Maggie Clare's Blog, page 5
January 22, 2024
Validity, Visibility, and the Warm Fuzzies
Dear Maggie,
Do reviews really matter?
Sincerely,
Critic in Cranston
Dear Critic,
Yes, reviews matter! If an author receives a hundred reviews, Amazon sends a box of chocolates. At five hundred reviews, we get invited to join a secret writer’s club. When we reach a thousand, a unicorn shows up in our yard and spews multi-colored glitter all over the lawn. Totally kidding, obviously. However, reviews really do matter to authors and here’s why…
Reviews lend credibility and validity to our work. If you’r...
January 8, 2024
Ringing in the New Year!
Dear Maggie,
I’m anxious to read the next book in the TSI series. What are your writing plans for the New Year? Will you release book 4?
Sincerely,
Waiting in Walla Walla
Dear Waiting,
I know it’s been a hot minute since I released a new TSI book, and I thank you for your patience. I’d intended to be much farther along in the series by now, but our nomadic life took a little getting used to. We’ve been on the road for over a year now, visited twenty states, nine national parks, and discovered sma...
December 25, 2023
Happy Holidays!
December 11, 2023
Nomads
Dear Maggie,
Is it true you are traveling the country in an RV? What’s it like? How long will you be on the road?
Sincerely,
Traveller from Tacoma
Dear Traveller,
It is true! Last year, my husband and I sold our home, our cars, our furniture, pretty much everything, and bought an RV. We hit the road right after the holidays and have been wandering ever since. Once our youngest child left for college, our big house suddenly seemed rather empty. With all four kids living on the west coast, which was a ...
November 27, 2023
Constructive Critique
Dear Maggie,
Is constructive criticism a good thing or bad thing?
Sincerely,
Reviewer in Riverside
Dear Reviewer,
Constructive criticism is a good thing, most of the time. Before my books are ever published, I’ve given them to a trusted group of beta readers with the express intent of gathering feedback, mostly in the form of constructive criticism. Over the years, I’ve learned to ask these readers for the kind of feedback I need in order for it to be useful as I edit my manuscript. Here’s a short li...
November 13, 2023
End Before Beginning
Dear Maggie,
Do you know how your books will end before you start writing them?
Sincerely,
Reader in Raleigh
Dear Reader,
With romance stories, one key ingredient is the happily-ever-after, or at least the happily-for-now, ending. Readers expect this, and I want to deliver. Of course, I write romantic suspense, and the suspense part requires some danger, intrigue, mystery, and nail-biting first. I tend to put my characters through the ringer before they get to ride off into the sunset, but hopefu...
October 30, 2023
One Good Writing Day
If you’ve been following me here, or on my other blog Five Things, for a while, you’ve probably heard me complain a time or two about being in a creative slump. It’s an uncomfortable spot, especially when I have big publishing aspirations for the rest of the year, but I’m pleased to tell you, I had a really good writing day yesterday. What does that look like for me, you might wonder? Well, it’s about more than hitting a particular word count. When I have a good writing day, I feel immersed in m...
October 16, 2023
Why I Write
We are currently in Portland, Oregon until the end of the month. Our daughter goes to school here so we’ve been able to spend some quality time with her and her college friends. Last night, at dinner, one of the kids asked me why I wrote. He’s a poet, so his question was a bit deeper than the usual ‘how did you get started writing?’ or ‘what inspired this particular book?’ He was really asking the question I think most artists ask themselves – why do we create?
Art happens through words, music, ...
October 2, 2023
It’s an Adventure!
Years ago, when I was just a baby writer, I started a blog to help build a reader base and to get my name out there before I released my first book. I hoped people would be interested enough to follow my posts, and that they’d enjoy my writing style enough to take a chance on me. Blogging, of course, is a different animal entirely from fiction writing, but it was, and still is, a good habit and a way for me to keep in touch with my loyal readers.
Authors often talk about ‘voice’ in their writing...
September 18, 2023
Back to School
Fall is my favorite writing season. I’m not sure if it’s the ‘back to school’ feeling in the air, the actual cooler air, or something else, but I’m generally motivated, purposeful, and energized when autumn rolls around. September may signal the end of summer, but it always feels like a new beginning to me. Maybe it’s because I was one of those kids who always looked forward to going back to school. Don’t get me wrong, you couldn’t pay me to go back to high school, but I’ve always loved standing...
