Category Archives: Books

By The Numbers: Literary Agent Query Stats

By Richard | Published January 23, 2011

Tell someone that you’re an aspiring author, and that you’ve written a book, and they immediately want to know when they can buy it. When you explain that it’s not quite that simple, and then chronicle the convoluted steps that take one from creation to hardcover, they’re shocked. Their look suggests you’d have a better [...]

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The Query

By Richard | Published January 16, 2011

How could I not be thrilled? Four years ago, I was in the fourteenth year of daily migraines, knowing that my ability to endure was slowing slipping away. I was hanging from a cliff, fingers raw and bloody, strength in my arms failing. Now I’m trying to finish something that excites me beyond belief. In [...]

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25 Questions With Author Jody Hedlund

By Richard | Published November 3, 2010

Jody Hedlund • The Preacher’s Bride My mind can best be likened to a sieve, so I don’t remember what first brought me to Jody Hedlund’s website. But I do remember, after reading a few blog posts and a few of her comments to readers, that I liked her immediately. The quality I value most [...]

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Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island

By Richard | Published August 9, 2010

In a sometimes forgotten nation, it’s fitting that a humble farmhouse in Cavendish — a hamlet of 94 people — inspires pilgrimages. Green Gables is a modest dwelling treasured throughout much of the world, thanks to author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s stories. The Prince Edward Island native fashioned her intimate knowledge of this loving home, owned [...]

Also posted in Canada, Life, Writing | 8 Comments

Writers Helping Writers: Merry Monteleone

By Richard | Published August 2, 2010

I don’t know writer Merry Monteleone well, other than to say that she’s a smart, strong woman and we share some loyal friends. Her home in Illinois was recently flooded, and suffered a great deal of damage. Merry and her family — including three children in middle school and younger — are working tirelessly to [...]

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Flawed Characters and Conflict

By Richard | Published July 21, 2010

One major problem that I face in writing for the late-middle grades is that I’m so far removed from them. I’m not only over the hill, I’m way down the hollow. We don’t have children, and I don’t really remember what it was like to be 12 or 13, although I do remember hating it. [...]

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25 Questions With Author Sarah Hina

By Richard | Published July 15, 2010

Sarah Hina • Plum Blossoms in Paris I knew that Sarah Hina and I could be great friends on the day she called me a cocksucker. But I need to back up. I met Sarah online; I know a few members of an online writing circle, and when I decided to finish my young adult [...]

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Plum Blossoms in Paris by Sarah Hina

By Richard | Published July 13, 2010

Sarah Hina and I both went to medical school, both hate the smell of formaldehyde with a passion, and both dreamed of being writers. Sarah is living that dream with the release of Plum Blossoms in Paris, and she’s launching her blog promotion tour today at Travis Erwin’s blog. Sarah is wonderfully talented. You should [...]

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25 Questions With Author John DeMont

By Richard | Published July 5, 2010

John DeMont • Coal Black Heart John DeMont is just the best guy. That’s not a throw-away line or a pat introduction. It’s what I thought from the first time that I met him. You’d think the same thing. Within minutes, you’d describe John as self-effacing, personable, witty, and quick to laugh. But after you’d [...]

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From the Mixed Up Files… of Middle-Grade Authors

By Richard | Published June 26, 2010

As I write my mystery novel about one summer in the life of Jacob Jollimore, I’ve been back and forth, trying to decide if it fits more neatly into the category of middle reader, or if I’d be smarter to think of it as a young adult novel, since it does hold a few scenes [...]

Also posted in Publishing Industry, Writing | 3 Comments