Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, injecting humor can add entertainment to your work, often providing welcome relief from tense situations. Plus, laughter is therapeutic. By injecting humor, you are improving the health of your readers! Several types of humor can be incorporated, and I often inject the self-effacing kind. People love to read about the misfortunes of others in a funny way, especially if the end result doesn’t cause serious injury. In writing a travel book for the University Press … Read More »

I’m no Grammar Girl, but I was lucky enough to have gone to grammar school back when they really did teach grammar. And I just read a book that abused English grammar so badly that it was about as much fun to read as having your teeth drilled. Guess what, folks? Without correct grammar, it’s impossible to say what you mean. So be patient while I rant a little. It never hurts to be made freshly aware of things you … Read More »

You might agree that when we are faced with a choice to make, we are likely to choose what we are accustomed to. The familiar and comfortable. The tried and true. If you do much reading, you may find that some authors tend to do the same. We choose a word or a phrase that first comes to mind. I just did it in the second line with “the tried and true.” We do this without considering that the first … Read More »

One of the first decisions every author has to make as she sits down at her keyboard to start a new book is Whose head will I be in? What will be the point of view from which I tell my story? One told in the first person (I) will sound very different than the more common third person (he or she. Or maybe even it). Each conveys a different type of intimacy and inflects the story a bit. Me, … Read More »

On the very first day that I “cared enough to send the very best” for a living, I sat down with the Editorial Director of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. As someone who routinely wrote book reviews for The Sunday New York Times, Web Schott was the most serious and erudite person I’d ever met. I admit I felt intimidated. After welcoming me to the Writers Room and telling me how things got done, he asked if I had any … Read More »

Since Florida Writers Association (FWA) is in submission season for our Collection Volume 18: Fragments  and as a longtime editor of The Florida Writer, FWA’s official magazine, I am thinking a lot about what editors expect from the work they receive from writers hoping to be published in a literary magazine or anthology. I am sure the following list of what editors look for is true for publications beyond FWA’s, too. Creative engagement with the theme or prompt. The piece … Read More »