Gigi Pandian's Blog, page 13

Five Reasons You Should Finish Your NaNoWriMo Novel Even If It Sucks

A funny thing happened to me on the third day of November: I realized I was writing the wrong book. My heart wasn't in it. So four days late, I began writing something new. I'm still behind on my word count due to this switch, but now I'm writing something I know I can finish. Why does that matter? I'll tell you why.

Finishing is the most important part of writing a novel. Period. Sure, there are many important pieces to a novel. But if you never reach the end, none of those other things...

A Good Editor is Worth Her Weight in Gold

Last week I received edits for Artifact back from my fantastic editor, Ramona DeFelice Long.

When I made the decision to publish my mystery series myself, I knew that working with an editor was one step of the process that was essential not to skip.

In spite of years of learning the craft of writing, being blessed with an amazing group of critique readers, and having a brilliant agent who took me through two substantial rounds of edits on my first manuscript — none of those experiences was...

It's Official!

I received the paperwork in the mail that I can start doing business as Gargoyle Girl Productions!

Even though it's been a lot of work to figure out how I want to create and run my own creative business for design, photography, and writing, I'm becoming more and more convinced that diving into this project is what has helped me stave off "chemo brain."

Chemo brain is the memory fogginess, related to fatigue, that lots of people experience during cancer treatments. Since I feel like I need to...

Tips from a Sisters in Crime Panel on EBooks

In a Pens Fatales blog post last week, I shared my news about forming Gargoyle Girl Productions and publishing my first novel myself. Since then, many people have asked me if I'd be chronicling my journey. I'm doing tons of research and taking lots of notes, so I thought I'd share my journey here on my new blog.

Yesterday I attended a panel on eBooks put on by my local Sisters in Crime chapter. Since my immune system is low from chemo, I donned my opera gloves (shown at left) and told my...

Book News

I told myself I'd put off my decision about joining Facebook until I had a book deal. A long time ago, I made a promise to myself that I would enjoy each aspect of my life. And unlike Twitter, Facebook never sounded like much fun to me. I know a lot of people love it, but since I never understood the fascination with it, I knew that the reason I'd probably join was for mercenary reasons when a publisher told me I had to be on Facebook to promote my mystery novels.

Being true to my goal of...