Author Archives: Katherine

My writing group has started a path based on the Writing Excuses podcast exercises for the year. The first exercise was coming up with five story ideas based on: a… Read more »

I’m leading an Editing Path for my writing group for the month of February, and the weather decided to cooperate. There’s something about editing, shoveling snow, editing, shoveling snow in… Read more »

Today I found three things to change in the first chapter of Sticky Note Empire. Two were improvements that the book could have managed without (but are better with the… Read more »

I finished the first draft of my novel at 94,040 words on the 29th of November, with another ten hours of driving time before we got home. It’s been a… Read more »

A critiquer wondered what I was doing with the minor characters in Overbooked? I think I’ll have short stories for some, and others may be entire novels. Neat idea to… Read more »

My major writing goal for 2014 is to release two novels. Since Create Space offers two free copies for winning NaNo, I really wanted to do at least one of… Read more »

I was thinking of outlining two novels for NaNoWriMo this year since I wanted to write about Lisbon, which I think may fit into my French series. But I also… Read more »

I’ve thought for years that it would be fun to do writing/editing in a European city. Because I won’t just be a tourist all day—I’ll see some stuff, but I’ll… Read more »

I’m working on the final edits for French Impression, and as always, I struggle with the back of the book blurb. I dislike ones that give away too much of… Read more »

I proposed to my writing group a 6 Week Editing Path which requires people to commit to ‘getting together’ either virtually or in person with one or two other people… Read more »

Now that NaNoWriMo is done, I return to my true love–editing. While it’s fun to see a story idea turn into reality, it’s only the beginning. Taking that first draft… Read more »

I think I’m doing pretty good at not writing too much–too much being so much that I cause pain in my body like I did last year. I said my… Read more »

My outline for November is coming along very nicely. With a couple more passes on the second part, I might be close to done. Of course I can always work… Read more »

Nothing like working on a story where a woman is trying to cope with life after losing her husband to make me appreciate that my husband is upstairs sleeping. Our… Read more »

I’ve found that I can do a lot of final polishing via my Kindle, which means I can do it at the forest preserve while walking (I can walk and… Read more »

One problem with cutting things during revision is that with lines gone, what is left sometimes doesn’t flow as smoothly as it used to. Or two words are used too… Read more »

I just made my first post on the Amazon Kindle forums–it was one for help in improving book descriptions. Now, I hate book descriptions. Most of them tell too much… Read more »

I feared it would happen. Now that I’m making my own covers and uploading the PDF file, I’m wanting to do more complicated covers. I’m a writer, why am I… Read more »

I struggle to write the back of the book blurb, largely because I don’t like reading them myself. I find they often give away too much about the novel, spoiling… Read more »

I started revising a novel that I haven’t looked at in almost two years and picking it up has been like looking at photographs. I can recall so many conversations… Read more »

I’m one fifth of the way through the second draft of ‘Yes, Or?’ and have a chapter up on critique circle this week. I’m glad that I used Scrivener to… Read more »

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to meet people and when they ask what I do, I say, I’m a fiction writer. Often people try to tell me the ‘great idea’… Read more »

I think writing 10,000 words a day isn’t sustainable, and more than 10K a day is insane. I’ve done it for three days, and had hoped to continue for a… Read more »

Funny. Most of the advice about using social media discusses how important it is to comment on other people’s blogs with links back to your blog. This is how you… Read more »

As I sat in Descartes coffee shop on Michigan Avenue yesterday, sipping a spicy coffee drink that comes in a soup mug, I saw flower boxes, huge urns of flowers,… Read more »