Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 263
October 19, 2015
What do you do after you meet a deadline?
I remember when I was a new writer, unpublished, and I thought I would have these amazing rituals to celebrate sales and meeting deadlines. Hey! Back off! I majored in anthropology. Rituals. I’d celebrate like this . . . I’d go buy that . . . I’d have something that represented each of my sales […]
October 18, 2015
Meeting a Deadline
I have a book due tomorrow. Yep. 15,000 words. So what did I do this weekend? I went on retreat. I had had it planned before I had the deadline but that’s not the only reason I went. It was a writing retreat. Yep, a retreat with fellow writers. Writers get deadlines. We were all there […]
October 15, 2015
Historic Mysteries: Macabre Writing Prompts
On October 7, the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, I saw an Open Culture piece on 19 different theories about how Poe died. Nineteen! Of course, I got to wondering, how many of these would make good stories. One of the most interesting, at least in terms of story is that he died of […]
October 14, 2015
Agents: Adding to my list
At critique group last week, I showed my query letter to several other writers. Now I have some idea what to shorten and what to expand before I send my letter off. But just in case my top three agents aren’t interested in representing my work, I’m still collecting the names of agents I might […]
October 13, 2015
Don’t Lose Your Reader
Recently, I was reading book #1 in a new-to-me YA series. I’ll admit that I have some misgivings about the series simply based on the topic but after speaking to the publicist I wanted to give the book a chance. The book is in the first person and I’m getting to know the character pretty […]
October 12, 2015
Publishers open to unagented manuscripts
Even as I’m working to find an agent, I know that that may take some time. So I’m keeping an eye on trade publishers that take submissions directly from authors. Here are a few of my favorites. Arthur A. Levine Books is a Scholastic imprint that accepts submissions. Sadly their work and my work don’t jive […]
October 11, 2015
Developing a Writing Habit
Are you one of those writers who has to be in just the right mood to write? That has to commune with your Muse? I’m not. I can’t afford to be. Absolutely nothing helps you develop a regular writing habit better than deadlines. At the moment, I have 5: One Muffin blog post. The final draft […]
October 8, 2015
Markets: Carus publications seeking manuscripts
Good news! The editors of Cricket and Spider are looking for manuscripts dealing with the theme “Knights and Castles.” Both magazines need stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Stories can be traditional, with everyone filling their medieval roles, or you can give it a modern twist. Even a science fiction story could work. Don’t be afraid to […]
October 7, 2015
Agents: The Bent Agency
If you are an SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) member, I hope you take the time to read Insight when it arrives in your e-mail. This means that you need to click through and read entire articles, all the way to the bottom. Because if you do, you’ll see things like this […]
October 6, 2015
My New Book: Mom for the Holidays anthology
Have you ever had one of those pieces that just can’t settle down and be? When you first write it, you draft a picture book. Later on, it becomes a short story. Then it makes an appearence as an essay. That’s was definitely the case with “Jingle Bell Joy,” but at long last it gets […]
