Almost There

Remember when you were a kid and Christmas just seemed years away, maybe even centuries? And the wait didn't seem shorter as the day grew closer. If anything, it seemed like it would never come. Then, bam, one day it was Christmas Eve. Yeah, waiting on book deal is a lot like that.

However, it is nearly Christmas Eve. Until everything is done, I can't say anything official. But I am really hoping by next week I can tell you some awesome news about Farworld. Thanks for hanging with me and have a great weekend!

Hello, World!

Back in the days when I had aspirations of being a computer programmer, one of the first programs I learned to write for Windows was a program that simply said, "Hello world!" I thought that was kind of funny at the time. I mean who would ever need to write a program that would say hello to the whole world?

Now we do that all the time just by posting a blog. Kind of weird thinking that you are posting to the whole world. Or at least the part of it that reads your blog. Which is my way of saying, "Hello. I'm back. Sorry I've been gone for so long. But it's been a crazy few months."

I really am sorry. Just felt like for a while I didn't have much to say. I started up the Wordplay podcast. Hit the holidays. Got sidetracked. Spent a ton of time writing. But here I am. I hope of few of my friends are still out there.

But anyway, let's jump right into things. First, let's talk about my new Harper series, Case File 13. I am so excited about this series. Two of my favorite things are monster stories and making people laugh. Case File 13 has both of those and much more. i just got to see the cover for book One, Zombie Kid, and let me just say it is awesome! Can't wait to show it to you all. And hopefully I can soon. I don't have a firm date for Zombie Kid's release. It's definitely early 2013. But I should have more info for you soon.

Now on to Farworld. When last I wrote, I had to decided to self-publish the last three books. I promised you chapters and artwork. Then I suddenly went quiet. This was not because I had forgotten about you, my loyal Farworld readers, or the series. In fact I have a really cool color sketch of the Air Keep cover I am dying to show you. And the story is so cool. I promise that when you read the first couple of chapters you'll be going, "What?!! Is J Scott Savage crazy?!!"

And I will have chapters for you, very very soon. But a funny thing happened. I was invited to lunch by a man and a woman I admire very much. And they said something that changed my whole outlook on the series. I know I am being a total jerk here. But I can't say anything for a few more days. But if things work out, it will be awesome news for all fans of Farworld. I will freely admit I shed a few tears of joy when I heard the news. Then I started singing "Back in Black" so loud my wife told me to be quiet because people would call the police.

So trust me and hang in just a little while longer. I will share the news with you the moment it is final.

Lastly, I am doing a whole bunch of conferences over the next few months. Teen Boot Camp, Storymakers, Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, Writing for Charity. I'll get links up by tomorrow. But you can Google them between now and then if you want.

In the mean time, know that I am writing my fingers off and counting the minutes until I can share chapters with you.

The Good the Bad & the Ugly of NaNoWriMo

Yep, it’s that time of year again. The time when turkeys cower in fear, leaves multiply on your lawn faster than rabbits, costume companies pretend there actually is a reason to take kids’ cartoon characters and make “sexy” versions of them, and last but not least, the time of year when hundreds of thousands of people decide to write a book in a month—I speak of course about National Novel Writing Month.

If you haven’t heard of NaNoWriMo, check out their website here. It’s a really cool idea and has picked up amazing steam since it started in 1999. The basic concept is that you and a bunch of other people all try to write a novel (or at least 50,000 words of a novel) in the month of November.

First of all, let me say that I think anything that gets people writing is awesome. So many times people tell me they’ve always wanted to write a book. And I say, “Well then start writing.” And whenever you do anything with a group of people who have the same goals, it makes it a little easier. So, yeah, NaNoWriMo=very cool.

If I stopped my blog right here, everything would be great. I said the right thing to the right people at the right time. Now is the part where I doff my hat and exit stage left.

Except that, while I think NaNoWriMo is very cool for a lot of people, I also think that there could be times when it is actually could be a bad thing.

Here’s why.

Imagine applying the book in a month concept to other activities. Compose a symphony in a month. Train for a marathon in a month. Build ten houses in a month. Perform 100 heart transplants in a month. Have six kids in . . . okay, maybe we will stop the analogy there.

The thing is, different people write at different paces and different books take more or less time. I have written an entire book in close to a month. I’ve also taken a year or more to write another book. Quantity does not always equal quality.

I was recently talking to an editor about an author. The editor thought the author was a great writer, but the author’s work often seemed rushed. The editor felt that the author was hurrying to finish one book after another without taking the time to get each of them right.

I know that NaNoWriMo isn’t about completing a final draft in a month. The idea is that you force yourself to crank out 50,000 words and then come back and edit them later. And that absolutely works for some authors. They do what we used to call in grade school a sloppy copy and then make it better and better as they rewrite.

If you are one of those kinds of people, NaNoWriMo may be a great fit for you. But not everyone can do that. You can’t always “force” creativity. Some stories just take a while to come together. And I worry especially for newer writers that if you start training yourself that writing is like mowing the lawn, you just get up start the mower and get to it, you might be training yourself to be a bad writer.

I think I’d be more comfortable with something where you had to spend x number of hours on your novel in a month. Maybe you create a character bible, maybe you outline, maybe you write that number of hours without worrying about how many words you complete. As an author I’d rather spend an hour writing a great page or even a great paragraph than an hour cranking out 2,000 words that will never be something I’d want to show the public.

I’m not saying don’t take part in NaNoWriMo. If nothing else you will learn whether you are able to write 2,000 words or more a day. I know lots of authors whose first published work came as a result of a NaNoWriMo project.

But if it doesn’t work, don’t feel like you are a failure. Writing is not brick laying. It’s not emptying trash cans. It’s a process that can come together all at once in a rush of inspired storytelling or sweat itself out word by painful word. Sometimes it involves outlining for weeks or months. Sometimes an entire story arrives in only a few minutes with a burst or fireworks and sounding trumpets.

Don’t worry about what other authors are doing around you. Don’t write YA because that’s what everyone is doing. Don’t write a novel in a month because it’s November are you are supposed to. Do what works for you and stick with it.

What’s the Deal With Farworld?

At least ten times a week, I get e-mails similar to this one.

“Fire whoever is hindering the progress of farworld #3 & 4 Sent from my iPod”

Okay, that might be a little more vitriolic than some of the messages. But the sentiment is the same. I’ve read both of the Farworld books. I love them. I can’t find book 3.

Up until this point, I’ve hesitated to say much publicly since things seem to change almost daily. Even now, there are a still a few things that could change, but I feel I owe my readers some answers. So, here we go.

1) Why isn’t Air Keep out?

I don’t really know who to blame for the delay. The publisher? The economy? Other projects that have come up since then? Me? All of the above to one extent or another.

I can say that as anxious as many of my readers are, no one is more upset about this delay than I am. Right now, book four, Fire Keep should be out and I should be doing final edits on the last book in the series, Shadow Keep.

Problems started to come up shortly before book two came out. I had just finished spending a year promoting book 1, visiting over 400 schools and signing somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 books, when my publisher told me there was a chance they might not do book 2. Needless to say that just about killed me. Fortunately, they did release book 2, but with no marketing $ at all.

Since then, book 3, Air Keep, has been on, off, on hold, maybe in paperback, and everything in between. At the same time, other projects have come up. As an author, you can only write what the publisher is willing to publish. However . . .

2) Is there going to be a book 3?

There is absolutely going to be a book 3. In fact, I promise in writing here and now that there will be three more books in the series and they will be written and published. They are, in order, Air Keep, Fire Keep, and Shadow Keep.

I am actively writing Air Keep. There are two other projects that I have to turn in first. But one will be turned in this week end, and the other will be turned in by the end of this month.

Once that is done, I will be working solely on Air Keep.

3) When will book 3 come out?

My goal is still to have it finished by the end of the year. I recently traded e-mails with the artist who did the artwork for the first 2 books. I would very much like to have him do the art for the final three books and he’s excited about it too. If I go through a traditional publisher, they set the release date. But if I self-publish it, which is very much a possibility, book three could be out as soon as the end of this year or early next year in e-book. And shortly after that in print.

4) Do you know what will happen in books 3-5?

Absolutely! I’ve always had the whole series planned out, and that has made waiting even harder. A couple of nights ago, I revealed the first chapter of Air Keep to my writing group and when I got done, there was total silence. Not what they expected at all.

I am so excited to let the rest of you experience what is in my head, that it is just about killing me. I recently discovered that there are no more copies of Water Keep in the warehouse. That means that over 30,000 copies have been shipped out. Along with library readers and people loaning books to other people, I estimate that over 50,000 people have read Water Keep. I think that means there a few people waiting for the rest of the series? Yes?

If I end up self-publishing, expect to start seeing chapters posted here starting in early November. I may do as many as ten before the book comes out. If I go with a traditional publisher, that could change.

5) Where will I be able to get Air Keep?

Regardless of how I publish the next three books, you will absolutely be able to buy both print and electronic versions online (Amazon, B&N, etc) as well as here on my website. I am also talking to a distributor who should be able to make them available in some stores as well (especially in Utah, and surrounding states.)

And since it’s been nearly three years since I did regular school visits, how fun would it be to schedule some more the first of next year?

If you have any other questions, post them in the comment section, and I will try and answer them.

Thanks,

Jeff

The Not So Great Divide

Let me apologize in advance for this post. How’s that for a convincing way to start? I’m pretty sure this is going to be too long, and I’m almost positive it will offend some people. Any better? I do okay in front of a room full of people, and I think I can hold my own writing fiction. But when it comes to writing what’s in my heart, I stumble, stray and stutter with great regularity. There you go. Proceed at your risk.

The thing is, there’s an important issue that I experience almost every day lately, and yet I haven’t seen it addressed to the extent I think it should be. There is a huge divide in this country right now. And it seems to be getting bigger all the time. It separates friends, family, and strangers.

Nope it’s not politics. And it’s not religion. But it is becoming almost as divisive. It’s controversial enough that it’s not something you can bring up at a party without fear of starting a fight. The divide I’m talking about is between self-published and traditionally published authors. The very fact that already I’m going to have people tell me self-published should be indy and traditional should be legacy tells you how far this separation has already gone. It’s creating it’s own PC language.

First, let me give you a little background. Just over ten years ago, I published my first book. It was with what was than called an independent publisher. Small, Utah-based, they were lucky if they sold 10,000 copies of a book. At the time there were no e-books, no print on demand, and audio books were generally stored on cassettes, Self-publishing was almost unheard of because you had to put up $10,000 or more and live with a garage full of books. People like Richard Paul Evans pulled it off, but they were the huge exception.

I also entered a world full of people I never knew about before. People who liked to write as much as I did. It was great. We did signings together, brainstormed marketing plans together, blogged together. Learned together.I also met lots of aspiring authors. I didn’t know half as much as they thought I did and probably 20% of what I thought I did. But I was happy to give them advice and learn from them as well.

Fast forward ten years. I’ve written a little over a million words of prose since then. Probably closer to two million if you include blog posts, articles, etc. I’ve had two agents. I’ve published eight books and have another three coming out by various publishers. I’ve taught about 100 classes.

And man how the publishing world has changed. When was the last time you bought an audio book on cassette. And $10k to print a book? Try nothing at all. E-books, blogs, podcasts, MP3 audiobooks. All of these things have come about since I published my first book. Really one of the only things that hasn’t changed is writing a good story.

During that time, I’ve made hundreds of great new writer and reader friends. But in the last year or so, something changed. I don’t want to single anyone out, but this is the perfect example of what’s happening around us.

A couple of months ago, a woman who I’ve considered a friend for years wrote a blog post about a series of books she e-published. It was a great post. She explained how she decided to self-publish, how she had gone about it, and how much she was making. It was a great post. Although I had recently signed with a great agent and was about to announce my deal with Harper, I was still very interested in self-publishing and had a couple of titles I was considering releasing or rereleasing myself.

So I replied with a comment that was something like, “Fantastic post! Sounds like you’ve found a great fit!” That was all I said. It seemed like a straight forward comment. Except a couple of days later, I got an e-mail from her. She was furious with me, accusing me of being patronizing and rude. I was seriously so shocked, I wondered if someone had hacked my e-mail account.

It turns out that she had misinterpreted my comment in a way I could never have imagined. She thought I was putting her down for self-publishing—saying that was where she belonged. The good news is that I think we managed to patch fences. The bad news is that our relationship was not the only one to suffer from the self-publishing/traditional-publishing chasm. And from what I can see it’s only getting worse.

Hopefully without offending anyone too badly let me try and explain what I am seeing. Being an author and having author friends has always been a little dicey. Someone always has it a little or a lot better than you do. They get released in hardback while you get released in paperback. They have an agent and you don’t. They get a bigger advance or sell more books or make it on a list or get an award.

Many of you know that James Dashner and I have been good friends for many years. When he got a big name agent, signed a big contract, and ultimately hit the NYT list, it just about killed me. I used to joke that it was a good thing we were such close friends or I couldn’t stand hanging out with him. A close friend of mine worded it best when I told her about my Harper deal. “I couldn’t be happier about this . . . unless it was me.”

We’d get jealous of each other’s successes and console each other when we were down. And don’t get me wrong, there were divides even then. I remember doing a signing with a big-six published author who heard about what house I was with and asked in a totally innocent way, “But those authors aren’t very good are they?” Ouch!

The thing was though, we were all on the same path. If we were mad at someone, it wasn’t because we thought they were wrong, but because they’d gotten there before we had. We were all on the same path, we were all climbing up the same mountain.

Then along came easy, free, self-publishing. Within 24 months, we went from everyone wants an agent and a six-figure contract to who needs agents and publishers. In general, I’d have to say I’ve been thrilled with the idea of e-books. Who wouldn’t like a reader to be able to buy your book anywhere anytime with the click of a button? Who wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea of telling the agents and editors who have controlled your fate for years, “Hasta la vista, baby. I don’t need you anymore?”

I once told my children that the advances that have taken place in my lifetime: personal computers, the internet, cell phones, digital music and movies, GPS, etc. have changed our culture as much or more than cars, trains, and plains did previous generations. I think e-books are doing the same thing to publishing. Things could change in ways we can’t even imagine as authors right now.

Along with all the good news though, is something I never anticipated. Now there are two paths to publication. Instead of authors marching side-by-side, encouraging one another, we seem to be forming opposing forces. And the two forces aren’t getting along very well.

On the one hand, you have traditionally published authors. We worked our butts off to get agents. We went through dozens or even hundreds of rejections. We wrote and rewrote query letters. We studied our copies of Writer’s Market. we sent out so many partials and got so many not-right-for-me letters we dreaded going to the mailbox. And when we finally got that first offer, we usually cried from all the years of rejection and frustration. We were proud of the fact that after so many years of trying we finally succeeded in achieving our dreams.

On the other hand, you have the self-published authors. Most of them went through exactly the same thing. Queries, rejections, form letters. They got so sick of having to answer to a faceless entity that seemed totally arbitrary, that when the opportunity came, they happily said, “Screw you,” to the people who made their lives a living hell and published their own books. Maybe they’d sell a handful of books, maybe they’d sell millions. But either way, they wouldn’t have to rely on anyone but themselves to say what they could and couldn’t do.

They problem is that these groups speak a different language from each other. And both of them have chips on their shoulders.

The self-publishing group talks about changing price points, hiring cover designers and editors, and churning out two, three, or four books a year. They gloat over the fact that they can sell their books for less than a dollar if they want and still make money. They love the fact that they can publish whenever they are ready instead of waiting years for a release slot. They predict that very soon behemoth publishers and outdated agents will be as extinct as dinosaurs. They hate the stigma of self-published and assume all traditionally published authors look down on them. They hate that it’s almost impossible for them to get into most bookstores. They would like nothing better than to have a big six editor come begging them to publish their books and to tell them, “No thanks. You missed your chance.” They may not say it out loud, but they are afraid inside that they never got a book deal because they weren’t good enough.

The traditionally published authors talk about agents, contracts, and release dates. They get to see their books on bookstore shelves, in libraries, and advertising slicks. They have free editors, free artwork, and often have marketing budgets, They have an easier time getting reviewed by larger publications. They believe that because they have made it past the guards that protect the grounds of the traditionally published—agents, editors, proofreaders, and committees—that their books are generally better than self-published books.They hate how long it takes for their books to be released, but they love the support, advances, and royalty checks that they receive. They may not say it out loud, but the fact that they finally got a publisher helps erase their fears that they aren’t good enough, that they aren’t legit. And they are desperately afraid of that being taken away.

So there we are. Instead of two groups working together toward a common goal. We have two groups of people snarling at each other on blogs. Talking behind each other’s backs. Predicting doom and gloom for the other group. Even though the truth is that both of them have exactly the same goal. They want readers to approve of what they have written to tell them they are good enough. They want to be “real” authors.

A big part of the problem is that whether you are self-publishing or going the traditional route, the publishing world isn’t fair. How many people do you know who complain that they aren’t NBA basketball players? I don’t know any. The reason is that the people playing in the NBA are generally the best players in the world. If you dream of playing basketball, you can get tested from a pretty early age. By the time you have made it to college you know whether you have elite skills or not. And, for the most part, the NBA doesn’t judge you on anything more than how good you are at the game.

Imagine if the writing world was like that. Imagine if you could be judged solely on your talent. If you could know that your book didn’t succeed as well as the one above it because that book was written just a little better. Wouldn’t that make it a little easier? Wouldn’t that motivate you to strive to be better and work harder? Wouldn’t that seem more . . . fair?

But the writing world isn’t like that. regardless of which publishing path you choose, there are books that sell better than you even though your book is better. Publishers choose books for reasons that have nothing to do with quality. Great books get rejected by agents because they don’t like that genre, or don’t know any editor who would like it, or because they had a lousy lunch, or hurried through their query letters. Self-published books get lost in the crowd for no better reason than the author didn’t know how to self-promote well enough.

Where does that leave us? Do we all start wearing buttons that say, “Can’t we all just get along?” It would be nice if it was that easy. I don’t have a pat answer, but I do have a few ideas. I think there are some things we can all recognize.

1) No process guarantees a great book—however you define it. The concept of a perfect democracy where all books are all available online and the best naturally work their way to the top isn’t happening now and it’s unlikely to happen ever. Yes word of mouth helps sell a book. But starting that word-of-mouth snowball requires a ton of marketing or extraordinary luck. Even awards only represent the judgment of a fairly small group of people. The one thing we can take a little comfort in is that really crappy books don’t generally occupy top spots or win awards unless they have a celebrity’s name on them.

2) Price alone is not going to be the ultimate differentiator. I’m sorry, you can price crap at $0.99 and eventually people will stop buying it. And regardless of how good a book is, if you price it high enough most people won’t buy it. Yes, if two equally good books are priced at $1 and $20, more people will buy the $1. But I think that readers care more about how good a book is than if one is $5 more than the other. Low price may get you looked at if you are unknown, but it’s not going to keep people coming back the way a great story is.

3) Someone will always have a better deal than you. Either they will sell more books, get a higher advance, win an award you didn’t, get their name in a famous magazine, have their book turned into a movie. Whatever. If you judge your success on other people you will always end up unhappy. (Unless you make sure to always judge your success by people who are doing worse than you. Hmm. Something to think about.) It’s hard, but you have to find a way to enjoy your own journey. Because really, nothing sucks more than hating a really successful author.only to meet them and discover they are a super nice person.

4) Neither side is completely right. Yes, letting everyone and anyone publish whatever they want with no filter or control is going to generate a lot of garbage, just like YouTube generates a lot of really dumb videos. But there are some amazing authors who, through no fault of their own, never got published through the old methods. E-books have given them a chance to shine and despite having none of the benefits of traditionally-published authors, they have kicked butt. And publishers have kicked themselves and paid big advances for not recognizing that talent earlier.

And much as the indy crowd would like to see it, big publishers are not going away anytime soon. Yes, I know. They have made mistakes. They have been too slow to make changes at times. They publish lame books sometimes and they don’t always recognize great authors. But they are more than willing to change. They already have and they will continue to. They have great editors, awesome art departments, big budgets, and great connections. You can make it without them, but man it’s nice to have them in your corner as an author.

Lastly, we really do need to get along. (Sorry, it just forced its way out of me.) For all our differences, we have much more in common. We love a great read. We crave approval. We’re thrilled when we capture the worlds in our heads and describe them so well that everyone else can see them too. We’d all love to make a million dollars, but we can’t help beaming when even one reader tells us our story kept them up all night, or one parent tells us we hooked their kid on books.

We’re already seeing our worlds begin to blend. Traditionally published authors are self-publishing. Self-published authors are signing with traditional publishers. The big six are selling tons of e-books. Indy authors are selling print books. In another ten years the world may change in ways we can’t imagine yet. But hopefully we’ll all be right there trying to write an awesome story and catch lightning in a bottle.

Why Easiest is Almost Always Wrong

It’s been over three years since I wrote about how and how not to begin your book, which certainly seems like enough time that I could get away with writing about it again. Unfortunately I reread my most from 2008 and realized and don’t have a lot to add. The things I wrote about back then still suck the life out of a story and will almost definitely get you thrown out of the slush pile quicker than getting the agent’s name wrong. So go back and read that post if you haven’t.

Instead I’m going to write today about why doing the things that lots of beginning authors tend to do is almost always wrong.

First, as thinking beings, we tend to take the path of least resistance. We take the quickest route to the grocery store, buy the easiest foods to prepare, and look for the shortest line at the check out.

There’s nothing wrong with this at all. It makes sense to do what is easiest, quickest, and well known . . . most of the time. But what if the easiest and quickest—the thing we are naturally drawn to—is not as good? Maybe the food that is quick and easy to prepare tastes bland. Or the shortest route to the store is unsafe or depressing to drive through. Then you have to weigh ease against result.

The problem with following your first instinct in writing is that there is almost always a better way to do it that is harder.Let’s take waking up for example. It’s really easy to start a story with your MC waking up. That’s when the day starts. It’s a natural beginning. As a result, it has become a cliché. Starting your book with a character waking up is nearly as bad as starting with “It was a dark and stormy night.” It’s been done so much and with so many variations that it’s impossible to sound fresh.

More than that, though, it’s just not as good as other options. The goal of the first page is to grab the reader’s interest and attention. It’s hard to do that by waking up. Waking up beginnings trend to lend themselves to backstory. MC wakes up, groans, thinks about what a terrible day today is going to be, flashes back to what happened the night before that makes this day so terrible.

Notice that none of this is gripping. It’s the internal narrator in our head saying, “Before I actually get to the story, let me fill you in on where we are.”

Anyone who knows me very well, knows I am not a big proponent of prologues. It’s not that prologues can’t be done well. I’ve read some wonderful prologues. But the vast majority of the time writers use prologues because they are lazy. First chapter starts off slowly? Add an exciting prologue. Need to give a bunch of backstory, but know that’s not the way to begin chapter 1? Prologue to the rescue.

Before you write a prologue ask yourself if your beginning is gripping without it. If not, fix that first. Next ask if you are providing backstory that could be included in the actual story instead. If so, do that. A prologue should be like that awesome filling they put inside cupcakes sometimes. The cupcake is great without it. But it adds a little something fun without taking away from the dessert itself.

Let’s take another example. Character looks in the mirror and describes what they look like.

Mike stared into the water-stained mirror and ran a hand across his stubbly cheek. He was a decent-looking guy. In his late forties. Hair starting to gray, but still full. Women tended to be attracted to his strong jaw—that could actually bench press more than most other men’s arms.

If you haven’t read at least one book with this kind of scene in the first few pages, you aren’t trying hard enough. It’s a cliché. Tons of authors have done it. Why? Because it’s an easy way to tell the reader what your MC looks like. That’s reason enough to avoid it.

But again, there is a better reason. It’s heavy-handed. It stops the story and says, “Let’s pause here for a moment while I describe what my character looks like.”

In programming they talk about “elegant” coding. You could write 200 lines of code that accomplish what you want. But a good programmer realizes that by working a little harder, he can cut the lines to 100 and maybe even create a subroutine that can be reused later in the program. He spends a little more time, and creates elegant code that will make the program run that much faster and more efficiently.

You can do the same thing with your writing. Instead of stopping the story to look in the mirror, have the MC pull on her queen-size panty hose or realize his double X shirt is straining at the buttons. Have her stand on her tippy toes to reach the cereal bowl cupboard or brush a strand of white hair from her wrinkled cheek. You can tell us what the MC looks like, how old they are, how tall, how much they weigh, without ever stopping the story. It’s cleaner, more elegant, writing.

I could go on and on with examples, but the key is to remember that in writing, nine time out of ten, the first option you think of or the easiest option is almost always not the best one. That doesn’t mean to always try to use big words or create complex sentences. Elegant writing can be very utilitarian. But don’t go with your first story idea. Play with it awhile. Don’t stick with a single storyline. Spice up your book with several stories interwoven. Instead of having your MC and her love interest fight because they just don’t get along. Come up with some background, some motives, some twists.

Hamburger Helper can work fine at home. My kids still love it. But in your writing, work from scratch.

Obligatory Contract Signing Picture

You know that little part inside of every author that is sure even the best things will end up falling through?

No? Me neither. Which is why I wasn’t relived at all to get my Harper Collins contract in the mail. The Good Night Gorilla grin? I always smile like that when I sign book contracts. Really!