Writer Unboxed

I am so distractible. Dealing with that aspect of myself is one of my greatest challenges as a writer. Though my doc has assured me that I do not have an adult version of ADD, I’ve wondered a time a two. Being distractible can be caused by a whole slew of things—like genetics, parenthood, stress, [...]

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By all accounts, I’m a busy mom. I gave up my teaching career a couple of years ago so I could stay home with my children—one school-aged, and one who has just turned two. Soon, I’ll no longer be a mom of two, but a mom of four. We’re expecting a set of twins in [...]

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First, a disclaimer. Sometimes I pretend I’m an MD who has specialized in whatever medical issue happens to be going on in my midst. Last week at church, for instance, when my friend mentioned that earlier that day, she had slipped on her stairs and bonked her head, I became a Head Injury Specialist. As [...]

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At this time every year, we are bombarded with exhortations and advice on ways to change ourselves for the better, to become a NEW! IMPROVED! BETTER! version of ourselves. It’s the curse of a society that genuinely believes that anyone can achieve anything—if they try hard enough. This column is not about that, because you are [...]

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I keep this quote in my archives and refer to it often. Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be [...]

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It’s the time of the year when a trip to the mailbox means finding a cheerful bundle of Christmas cards from family and friends all over the world. And it’s this time of the year that I most miss an annual ritual: receiving a Christmas cat card from my dear pen-friend Lloyd Alexander, the great [...]

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We are about to enter the season of heightened expectations and goal-setting, so I’ll offer a story which I hope you’ll find helpful, then draw some lessons for the writing life. Years ago, I was overworking and missing my kids with a ferocity I found almost frightening. I’d drop them at the sitter’s and go [...]

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Late at night is when the pain is the worst. The aching void. The silence. The knowledge that what once was is now gone. Forever. It’s not like we didn’t know it was going to happen. This was a love affair that we knew would end. We both knew this going in, but I don’t [...]

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Therese here. Today’s guest is Krissy Brady, who’s here to introduce us to a book that, to me, sounds like the secret every writer needs to know–Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields. Recently, Krissy talked up the book on the WU Facebook forum, and it made me want to [...]

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I’m going to take a month off in December from this site. I need to prepare a few things (maybe even a presentation) for my upcoming novel. I’ll be back in January, but still I’m nervous about leaving y’all. So in order to cope with this fear, I’ve decided to get my wife to film [...]

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  23 years ago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I sold my first book. This is what I remember: it was overcast and gloomy, my favorite kind of weather, so my children were playing with Play-doh at the table and I was writing in the mini office I had set up in the dining room. [...]

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Therese here. Today’s guest is the delightful Rebecca Rasmussen, who’s here to talk with us about her experience with publicity and how it’s impacted her–personally and professionally–since the release of her debut novel, The Bird Sisters. Rebecca’s novel releases in paperback today, and if you haven’t yet picked it up, now’s the time. Said the [...]

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