May: National Get Caught Reading Month. Wherever you go, the campaign challenges you to get caught reading.

May 1: National Mother Goose Day. This day honors Mother Goose, the imaginary author of a collection […]

Your first chance to make a great impression on an agent is through your query letter. Whether you’re submitting a novel or non-fiction book, the query letter is more than a note telling the agent what you’re o […]

Mystery writer Marcia Rosen knows that the most powerful lines of William Shakespeare’s Tempest:

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That h […]

Have you ever been in a restaurant when the people next to you started arguing? Talk about tension! Putting a fight or argument into your story is a great way to add tension, but if you rely solely on personal […]

I have edited a number of first-time writers, and when I ask them, “Who is your audience?” most of them say, “The general reader.” Of course, such an answer is much too vague.

When I copyedited a novel about t […]

Member Benefit #2

You may have read about how a strong presence on the web can build your writing or service career, but you may not have wanted to spend a lot of time and money creating a website from the […]

Among the illustrious speakers at the 1888 Republican National Convention was Frederick Douglass, an American social reformer known for his mesmerizing oratory. Douglass was also an escaped slave who pushed for […]

When American frontiersman and posthumous Texas hero Davy Crockett left politics in Tennessee, he famously said that they may go to hell, but he would go to Texas. But once Crockett arrived in Texas, he may have […]

Growing up in a minuscule town in eastern Kentucky, I was a good student, a teacher’s pet, and a bookworm.

Being a good student meant always having the right answer, and in English class, where I excelled, t […]

By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Networking Member, NAIWE Board of Experts

Ah, networking — an eternal topic for independent writers and editors.

I’ve been procrastinating about writing this column because it fel […]

We wanted to get to know Marcia Rosen (NAIWE’s Public Relations and Book Marketing Expert) better, so last month we sat down with her. Here are some thoughts she shared with us.

What is it about crime that […]

When my old dog was more social and energetic, we loved taking her to the dog park. She was a terrier-mix-mutt, and she loved sniffing around the various structures, chasing other dogs (or getting chased), and […]

True Treasure upgrades the way you think about your money, giving you intentional ways to make financial decisions based on your values and priorities. Through a rewarding process of soul searching and […]

 
Remembering my Years as a City of San Diego Park Ranger
 

The other day, a friend — also a municipal park ranger, but younger and at the start of her career — asked me a question I had never befor […]

Dr. Tyler. R. Tichelaar’s new literary history, Vampire Grooms and Spectre Brides, reveals how nineteenth-century French and British Gothic novelists were continually inspired by each other to create some of the m […]