Do you want to know one of the reasons why I had the idea for Kiwi Writers? I didn't have hard facts to back it up but here's one: 90% of writing published in New Zealand is non-fiction and the remaining 10% is almost all literary fiction. Compare this to the markets of most other countries where ov...

Over at the NaNo Editors LiveJournal group one EdMo participant asked how they know whether they have talent, whether they are a "good" writer. Like a lot of things in the business (or hobby) of writing it's more about you, the writer, than other writers, readers, editors, agents, award or competiti...

Tammy is my HP Vivienne Tam 1018TU Mini. Designer Vivienne Tam helped HP make her especially pretty. She's on top of the Vivienne Tam carry bag and fits oh so perfectly into my handbag. She sits there with my new wireless Logitech mouse that is smaller than a full size mouse and red, so it matches. ...

JA Konrath writes the blog A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. Having sold eight novels and over sixty short stories and articles, he's no stranger to rewriting. His latest book, the horrific thriller AFRAID, comes out this month, and is written under his pen name, Jack Kilborn. You can visit JA/Jack at...

I was reading a post over at Genreality about what to do and not to do when trying to get an agent. It's the same advice that I've read over and over. I'm still stunned that aspiring writers need to be told things like: Follow submission guidelines Wait until the allotted time period ends before che...

I realised today that I'm doing too much. There are so many great writing-related projects that I'm involved in that it's easy to get caught up in wanting to make things better and bigger, especially when there is a community there. I know what my priorities are and I need to keep plugging away at e...

I've been struggling with illness this week and a severe lack of energy that has left me watching a lot of True Blood and Supernatural episodes. The impact on revising Rebuilding Retehoro has been regretful yet unavoidable. I would only have been torturing myself further if I had tried more than the...

I hadn't even heard of putting two spaces after a full stop until I read about it on Gabrielle.Edits blog. This may have something to do with being born in the 80s. I had only ever come across two spaces after a full stop in print at my day job in a report written by a colleague. I was reviewing it ...

I took time over my holiday to consider how I wanted to fit writing into my life in 2009. I want to feel challenged without feeling stressed but still achieve as much as I'm mentally able. There are certain realities of working the day job and spending time with friends and family that will mean gre...

Holly has made all but one of the How to Think Sideways monthly movies freely available. These movies are a great way to mark the beginning of the next month. They set the tone and always got be intrigued and enthused about what was coming up. I've been making my own writing mistakes and learning th...