The New Year is for Trying New Things

I’ll be the first to admit that I may be overindulging in my New Year’s resolution. In recent weeks I’ve let my blog, Facebook feed, Twitter stream (not to mention my writing!) sit idle in favor of going to yoga, Pilates, and spin class, learning new things on YouTube (like the proper way to cut an onion – I’ve been doing it wrong all these years!), trying new recipes (I’ve got Cornish Hens slow-cooking as we speak), perfecting coffee in my new French press (still haven’t gotten that one down yet), and launching an effort to convince Dave that we need to reduce our carbon footprint by getting a rain barrel to collect storm water for gardening and a worm farm to compost our food scraps and junk mail (he rolls his eyes, but I know he’s intrigued by the idea of a worm munching its way through credit card offers and Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs). If that fails, then there seem to be some pretty neat carbon offset ideas over at Cool Effect – we really should ALL be doing our bit these days to help the environment.

I guess what I’m saying is that the holidays and the new year (and, okay, all of the wine, food, and late nights that went along with it) left me feeling spent and in need of a mental health vacation. So my apologies for my little hiatus. But on the bright side, all of this downtime has given me the chance to reflect on many things in my life, one of which is this blog. Since launching Empty Arms, I’ve gotten a number of delightful e-mails from readers with interesting questions about my publishing journey. I got to thinking…if one person writes to me with a question, how many more readers are wondering the same thing? So, over the next few weeks I’m going to begin answering those questions publicly (keeping the questioner’s name anonymous, of course). When I first started this journey, this type of author Q&A really helped me learn about the craft and business of fiction writing. And now I’m hoping to be able to do the same for you. So tomorrow, I’ll be answering the first question: How many query letters did you send out for Empty Arms?

Oh, and the right way to cut an onion? Don’t cut the root.

Do you have any questions you’d like me to answer here on my blog?
If so, please e-mail me: [email protected]