Author Marianna Jameson discusses some tips for polishing a manuscript before submitting it to an editor.

Thanks to Ashleigh Brilliant for my title this month (you might remember him from the Potshots comic block and postcard series.) I want to talk about relationships.  Oh, no!  Some of you are groaning already.  Don’t worry–this is a blog by and for novelists:  I’m not going to moon about my *own* relationships.  And I’m [...]

Books are like sugar cookie dough. I had that blinding insight last week while making cutout cookies with my family. Sugar cookie dough isn’t all that complicated.  Flour, butter, sugar, plus some odds and ends, and there you have it. Rather like plot, characters and action, along with a few twists. The quality of the [...]

Is there anything more fun than getting your first book contract, seeing your first galley proofs, and opening the package when your first finished books come in the mail? Nope, there isn’t. That first book changes everything, everything. The work and dreams pay off, the future suddenly looks different, brighter, and your status in the [...]