On my left hand, on my ring finger (directly under my wedding ring, in fact) I have a mole. At some point in my teens, I became very concerned about this mole. Not for the normal reasons–melanoma, unattractiveness, irritation–but because of what the mole might mean. If I were a character in a book, that […]
I am miserable, people. I’m blaming the Husband’s company picnic. Or the antibiotics my doctor gave me. Or maybe this kefir I was told to drink because it would help my perpetually nervous stomach. But whatever inanimate object/event is to blame, it’s pretty clear that nothing I eat really wants to have anything to do with me. And […]
There’s an analogy for editing I like (mostly because I made it up): Editing is a lot like swimming in a pool full of diamonds. It seems glamorous and enviable from the outside. People might wonder what the heck you did to deserve the right to swim in diamonds all day, and want to hear […]
Dear Erin, You have and probably will continue to forget these things. Forgetting them causes you undue anxiety. You are hitting your word count, but you are talking yourself into a freaking fir. Please refer back to this list as necessary. Kisses, Yourself 1. Your outline is not a holy writ. At the same time your editor […]
I’m trying a new look for my blog. It will probably change more in the next few weeks (and maybe even get some posts on it). This template has an extra block of text on the right–a “blurb.” While I might use that for review quotes or something useful, for now it’s going to contain […]
Singular: the duck’s feet Plural: the ducks’ feet This does not change when the object ends in an S. It is not, for example: Erin Evans’ witty sentence Erin Evan’s witty sentence Erin Evanses witty sentence (I wish I’d never seen that one, but yes, some people have tried it). Erin Evans witty sentence (Ditto) People may […]
Since I hit my word count for the week, we had brunch–at Volterra. Until a week ago I didn’t actually know Volterra served brunch. I knew it was a very good Italian restaurant in Ballard, known for its oil soup (which is better than it sounds, and perhaps better than it has any business being). But […]
Woo-hoo! While helping the husband move cubicles (or rather, after helping the husband move cubicles and while waiting for him to hook up the complicated monstrosity that is his workstation), I came from behind and hit my word count. Which is almost unbelievable. After one day of incredible fatigue, one day of a much-later-than-expected social […]
Today is the official start of my race to 90,000 words in my new project for Wizards of the Coast. 750 words a day and a “seed count” of 3750 (that is, the prologue, etc., I fiddled with to work out my character interactions–that took it’s own sweet time, and I don’t count it). As I said before, […]
I’ve written already about outlining. In brief, it isn’t a natural process for me though I like having an outline, I don’t like writing an outline. The novel I’m writing for 2011 is still in the outlining phase, for reasons I can’t go into yet. Suffice it to say, due to circumstances beyond my control […]