I got some of the best writing advice this week:  In a good story, things are never as they appear.  At first, I debated this advice:  ...

A good friend recently attended a top-level writing conference, one where you have to be approved to enter.  She was accepted and went ...

Spring is the time of new birth, and that includes book manuscripts.  Writers have been working hard all winter and want to bring their ...

I first learned about Jay Gilbertson's wonderful series of novels when he attended several of my writing retreats on Madeline Island...

M y interview with writer Amy Hanson generated a flurry of response--and some thought-provoking questions.  Amy's story is mag...

One of my all-time favorite sources of inspiration is this week's quote from dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, writing to her p...

Amy Hanson started writing her novel, a braided narrative about a woman in Zambia and a woman in Seattle, when her third child was a yea...

No matter where you are in the book-writing journey, at some point the sheer volume of material begins to overwhelm and it's ti...

I like picking up what I call "airport reads," just to see what's up in commercial fiction.  Airport reads are those books...

What I call the "inner story" in fiction or memoir just refers to the transformation of a character or narrator through a ...