Jennifer Castle's Blog, page 3
July 20, 2012
On revision
Due to some uninteresting-and-too-complicated-to-explain circumstances, I’m writing this from the Chappaqua Library in Chappaqua, NY. This is where I often did research for school assignments when I was a kid, and I’m appreciating the symmetry here because today I’ve spent the last few hours on manuscript revision, and that sure as hell feels like another [...]
July 9, 2012
Thankful for drama in my life
I recently got caught up in my local school budget election. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that the whole thing was a suckfest, just like it was a suckfest for most school districts across the U.S., and will be continue to be so for a while. Or longer. Funding [...]
May 7, 2012
Write, girl
Years ago, while I was living in Los Angeles, I got involved with an organization called WriteGirl, which paired women writers with teenage girls from mostly low-income, minority backgrounds to help them develop writing skills and discover tools for self-expression. I was matched with a 15-year-old named Anna, who’d recently emigrated with her family from [...]
April 12, 2012
Resurfacing
I just handed in a draft of my new book, after about four months of crushingly intense work. So intense, I stopped noticing things like the dried glob of spilled shampoo on the bathroom floor that has been there since, oh, late February. You know how I knew the draft was ready to submit? Because [...]
March 6, 2012
Six months, six lessons
Hey, guess what? Today is the Six Month Anniversary — bookiversary, as we word-wrangling types often say — of the publication of "The Beginning of After." Although I've been crushingly busy with my new book, because Harper wants to put it out in Summer 2013 which is great but also terrifying because that means we're [...]
January 23, 2012
Open Mind, Open Heart (or, How I Learned To Love Traffic Court)
A few times now, people have asked me to offer advice for aspiring writers. This is a cool thing, because it forces me to look at what's worked in my creative life and what I've learned, instead of all the things that failed epically and all that still seems way beyond my reach. So what [...]
December 21, 2011
In praise of “standalone” novels
It’s simply delicious to hear from readers. I can’t imagine getting tired of it. I don’t ever want to be the me who does. The question I’m getting the most is: “Are you writing a sequel to ‘The Beginning of After’?” People want to know what happens to Laurel and David. I’m flattered, of course, [...]
In praise of "standalone" novels
It's simply delicious to hear from readers. I can't imagine getting tired of it. I don't ever want to be the me who does. The question I'm getting the most is: "Are you writing a sequel to 'The Beginning of After'?" People want to know what happens to Laurel and David. I'm flattered, of course, [...]
November 22, 2011
Giving thankswag
Well, damn. So much for my plan to blog weekly. Apparently, it's at direct odds with my plan to work on my book daily, and also my plan to stay sane and, you know, sleep some. And I have so many witty, insightful, just plain interesting things to post. Sigh. But I was thinking about [...]
October 6, 2011
Writing in the present tense
I'm back in draft mode, and living with that "love it/like it/yikes I hate this" feeling that comes with the territory. I was about 90 pages into my new novel when I decided to take a few months off so I wouldn't go insane juggling too many gigantically stressful life-things at once. Now things have [...]
