I’ve spent my writing time the last several days researching literary agents. When you Google someone’s name, you get a lot of clutter, but if you take the time, you can often get a good sense of who they are by the things they say online. For an author hoping to find someone to represent…
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It Is What It Is
When I was a kid, I thought it would be great to be a grownup, because grownups got to do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it. Now don’t laugh, I know you all thought it too. We all know better now. As adults, we get to direct the big picture…
Read MoreIn Which I Am Having A Serious Case of Adolescent Identity Crisis
___1___ This week in novel writing I have been tackling the dreaded Query and Short Pitch. For those who are not initiated into this most stress-inducing of rites, let me enlighten you. Or not. Everyone has a different idea of what works, and it is the ultimate game of “read the teacher’s mind,” trying to…
Read MoreA Fiction-Writing Mama Stares Down Summer Break
I’m working right now on the last (I hope!) major revision of my novel. I tend to be self-conscious about my novel. Its characters are so precious to me, so real, so alive, that exposing them to the real world feels like a high-risk venture. As if someone might judge me based upon their story.…
Read MoreI Hate Spring Break, So It’s Time To Look Forward
Spring Break simply Will.Not.End. For that matter, neither will winter. Today’s forecast calls for snow. (As we used to say when I was a kid: “It’s spring! April Fools!”) Julianna returned to school this morning, but Alex remains at home for one more day, because the Catholic school takes Easter Monday off. Not one in…
Read MoreIt’s Here!
Oh, what it takes to get a not-quite-four-year-old to take a usable picture… …while the baby invokes his Right To Wiggle All Over Mommy’s Lap Any Time She Sits Upon The Floor…. * * * Oh, there they are! This Little Light of Mine: Living the Beatitudes, coming soon from Liguori Publications! The point of this…
Read MorePower Down
One of my blog friends has helped start a new meme. It’s called Power Down. This group of women felt that the glut of connection demanded a response, and that response was to take a step back–to disconnect from the Great WWW for a period of time every week. When Amy first introduced this idea,…
Read MoreOf Vocations and Computer Viruses
Friday afternoon I finished the last chapter of my new book for Liguori. I copied the text and clicked over to my email…and paused. I was so sleepy. Nicholas had been up twice a night for almost a week with nosebleeds, and I was worn out. In the last two days of writing, I’d had…
Read MoreEarly Morning: Taking stock on the cusp of a new year
It’s quiet outside this morning, and the slim sliver of cream-colored moon, its remainder a charcoal disc, lounges in a straight line with two bright stars in the eastern sky. Last night was yet another bad night in a month-long string of bad nights (where, oh where did my lovely easygoing baby go? Is this…
Read MoreI Am Not Indispensible
I made a somewhat horrifying discovery last week. As I excavated the computer desk, descending through layers of papers waiting to be filed, responded to or otherwise dealt with, I unearthed my work list, compiled last December in order to keep myself from overdoing it during the Year of the Baby. I had forgotten a…
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Kathleen M. Basi 