Writer Unboxed

Therese here. Today’s guest is Sarah Pinneo, whose debut novel, Julia’s Child, was published by Plume / Penguin earlier in the week, to terrific reviews: Well written, well paced, and very absorbing.—Library Journal Pinneo skewers the cult of the child with an insider’s eye. A witty, well-plotted fiction debut.—Publishers Weekly That’s the happy ending. But [...]

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    O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour… Sonnet 126       The so-called “social” media, currently our lovely boy of communication, hold in their darting packets of data, surely, unimaginable power. They collapse distance across continents and seas we once showed on [...]

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Therese here. I’m so pleased to bring you today’s guest: author Sarah McCoy. Sarah’s second book, The Baker’s Daughter, about the daughter of a German baker during WWII and her continuing story in the present day, was released just last week by Crown (and with a deckle edge; I love a deckle edge). Said Tatiana de [...]

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Sometimes writers express sentiments that make me want to issue a red-flag warning: STOP. You are about to hurt yourself. Here are five of the biggest ones. 1. If I can’t get a deal soon, I’m self-publishing. Why are you in a rush? Does your book have an expiration date? Even if your book is [...]

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A couple of weeks ago, I was crashing and my beloved knew it. He suggested we take Martin Luther King day off and go to Denver–wander through the new Ikea store to see if we might find some storage for our basement, maybe. More importantly, we would go hang out at The Tattered Cover bookstore. [...]

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GIVEAWAY: I am (again) excited to give away a free copy of the 2012 Guide to Literary Agents to a random commenter. Comment within one week; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. Good luck to all! (Update: Julia Monroe Martin won.) I just got back from our awesome-yet-exhausting 2012 Writer’s [...]

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Kath here. It’s such a thrill to be able to introduce one of the most courageous writers that I know, and a dear friend, historical romance novelist Elena Greene. Like most professional writers, Elena suffered ups and downs with a bit of sideways thrown in for good measure throughout her decade-long career writing Regency-set romances. [...]

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The proverb says, Don’t judge a book by its cover, but whoever dreamed that one up can’t have been working in the publishing industry. It might be an indictment of human shallowness, but you can’t help first impressions. You will not judge a book by its cover once you’ve read it, of course; but first [...]

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It seems like as soon as we tackle one hot “it” tool and capture ways to use it for publicity (first Facebook, then Twitter), something new and even cooler comes along and grabs everyone’s attention. Right now that “it” tool is Pinterest and I’ll admit – I’m hooked. If you’re not familiar, Pinterest is like an online [...]

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Bookmarks, fridge magnets, pens – if you can’t wait to order objects that display your cover art or announce your authorial name, you aren’t alone. “Swag,” as these tangibles are known, signals to oneself and others that an author has “arrived.” It serves several other time-honored purposes within the publishing world: Can be used to [...]

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In third grade, they made us learn how to juggle. We started with scarves, because they have good hang time in the air, and they don’t make any noise if — okay, when – you drop them. So picture a room full of 8 and 9 year olds throwing these dingy, neon-colored squares of cloth all [...]

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Therese and Kath here to introduce the newest member of the WU team. You’ve seen independent editor Victoria Mixon here before. We love her for her ability to plumb the depths of craft knowledge, her commitment to making hard-to-understand concepts understandable, and her personality. So when she offered to provide a column to us for [...]

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