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How to Fast Draft a Scene or Chapter

Not all scenes or chapters come to us fully formed, with witty dialogue, striking metaphors, beautiful prose, and perfect structure. Wouldn’t that be nice? For me, more often than not, scenes come to me in chunky, choppy bits and pieces. A dialogue exchange here, a nice description there, a sentence or two about how the  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery

Supercharge Your Pacing Instantly

More than fifteen novels under my belt and I’m STILL learning how to write and revise. Case in point: when working on the fourth and final draft of SKY WITHOUT STARS, the epic young adult space opera based on Les Mis that I co-wrote with Joanne Rendell, I was forced to solve a problem I’d never  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery









Swoon Reads: A Chance to Get Your YA Novel Published

WRITERS! Take heed! I want to share with you an amazing new place for writers to get their YA romance novels published!!! Introducing…SWOON READS! Swoon Reads is an imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing (my publisher!) but it’s more than just another imprint.  Swoon Reads is a community of readers and writers sharing  … Read more


Tips for Writers

You Have the Right to Remain Positive: My Reaction to Goodreads “Bullying”

When a newly published author asks me for advice, the first thing I usually tell them is, “Don’t read reviews.” Then, I almost always throw in the addendum, “especially don’t read Goodreads reviews.” Today, an article spread across the web and Twitter that likens some particularly harsh Goodreads reviews to “author bullying.” After publishing six  … Read more


Random Musings Tips for Writers