Writers
After a very long wait, I can finally say the words: my YA debut, Game of Secrets, is finally out!
Here’s a bit about the book:
Felicity Cole sells flowers in the streets of Victorian London to feed herself and her young brother. But she has a close-guarded secret―her brother is a Tainted, born with special abilities that society fears and a shadowy organization called the Hunstsman scours the country to eliminate.…
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Voice: so important for writers, yet so damn difficult to define. Agents and editors frequently say things like “I’m looking for a distinctive voice”, but they tend not to elaborate on what they mean, exactly. If you’re a novice writer, how do you begin to work on such an elusive quality if you don’t even know what it is?
Some industry insiders have tried to define voice.…
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The highlight of my July, hands down, was going to New York City for Thrillerfest. Before jetting off for NYC,
I was pretty excited.
Did it disappoint? It did not.
I love New York!
The conference was held at the Grand Hyatt in New York, right next to Grand Central. Although I flew in, I popped into Grand Central when I first arrived, just to stand in awe.…
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In just a few days I’ll be heading to New York.
Yes, the mothership for writers.
The reason I’m going, besides the general awesomeness of NYC? I’m going to
ThrillerFest! It’s an annual conference for thriller writers and readers, hosted by the International Thriller Writers. (And in this instance we’re talking about thrillers in the broadest sense–including mystery, suspense, crime, action-adventure, historical thrillers, YA thrillers…)
Here are some of the big-name authors who will be attending: Lee Child, David Baldacci, Lisa Gardner, Scott Turow, Brenda Novak, Steve Berry, Ian Rankin, Anne Rice…and the list goes on!…
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Last weekend I attended my all-time favorite writing conference, the
Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I’ve been going to this conference almost every year since 2004, and it’s always a slice of heaven for me. Here’s my attempt to sum up all the reasons I love SIWC.
Before SIWC, I was a closet writer (this is literally true—in my first condo I converted a closet into a writing “office”).…
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My husband took our boys out of town for three days. The main reason, as it happens, was to give me a bunch of time to write–because I am knee-deep in
revisions for my sequel.
So while they were gone–leaving me alone in my own house for the first time in years–here’s what I did: I wrote, of course. Tons.…
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I’ve been meaning to do this for a while–write a review of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. But as I’ve said before, I barely have time to brush my teeth on a regular basis, let alone write book reviews…so I typically reserve this activity for the books that make the greatest impact on me.
And frankly, this book rocked my world.…
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I recently read the book On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves. Admittedly, my primary reason for reading it was my fascination with this author’s path to publication. This is a woman who, after slugging it out trying to get her novel published via the traditional route, decided to self-publish. Now, publishing a novel yourself–if you’re hoping for any degree of success–is notoriously difficult.…
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Okay so yes, I’m a doctor and a novelist. But I’m not the first. In fact, there’s quite an impressive list of people who have put down the stethoscope and picked up the pen.
Here are some of my favorites: (betcha didn’t realize all these writers were physicians, too…)
John Keats (19th century English Romantic poet.)
Anton Chekhov (Legendary Russian author & dramatist, who once said “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.”)
Arthur Conan Doyle (Sir Arthur, if you please…Scottish writer, most famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes.)
W.Somerset Maugham (English playwright, novelist, and short story writer…was one of the most famous and wealthiest writers in the 1930s.)
Robin Cook (American writer of bestselling medical thrillers like Coma, Outbreak, and Contagion.)
Michael Crichton (Author of a little story called Jurassic Park.…
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