the Year. It’s a word with meanings and qualities I’d like to focus on or have as goals fro…
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Gifts for the Writers in Your Life
Everyone has a writer or an aspiring writer in their life. I was that person for my family for the last few years. Thoughtful writer gifts can help to lift the cloud of imposter syndrome that hangs over the heads of every writer who is struggling to get published. (For a little while anyway.) As…
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I was on the #AmWriting Podcast
You. Guys. I was on a podcast. Not just any podcast, but a podcast I’ve been listening to since I first decided I wanted to take this whole “writing thing” seriously. The #AmWriting Podcast with KJ Dell’Antonia, Jessica Lahey, and Sarina Bowen. The hosts are successful writers in their own right in different genres of…
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Writing the Book is Only Half the Job
This week, at the end of a marathon writing sprint lasting 3 days and producing over 9000 words (but the rough draft of Book 3 is DONE!), I was given some new, fun stuff to do by my publisher. I’m not talking about simple line edits. The first fun thing was an author questionnaire. It…
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I Have a Book Deal!
I started querying this book almost exactly 1 year ago in June 2020. I got my agent in February 2021 and now on June 15, 2021 I have a deal with an honest-to-God publisher. Crooked Lane is a smaller publisher, but it specializes in mysteries, which is exactly the kind of publisher I want. And,…
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Under Submission
That’s a weird term, “Under Submission.” Under = In an existent state of. Submission = Consideration or Judgement. There’s a nebulous quality to that phrase that can’t quit convey how emotionally fraught it is to be “Under Submission.” To be “Under Submission” means your agent wrote a pitch (essentially a much better written query) and…
Mindy Carlson 