You might be asking: What is #PitMad? #PitMad is the hashtag for a quarterly event that takes place on Twitter where writers tweet their 280-character pitch for their unpublished book or novel. Literary agents can then show interest by liking or favoriting your tweet. The first event of the year…

I started 2020 doing a final edit of my next novel and preparing to start the daunting task of querying literary agents. I’d been working on this particular novel off and on for almost ten years, so I was exhausted creatively. Always eager to be writing something, I started to…

Part 1 — After reading Sarah Manguso’s 300 Arguments I started making a list of my own aphorisms as a fun writing project. I debated on keeping them private or sharing them. I decided to share them, so here are the first 25. If you haven’t read Manguso’s book, I highly recommend it. …

A View from the Essential Sidelines — I just wrapped up another week of Isolation. I’m fortunate enough to work for a company that is a medical supply wholesaler. …

Tips for the Novelist When It Comes To The Next Step — It took ten years to write my latest novel. It’s taken the last year to finish the final edit. During that time, all I did was work on my novel. I did not draft query letters. I did not write a synopsis. I did not compose tweets to pitch my…

a poem — Sometimes we are not proud of words we write back when they feel eager and driven They are still our words to own some day and only then do we comprehend their wisdom. I was just catching up with my muses trying to grasp who I was matching their youth They didn’t know themselves either back then but they were better at faking the truth. They left a road map in the letters they wrote and in the books in which they bled Their blood and soul on every page Between the lines their secrets I read.

a poem — Why are some chalkboards green and some black? Once, were more than the students segregated? Separate water fountains, separate washrooms, Separate waiting rooms for blacks, for whites Lines drawn with colored chalk. I will not give up. I will not give up. I will not give up. Why did their…

How to stay on track to finish your novel in one year — I see how-to articles on Medium and on other sites all the time with titles like “How To Publish Your Novel In 6 Months” or “How to Write Six Books a Year.” I immediately go to Amazon and type in that writer’s name to see what types of books they…

A marketing checklist for self-published and independent authors As a self-published author myself, I know how hard it is to market your book and to find readers. Here’s a thorough checklist of places and ways to market your book. Some are obvious, and maybe some not-so-obvious. If you are a…