Publishing and Craft Reflections

Hey Authors, Prep For Your Public Speaking Spots

A couple months ago, I got a five minute spot on a UK radio station to talk about my books. This station was taking anyone and everyone who reached out to them, but even so, it was a marketing opportunity that I took seriously. The hosts sent out a list of five or so simple… Continue reading Hey Authors, Prep For Your Public Speaking Spots

Writing Fiction Passages for Educational Publishers

I’ve worked in educational publishing for 8 years now and sometimes it dovetails with my author life. My favorite way this happens is when I need to write short reading passages for assessments. You’re likely familiar with those English tests where you read a story or informational text and then answer questions about it. But… Continue reading Writing Fiction Passages for Educational Publishers

Why I Self-Published My Poetry Collections

I think of myself primarily as a fantasy writer, yet thanks to my B.A. in creative writing, I’ve dabbled in poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and nonfiction. Though I’ve been writing since I learned how to pick up a pencil, everything I wrote until high school was prose, most of it intended as long fiction.… Continue reading Why I Self-Published My Poetry Collections

What I Learned from Publishing My First Book

Finishing and publishing my first book has been an immensely rewarding experience, and helped me increase my focus on current and future projects. Of course, I learned much about the process of creating and publishing a book by doing most of the work myself. For both the ebook and paperback of Forgive Us Our Trespasses,… Continue reading What I Learned from Publishing My First Book

What Is Blackout Poetry?

To celebrate the upcoming release of my poetry collection Forgive Us Our Trespasses, I’m running a blog post series about it, starting with the most basic question: What the heck is “blackout poetry”? Blackout poetry is a form of poetry where you take a newspaper article, a book, or some other pre-existing material, box off… Continue reading What Is Blackout Poetry?

3 Writing Lesson from Martial Arts Training

One of the several activities that has kept me busy over the last few months is the kung fu and tai chi classes I’ve been taking. Martial arts is currently my only form of exercise; I train hard and feel physically healthier than I have been my whole life. I had many reasons for deciding… Continue reading 3 Writing Lesson from Martial Arts Training

Fanfiction As a Writing Tool

Most of you know by now that I’m generally a fan of fandom. I do all sort of analyses and I discussed some of the positive things that fandom (specifically fanart and fanfiction) can provide for people in this panel I was on last year. Fanfiction and fanart allow for exploration of narratives that the… Continue reading Fanfiction As a Writing Tool

Is Head Hopping Necessary?

Much of the writing advice I’ve seen over the past few years has heavily discouraged the practice of head hopping–or jumping around between POV characters. There are many valid reasons why. For example, most information revealed via head hopping can be done via the main POV. The writer just has to… Continue reading Is Head Hopping Necessary?

Lessons from Gravity: How to Fail the Bechdel Test (in a good way)

This Oscars 2014 post series didn’t go quite as planned, but even though I only managed to write about one Best Picture nom before Ellen DeGeneres ordered pizza for everyone, I’m still making my way through each of the films because they really are always worth seeing. As I noted in my post about… Continue reading Lessons from Gravity: How to Fail the Bechdel Test (in a good way)