I’m so excited to be able to help participate in the cover reveal for Tegan Wren’s INCONCEIVABLE! I first read the query and first page for this story last October when I was working on PitchSlam, and it was one of my favorite entries. I was absolutely ecstatic to learn Tegan had been offered a […]
I know that, as writers, we tend to assume the worst. We’re an emotional, sometimes needy bunch. So when you get a form rejection from anyone, the immediate response is “I’m a terrible writer.” You need to stop doing that. Many of the mentors, including myself, said that a pass does not necessarily have to […]
I was floored to receive so many #Pitchwars entries from writers asking for my help. And while I unfortunately just don’t have the ability to send personalized feedback to everybody, I did see a lot of common issues in many of the entries. Now, first, let me stress: Deciding to pick someone else is not […]
We’re all still reading, requesting, and making decisions, but here are some statistics while you wait. I received approximately 100 submissions. Note that I am allowed to choose ONE as my mentee. Just one. This means you have a 1% chance of ultimately being chosen. Anyway, here’s what’s in my inbox: Approximately half of my […]
Today, I’m ecstatic to help a friend out with the cover reveal for TRAITOR KNIGHT, by Keith Willis, coming soon from Champagne books! I was lucky enough to hear the first chapters at a reading earlier this year, and I was hooked from the first page. I can’t wait until I can read the rest: […]
******THIS IS MY WISH LIST FOR LAST YEAR, 2015. PLEASE CHECK BACK IN JULY 2016 FOR THE CURRENT YEAR’S WISH LIST AS THERE ARE SOME CHANGES***** ABOUT ME: (The official bio) Laura Heffernan is a California-born women’s fiction writer, represented by Michelle Richter at Fuse Literary. One Saturday morning when she was four or five, Laura sat […]
About ten years ago, while working full-time and getting a post-graduate degree in the evenings, I developed pain in both arms and shoulders. Since my day job required typing literally the entire time I sat at my desk, and I took course notes via laptop, I was soon diagnosed with a repetitive stress injury. Cue […]
This contest was brutal, because we only got four picks for each team. I easily could’ve chosen ten. A lot of it came down to personal taste. Luckily, some of my favorites also made it into the group picks, but this was by no means easy. Congratulations to the four members of Team Women’s Fiction/Romance! […]
This may be my last one of these posts for a while. Things are going well, and while I definitely think it’s important to remember the good things in life, I’m also really busy and it’s getting harder and harder to make time to stop and write them all down. I definitely encourage you to […]
Now that Query Kombat is over (and with New Agent coming up on Wednesday), I want to explain some of things that impacted some of my votes. Hopefully, it’ll be useful for future contests and people thinking about submitting to me in Pitch Wars. Yes, I frequently picked the entry with the voice that spoke […]
I just spent a week on vacation with most of my closest friends, so this week’s overview of life’s awesome things is pretty easy. Kentucky joins my list of states I’ve visited (too tired to count, but I think I’m over 30 by now). There’s a gift shop in the Detroit airport that sells Tim […]
To celebrate her amazing debut YA Contemporary novel, SONG OF SUMMER, Laura Lee Anderson is doing a blog tour. She’s graciously agreed to stop by my little blog and share her thoughts about critique partners. Personally, I had trouble finding a good fit. I swapped with a few critique partners before finding someone I really clicked with. Since […]