First Cup of Coffee – June 9, 2023

A round-up of what I’ve been reading lately, including several excursions from my normal reading. I’m thinking about female/femme narratives and how we center those (or don’t) in terms of stories about men.



First Cup of Coffee – June 5, 2023

Thoughts on learning to paint by numbers, or learn to follow the rules of craft before you break them. How I’m breaking my own rule, on epistolary romances, and a funny story about my granddaughter.



First Cup of Coffee – June 2, 2023

Updates on my travels, including WisCon and thoughts on being laid-back at cons instead of wall-to-wall. Also, trends in traditional publishing and speculation on why they all seem to want full manuscripts.



First Cup of Coffee – May 22, 2023

Zencastr borked on me, so there’s an abrupt ending, but I’m talking about self-publishing careers vs. trad-pub ones, AI and creativity, and writing a book that is an artistic conversation with another book.



First Cup of Coffee – May 19, 2023

A roundup of my travels and socializing: Nebula Conference, the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, New Mexico Writers, literary snobbery, tail-sniffing, and repping genre writers who keep the industry going!



First Cup of Coffee – May 8, 2023

A bit of advice on how Patreon works, about my meeting with Graphic Audio and how fantasy words like “Cosmere” become part of the industry lingo, and some <> thoughts on the medical establishment and obesity.



 

One Piece of Advice for Aspiring Authors

Figure out what your process is and own it.
See, the point is that every single creator has the0ir own creative process. It’s as individual as retinal patterns. While it can be helpful to take classes on writing processes and techniques, to learn from other authors, in the end we all find that our process is unique to us. I’ve seen SO MANY writers struggle to change their process and try to “make it be” something or other, to no avail. The whole point of learning various techniques is to triangulate on what works for you. It can be a long and iterative process, but that’s the “magic formula.” Figure out what your process is and own it. Don’t try to make your process be something other than what it is, even if you are occasionally frustrated by it. (I often am by mine!)
Like learning to love yourself, learn to embrace your process. Own it. It’s yours.

First Cup of Coffee – April 25, 2023

How to graciously answer that invidious question: “Have I heard of you?” Also, some lovely early feedback on ROGUE FAMILIAR – just released!!! – and how we don’t always know what we’re writing.