Coincidences
Coincidences tend to be unbelievable in fiction, but I’m living with a couple of curious ones now in my real life. A year ago, when my daughter told me she wanted to study in France, she applied to a program at the University of Rennes, and Rennes just happens to be the city where Hélène Bury, the French translator for Birthmarked, resides. What are the chances that my daughter and my translator would end up in the same city, giving me ample excuse to visit?
Off to France… Continue reading
Q. How Much Do You Write Every Day?
Q. How much do you write every day? Do you have set hours to keep yourself disciplined?
A. I always secretly cringe at these questions because I suspect my answer makes me sound sort of pathetic or crazy, but here goes:
Normally, I write all day. I wake up, take a shower, and start writing. I stop for breakfast when I’m hungry, and then I write. I stop for lunch, then write. I stop for a walk, then write. My family comes home… Continue reading
Becca the Highland Cow
Becca the Highland Cow (c) Becca Hart 2011
And now for an inspiring photo by my talented niece, Becca Hart. Thanks for the laugh, darlin’.
Porch Meeting: Bonnie at Fifteen
The following is a bit story about characters from the world of Birthmarked.
The field laborers were collecting their lunch buckets and heading home when Bonnie Orion came up out of the unlake. She slowed to watch how the late afternoon light washed the men and women in anonymous orange, aging them into indistinguishable silhouettes, until the road fed up against the first houses of Wharfton, and with the changing angle of light, they transformed into unique, tired individuals.
She wasn’t particularly surprised when Theo Rupp veered out… Continue reading
Behind the Scenes: From Copyedits to First Pass Pages
After I finished going through the copyedits of Prized, I emailed the manuscript back to my editor Nancy Mercado at Roaring Brook in mid-December. The next step was a series of emails we had in early January, when Nan checked back with me about a few of my changes and other things she’d noticed, like whether a character would be called by his first or last name in a particular line of dialogue. Here’s another example, with my reply in italics:
Pg 153 “She might be too… Continue reading
Note to Self: Keep Going
The Uninspiring View
The view from my couch is not inspiring. It’s raining on top of several feet of old snow out there. I dropped off the car for new tires before Rini’s garage opened and walked home in the rain, over ice, falling once. So far today, I’ve revised one page of Book 3, and I can already tell: it’s going to be work this morning. Looking at glamour photos from the Oscars last night is not going to help, nor will going to dig… Continue reading
Ari & Milo, my serial novel, is now up on Wattpad! I drew illustrations to go with each chapter, and best of all, it’s free! Because of problematic themes, this novel is for mature readers age 17+.
Book Trailer for Promised