In the latest Art-Committed Life newsletter, I seek to give back to the creative community with links to creative writing resources as well as reflections on key issues in the life of a creative. You'll learn about a new online writing community featuring workshops by accomplished authors and creative writing instructors that also includes opportunities …
Category: Publishing
Thoughts on “Writing While Black”
As more and more examples of systemic racism surface in the wake of the resurgent #BlackLivesMatter movement, a skilled writer has chronicled her own challenges as a Black fiction writer in a world largely comprised of white readers, agents, editors and publishers. Laura Warrell's "Writing While Black" in the Los Angeles Review of Books moved …
A Top Literary Agent Shares 3 Elements Your Novel Opening Must Have to Seize His Interest (and Possible Representation)
You're finally ready to start pitching literary agents for your unpublished novel. Those first few pages have to sing if you're going to hook the agent. How do you know if you're ready? Founding Partner of and Literary Agent with Folio Literary Management Jeff Kleinman recently shared three key elements he looks for in the …
7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Launch a Blog
So my telling creative writers not to launch a blog may seem a bit hypocritical, coming from someone who has blogged off and on for more than twenty years, and even taught blogging through The Loft Literary Center. I certainly don't want to kill anyone's dreams. That said, I think in 2020 most published authors …
Would you like to beta-read an urban fantasy novel?
UPDATE (August 17, 2019): I'm so grateful for the individuals who reached out and agreed to be beta readers. I'm good for now, so anyone finding this post is off the hook. Can't wait to get feedback! -------------- It's a big ask, hoping someone takes the time to read a novel you're writing, with nothing …
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Point of View: Did You Choose the Right One?
There's a great SNL skit from a few years ago where Tina Fey plays a rather trashy woman speaking into the camera to someone she knows: "I saw you on House Hunters. You picked the wrong house, bitch!" Without the vitriol, I find myself thinking that sometimes while reading a novel about the author's choice of point …
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What is Your Writing Process? First Drafts
A non-writer may ask you, "How is your book coming?" A fellow writer may ask you, "What draft are you on?" To the first question I usually reply, "It's going well, thanks," and then quickly change the subject. To the second, my typical response is, "It depends." Many creative writers plow through their WIP in …
What Genre is Your Novel?Are You Sure?
NOTE: An update on this piece can be found at its conclusion. I'm hardly the first to go on this rant, but there appears to be no rhyme nor reason to fiction genre classifications. Things were so much more straightforward when I was writing my travel memoir. It fell under "biographies and memoirs," and the …
A Survivor’s Guide to AWP
It's one of the largest annual gatherings of creative writers, publishers, and educators in the United States--usually well in excess of 10,000 attendees--and the largest such event for literary writers. Once again I'll be attending the AWP Conference & Bookfair, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs' annual extravaganza. This year the hordes will be …
Lit Journal Hunger Mountain Publishes Excerpt of Committed
So that headline says it all, right? I'm very honored that the esteemed literary journal Hunger Mountain has published an excerpt of Committed: A Memoir of the Artist's Road. Best of all, it's free online, so click away! The excerpt is one of several excellent creative works in a special "Mentors & Tormentors" issue. Those who have already read Committed will understand …
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The Artist's Road 