Blog

I have a tendency to throw myself into things.

It was beautiful Milwaukee fall day. I was sitting in one of my coffee shop writing offices (Fiddleheads Coffee on Oakland Ave. in Shorewood, WI), fidgeting because I didn’t feel like writing. Checking my email for the (mumble) time, I saw it. An email from Black Rose Writing. “Oh, no.” Yes, I said it out

I have to say, although I’ve received a number of rejections from publishers for Spirit Sight, it hasn’t been as dispiriting (see what I did, there?) as I expected it would be. One reviewer said he read it and showed it to his senior editor, but they ultimately decided it wasn’t right for them. The

“You’re writing about little girls,” she said with a speculative tone, but then with a shrug, she added, “but you do it really well.” That was my writing coach, Kathie Giorgio. We were discussing a scene from Spirit Sight. And it’s true. On both accounts, in my opinion. The story revolves around Minna (13) and

When I started writing, I wasn’t really thinking about a novel. I wasn’t even thinking about short stories. I had no plan, only vague ideas about a fantastical world and a few interesting characters. I wrote random scenes with only loose, thematic connections. Whatever I woke up with each morning, I put down on paper

A natural place to start the blog is the curious question of why I started writing in the first place. What possessed me (and I use that word advisedly) to start writing as I enter the third act of my life? It turns out, I’m not unusual in that regard. A lot of people start

I’ve been told one of the requirements for being a successful author is to have platform. Apparently, that involves a website, social media presence and a blog, among other, more mysterious, things. Some publishers actually want to see the number of connections you have on social media or the number of people on your mailing