So, it’s been almost a month since my novel RESURRECTING EMILY was bought by Mary Castellani at Bloomsbury/Walker, and I have been……exhausted. Weird, right? I mean, I screamed and danced and told just about everyone I spoke to, and then I was like, Whew! (wipes brow), and I’ve been  napping a lot since. I like to think I’m recharging during this calm before what comes next.

When I think about it, I tend to work this way. I…

First-time author Marissa Carmel debuted last month with her YA fantasy iFeel (http://goo.gl/MnDYg). As she continues on her blog tour, see what she has to say about the expectations of being a writer and a mother.…

In the relatively short time I've been an agent, I've noticed something that makes me smile and sigh at the same time: the paralyzing fear some writers experience when they query agents. To them (and you) I say: Relax. It's okay if you make a small mistake. It won't ruin your career if you accidentally query an agent twice. Or if you get their name wrong. Or if you found a typo on page three that you were sure hadn't been there before you sent your sample pages. Don't let the anxiety of the…

Lately, time to write has been more elusive than ever, even though I know there are plenty of hours in a day—24, in fact. Still, 24 hours hasn’t been enough. My blog hasn’t been updated in well over a month. About a week ago, I told my friend I’d send her the next chapter of my work in progress; it was almost done. It’s still not done. Here’s why:

My day starts around 5:30 a.m. I say “around” because this depends on how many times I hit the snooze button. The morning routine involves…

With age comes wisdom, I think! I'm finally understanding those magnificent aspects and experiences I thoroughly love writing about, that give me that magical compulsion to write the stories bubbling inside me. It's such a little thing, one that should be easy to discover, but it's taken me awhile and I'm just glad to find it now. It's helping me tremendously in narrowing down exactly which stories to move forward with.

Some of these magical elements for me are:

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This week I'm blogging about dreams that inspired fiction. Can you remember your dreams? Have you used your dreams in your writing? If you haven't, you should! You'll be in great literary company. Check out the blog for more:

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

Sandi B. Jones

http://sandibjones.blogspot.com

Interesting article from 'The Guardian' on 'Why creative writing is better with a pen'.

I receive dozens of emails a day. Some is spam but most is something I need to actually look at and respond to. On occasion I get emails from people who have written blogs or such about how to write this or that. For instance: I got one today about writing death scenes in a book. It is a short article but I think it brings up really good points. You can find that here:…

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My sister Amy and I have written a novel called Wicked Good. It is currently available on Amazon for the Kindle.       Here is the link:

If you are in the revision stage of your MS, please do yourself a favor and read this awesome post on "Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See": http://www.holtuncensored.com/hu/the-ten-mistakes/