Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

Why Rush to Publish?

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You wrote a book! You want it published! Now! Congratulations! I've felt that same excitement. However, I urge you to resist that impulse to self-publish right away. I know you're excited and, trust me, I know time is the downside of traditional publishing. It can take years. First you have to query agents. That can take a year or more of submitting your … [Read more...]

Dialogue Tags – Don’t Get Crazy

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Nancy Pontificated I'll never forget the time a line of dialogue in a Nancy Drew book that ended ...Nancy pontificated. I laughed out loud. Everyone knows Nancy Drew has strong opinions. She's always pontificating! Why would the author need to interject herself into the dialogue with such a dialogue tag as pontificated?! Said would have easily done the job, and I could have continued reading … [Read more...]

What, Why, How: Nancy Owen Nelson

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WHAT?  For years I wrote poetry here and there, publishing one or two in journals and anthologies. My main focus was academic writing, so I spent much of my time in research. In 1995, I was asked to edit a collection of essays by women in the personal voice, called “feminist literary criticism.” The resulting book, Private Voices, Public Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life (UNT Press, … [Read more...]

2016 Eric Hoffer Finalist – In the Context of Love

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In the Context of Love is a Finalist in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Awards for Commercial Fiction! Who's Eric Hoffer? Naturally, the first thing the husband asks me, after saying congratulations, is "Who's Eric Hoffer?" "Um... He's a writer. A philosopher," I said, too busy dancing around in joy to remember details. Actually, Hoffer was a fascinating guy, an anti-intellectual, the kind you could … [Read more...]

What, Why, How: Deborah Diesen

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What: I write children’s books. Many of them are in rhyme, including the books in The Pout-Pout Fish series (illustrated by Dan Hanna), but I also write non-rhyming stories. My latest book is Catch a Kiss (illustrated by Kris Aro McLeod), which came out this spring. Why: I love the sounds that words make, and I also love the rhythms of rhyming stories. Writing for children gives me a chance … [Read more...]