Entries by Karen McCoy

365 Days of the Query: Issues and Solutions

So a few more queries have been sent out. Per the advice of a critiquing buddy, I’m not going to post specific stats, as I originally intended. For those who want them, feel free to email me off list (cloudhime (at) gmail (dot) com). Here are some issues that have come to my attention in the past few […]

FRESHMAN YEAR & OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin

This week I’m happy to feature Meredith Zeitlin’s upcoming book, FRESHMAN YEAR & OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS, slated to come out in late-February/early-March. After the book releases, I’ll have a contest, giveaway, etc here on the blog…more details to be revealed then. Synopsis, from Goodreads: Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to […]

The Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Julia for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award! You can find Julia’s blog by clicking on her name. A few weeks back, I was also nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award, thanks to Tarah Dunn. For those looking to buck up their manuscripts, Julia is a free-lance editor. You can follow her on Twitter at @julializzbeth. […]

Useful Books for Writing Crime Fiction

Last November, I reviewed two books about writing crime fiction. While I was reading them, I discovered the information within them could be useful to both writers of crime fiction and aspiring writers in general. Excerpts from my reviews are below (the full reviews can be read in the December 2011 issue of Library Journal): Budewitz, an attorney-at-law who has been […]

365 Days of the Query, Phase One: Getting Started

Over the next year, I’m going to send out query letters for my new novel, TRISKELEON.  I will keep track of my progress on the blog, probably in a format like this: Agents queried: 1Partials requested: 0Fulls requested: 0  If you’re on this journey too (or in a place where you’re thinking of querying), here are the steps I went […]

DITCHED: A LOVE STORY, by Robin Mellom

I’m really excited to feature DITCHED: A LOVE STORY, by Robin Mellom that debuted this week! Synopsis, from Goodreads: High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.Ian, who always […]

The Dangers of Overstructuring

I had an interesting discussion with a coworker this morning about classically trained musicians versus musicians who improvise. As an improvisational musician, he told me how astonished he was at how uncomfortable his classically trained friends were with playing music on the fly. As a fellow classically trained musician (I played piano for about fifteen […]

What Teens Are Reading

The article I wrote a few months back, the one I mentioned in this November 2011 post is now published in this month’s issue of School Library Journal! (It’s entitled “What Teens are Reading: a librarian’s informal survey uncovers the hottest YA fiction” and can be viewed here). Now that the article is public, I can delve into deeper […]

SOMEONE ELSE’S FAIRYTALE, by E.M. Tippetts

I’m very happy to feature SOMEONE ELSE’S FAIRYTALE, by E.M. Tippetts (she also writes science fiction under the name Emily Mah). She’s the first writer I know of who, in addition to writing and jewelry making, maintains two blogs– one under E.M. Tippets and the other under Emily Mah. Here’s the summary from Goodreads: Jason Vanderholt, Hollywood’s hottest actor, falls head […]

2012: Dispelling Old Ideas and Trying New Things

Congtatulations to Bibliotropic, last week’s commenter and winner of  THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS! And now, on with the blog… The longer I’ve been writing, the more I’ve had to change my perceptions about the process. The nice thing about the New Year is that it allows an opportunity to reassess before moving forward. Here are some “truths” I’ve dispelled: […]