I found this article about writing block — what causes it and how to get your brain going again — very very helpful!
Archives for January 2013
A Murder of Crows … and other collective nouns
I’ve always loved collective nouns — those words that are especially associated with modifying a noun. A clowder of cats. A sloth of bears. How about a parliament of owls?
When I was researching my new mystery novel, Nobody’s Secret (Chronicle 2013), I brought my teenage daughter with me to Amherst. She visited the Emily Dickinson Museum, found her grave and generally took every walk that Emily did. My daughter has a fascination with crows and she noticed large crows that seemed to congregate wherever Emily had been. I dedicated Nobody’s Secret to my daughter: “For Rowan who likes more crows in her murders.” She got the joke — I hope other readers do too!
Check out this list from Mental Floss of some of the best collective nouns.
So nice when your own people like the book…
The Historical Novel Review — for whom I do reviews — took at look at Promise the Night and made it an editor’s choice! I’m so pleased because these folks read a lot of historical fiction! Read the review here.
YALSA nomination for Promise the Night
As authors we shouldn’t care about awards, stars, and best of lists.. but hey, we’re human! We care. Tonight I was picking my daughter up at the library and ran into our awesome teen librarian. She mentioned that she had just seen Promise the Night nominated on the Best Fiction for Young Adults list from YALSA. YALSA, Young Adult Library Services Association, is the hippest of the librarian associations (in my humble opinion) — so I’m delighted.