On September 28th, Help Me Launch No Easy Way Out!

Okay, so officially, No Easy Way Out has been launched for a while…But it hasn’t had a party! And it hasn’t had cupcakes! (I made these for the No Safety in Numbers launch… expect the same level of awesome, in slightly different colors…:) So please join me for an awesome afternoon celebrating No Easy Way…

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Letting the monkey come to you…

My eight month old son loves those little wind-up toys you get for like a buck in the bins at the front of the toy store. (I know, not baby safe, TERRIBLE PARENT, but I only let him use them when I’m supervising, etc., etc., moving on…) So, we’re playing with one yesterday: this little…

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A Soundtrack for No Easy Way Out

It’s here! No Easy Way Out is BORN! For all of you left hanging from the edge of your seat at the end of No Safety in Numbers, this will come as a relief. No Easy Way Out picks up right where No Safety ended. But Edge, don’t get all pouty. Your person will be…

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The Revision Process

I have entered upon that decent into darkness that is revising a first draft. The draft in question: Book Three of No Safety in Numbers. (New Idea has been put on hold until this process is complete.) I haven’t read this draft in two months, which means that it feels like someone else’s book. Which…

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Cover Image for The Pack

On Characters…

I’m going to state the obvious: writing a convincing character is hard. I mean, the entire project sounds ludicrous. How do you get a bunch of words on the page to coalesce in the mind of a reader as a complicated, coherent, full-bodied person with whom they want to go on a journey of several…

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Jumping on the Coverflip Bandwagon

Sorry about missing last week blog-wise. My mom was in town and we were doing fun stuff together. I like my mom. She is good. I’m really excited about this Coverflip project Maureen Johnson got started the other day. (If you follow me on Twitter, I’ve been posting a lot of cover-related stuff there.) The…

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Book versus Movie — Discuss…

I’m so excited about the prospect of a Graceling movie! Not only is Kristin a friend, but I am a huge fan of Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue. As a lover of the books, I wonder how the movies will change the stories, how well the production team’s imagining of the world will align with my…

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And the winner is…

Bethany! (no last name:) The two runners up are: Geoff B and h2ohammer! Thank you to everyone who entered! I will email the winners individually to get your addresses so I can send you your prizes!

Getting the Most Out of Getting Feedback

One of the best gifts a person can give you as a writer is constructive, thoughtful feedback on your work. None of my books would be what they are without the insightful comments of a few trusted readers and editors, and my writing would not be what it is today without having grappled with the…

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The Slow Accretion of Story

I thought I’d take a blog post to talk about ideas and where they come from. I’m reading On Writing by Stephen King and the passage about how he came up with the idea for Carrie really resonated. King talks about how in college, he had worked as a High School janitor and was fascinated…

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