Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 195

Stephenie Meyer: wrote “Twilight” in 3 months

According to this Times Online article, Twilight author Stephanie Meyer was ignored or rejected by 15 publishers before the last one offered her a $750,000 three-book deal.

Before Twilight, Stephenie Meyer hadn’t written -anything-. In a 2006 BookStories interview, Stephenie says she’s not sure how she produced a 498-page bestseller and its equally long sequel in about a year despite not having written anything else:

A lot of it comes from extensive reading, I think. Before I was a voracious writ

My Library Boy song

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If you’re interested in hearing a song I wrote for a librarian friend some years ago, feel free to download it from the FilkArchive. I’ll post a streaming version once I get some problems sorted out with my Boxst account.

To read the lyrics and find out more about the song, please see Library Boy Song & Lyrics. The singer on the recording is my music partner, J

“A Wrinkle In Time” rejected 26 times

One of my favourite books, A Wrinkle In Time, was apparently rejected more than 26 times. Author Madeleine L’Engle had more than two dozen publishers reject the story before Farrar, Straus and Giroux finally published it in 1962. It received the Newbery Medal in 1963.

At the time of the author’s death in 2007, the book had sold more than eight million copies and had entered its 69th printing.

Before A Wrinkle In Time was published, L’Engle had accumulated far more rejections than acceptances for

Morning Coffee

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Today’s Morning Coffee:

Twitter has made it into the AP Stylebook.

How to find time to get that novel written (ditch your TV, divorce the Internet!).

Maria Schneider gives tips on how to write good scenes.

‘Web 2.0′ has been declared the millionth word in the English language.

Note: I comb publishing news sites every morning for my Writersmarket.com column. Morning C

Rejections & Writing Habits: Stephen King

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Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day when he’s working on a book. He recommends a minimum of a thousand words a day, six days a week.

He listens to loud heavy metal when he writes. (”All heavy metal is good metal.”)

Stephen King had over 30 rejections for Carrie. One of the rejections said the story was too “dystopian.”

By the time I was 14 (and shaving twice a week whether I needed to or not), the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replac

Cartoon Caption Contest #5

Post your caption below (one caption per post, please, else voting gets too complicated). Next Thursday, the caption with highest vote rating wins!

Please read this info before you post.

 

Don’t write to trend

I’ve posted in Migwriters.com (along with a cartoon): Writing to Trends: Don’t Do It!

 

J.K. Rowling rejections & writing habits

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J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected by about a dozen publishers (though in earlier interviews she’s quoted as saying 4 or 5 publishers), some saying her story was too long and complex for the children’s market.

I’ve always been curious about exactly which publishers rejected her manuscript, but it’s been tough finding details. I heard that Penguin and HarperCollins were two of them. Does anyone else have more info?

According to one interview, J.K. Rowling isn’t picky about her writ

Terry Pratchett: 400 words a day

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From the The Annotated Pratchett File 9.0, Terry Pratchett describes his writing habits:

“For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every day. I mean, every calendar day. If for some reason, in those pre-portable days, I couldn’t get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the previous night and caught up the following day, and if it ever seemed that it was easy to do the average I upped the average. I also did a hell of a lot of editing afterwards but the point was there was something there to e

Squirrel Invasion

A comic from the archives, but with embed info:

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