JOANNA ELM, Author, Journalist, Attorney
The Pleasures and Perils Of A Writing Life
When my British bestie, Julie came to visit me in Florida recently, we decided to hit the road and keep going South till we couldn’t go any further. As regular subscribers to my blog know, Julie usually comes to visit for the U.S. Open in New York, but this year we decided to take in the tennis at the Miami Open, visit South Beach and the Versace Mansion (pictured above) — and then drive all the way down Route 1 to Key West. Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Authors in Key West”
So, you finally let go, and sent your work-in-progress (WIP) on the next phase of its journey. In other words, to that literary agent or agents who requested your full manuscript, and who might decide to offer you representation if he/she thinks he/she might be able to sell it to a publisher. Continue reading “Your Manuscript Is In The Hands Of Agents. Now What?”
What do you do when you’re as finished with your manuscript as you can possibly be ?
You finished the first and second and third drafts months ago. You submitted the manuscript for two rounds of professional edits. You corrected punctuation and typos, clarified the obscure, and tweaked.
Then, you had a sudden urge to re-write the first two chapters — all over again. You re-wrote the first two chapters — all over again. You read them, you tweaked them. You replaced them with your original first two chapters. Continue reading “Someone Has To Be Last: A Novel Approach”
You may recall a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the reading pledge I made on Goodreads, the social media site for bookworms, to read 50 books in 2018. This was on top of the deadline I set for myself to finish my manuscript for Book 3. Continue reading “A Reading Challenge Isn’t Always A Good Thing For You”
For those of us who tend to be dubious about an after-life, living for decades, if not forever, holds enormous appeal — but only with sound mind — and with all parts working. A report in the British newspaper, The Guardian, holds out exactly this kind of promise. And, it has nothing to do with finding the right kind of exercise as in, for example, the New York Times article The Best Sport for a Longer Life? Try Tennis — which I personally found enormously encouraging, but realize it’s only a stopgap measure. Continue reading “Body Parts, Privacy & Other Great News Reports of 2018”