More “I wish I had known that before I wrote 100,000 words”

Reflecting further on the University of Wisconsin Writers’ Institute I attended in early April, another workshop that made an impression on me provided a second “I wish I had known that before I wrote 100,000 words” moment. Angela Rydell did an excellent job of presenting “Enticing Openings: Hook Readers (and Editors) from the Start”. Since the first …

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My First Writers’ Conference

I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 22nd Annual Writers’ Institute last weekend at the beautiful Madison campus. What follows are some of my general impressions. I may comment on some specific workshops and speakers in a future post. Overall impression: Well organized, informative, good pacing and scheduling, excellent value–$250 cost for Friday-Saturday all day, Sunday …

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Observations from the third annual Tucson Festival of Books

I was fortunate that a planned visit to my father and stepmother’s coincided with the dates of the Festival, March 12-13. Since Dad didn’t have any special plans due to having had cataract surgery a few days earlier (successful, I’m pleased to announce), I spent two busy days at the University of Arizona campus, soaking …

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A Useful proofreading tool I’ve developed

When prepping a manuscript for submission, whether for an agent, editor, publisher, or even a critique group, I prefer to have my submission as clean and perfect as possible. I was inspired to become a better proofreader and revisor by the Agatha Award-winning book Don’t Murder Your Mystery http://bellarosabooks.com/dontmurderyourmystery/ by Chris Roerden http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/ChrisRoerden . She’s a well-know, highly-respected …

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There’s critiquing, and then there’s editing.

I thought I knew what editing was all about based on more than two years of belonging to critiquecircle.com, submitting almost 50 pieces of my work (mostly chapters) and giving well over 300 critiques of other writers’ submissions. I’m pretty good at placing commas, catching typos, and recognizing ungrammatical sentences. I learned much more from …

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