Jaye Robin Brown's Blog, page 14

Inspired by Other Women Artists - Thursday's Children

I've been on the planet long enough to rack up quite a collection of "Amazing Women" crushes. Each one of these people inspired me at a certain point in my life. Their common denominator is a certain joie-de-vivre and middle finger salute to society as a whole. So here they are:


ColetteThis French writer and actress was one of my favorite writers for a period. Her work was looked down upon much the way some women's fiction or romance novels are looked down on in our day. But she didn't care! S...

When Books Get All The Hype

One of the joyous things about Twitter is book recommendations. When a book takes off on Twitter it's like everyone's talking about it and you absolutely must go out and read it.

Two recent books that come to mind are CODE NAME VERITY and ELEANOR AND PARK. I've read both (well I'm a few chapters shy of The End for the latter but should be done at time of posting) and all I can say is, meh. (I have amended my thoughts on this below since I finished Eleanor and Park - but figured the p...

Inspired by the Silence of the Drive - Thursday's Children

I'm a lucky girl. I can sometimes count on one hand how many other cars I encounter between leaving my house and the fifteen minutes it takes me to get to the highway. Then once on the highway it's another fifteen minutes of barely-there traffic to the high school where I teach.

The drive is often shrouded in the fog that dips into the valleys. Some mornings a brilliant red sky will lift over the mountains. Other days I dodge deer like falling acorns. Usually, I forget to turn on the radio. I...

I'm Interviewed!

Over on Mindy McGinnis' blog, Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire, talking about the submission process! Please stop by!

Branding Yourself

Author, Christina Farley, has been doing a great series over on the MiG blog about what a post-sale, pre-publication author can do to ready herself for the big book debut. Link is HERE
Like a good, A-minus student, I was happy to see that I've actually tackled a number of these things already. But the point she makes on branding oneself as an author has adllepated my brain.

Brand Myself? Like in a neat little box with a shiny bow and recognizable stickers all over the side? See me shudder in ho...

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop: Sing To The Wind

One of my YA Valentines compadres, Kristi Helvig, tagged me last week in this blog hop. I did this several months ago for the actual WIP I have, but realize I never did it for Sing To The Wind, my book releasing fall of 2014. So here goes:

1. What is the working title of your book?

SING TO THE WIND

2. Where did the idea come from? 

It was a compilation of parts. Take an overheard story about a party from a couple of art students, my main character's voice appearing fully formed on my commute...

Inspired by My Small Town Newspaper - Thursday's Children

My small town newspaper is a gem. It comes out once a week and is always loaded with beauties. It's a wealth of name resources, story ideas, and weird trivia. For many years in the fall we'd have the photo of the "potato that looks like ___________ (insert random thing here)". There'd be the smiling face of some elder with a lumpy looking potato that rarely looked like the mysterious thing. (My favorite was potato in form of modern art!)

In hunting season there are pictures of young children p...

Cover Reveal for Meradeth Houston's Novel: The Chemistry of Fate

I'm so excited to reveal Meradeth's new and GORGEOUS cover on the blog. Meradeth and I have been in an online critique group together for a number of years and this is her second novel to hit the airwaves through Muse It Up Publishing.

Here's a bit more about the novel, slated for release in April of this year.


“They are everywhere, can be anyone, and are always the last person you’d expect.” When Tom stumbles across his grandfather’s journal, he’s convinced the old man was crazier than he...

Hanging out in Limbo

I think it's time to admit I have a problem. I am a writer-a-holic. For the past three, going on four, years I have written with the intensity of the gods trying to make the pub deal happen.
The great news is, I DID IT! But now what? I'm stuck in the eternal wait of pub world. Waiting on my edit letter for SING TO THE WIND. Waiting on final betas for POPSICLE. Then I'll be waiting after those revisions when I send it to my agent to hear if it's going to be book 2.
And frankly, I'm not sure what...

Inspired by Feedback! Thursday's Children

Yep, not so long ago I tweeted Rhiann Wynn-Nolet to tell her I wouldn't do this post because I wasn't inspired. Then the strangest damn thing happened. I drank a glass of vino, popped around the blogosphere, and presto, blammo, inspiration!


So what inspires me? Pretty much everything, but today I'm talking about feedback. I love hearing from savvy beta readers. That perfect combination of sweet and salty, this is good, this needs work is often the smidge of motivation I need to plow through a...