Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen This week I finished the first draft of my fourth Camilla Randall mystery, NO PLACE LIKE HOME, and sent it off to my editor. What a relief! All my books are comedies, but they have a darker subtext, and this one, dealing with homelessness here in San Luis Obispo, CA— […]
by Anne R. Allen This post was originally written in October, 2012. Here’s an update: July 14, 2013. It seems the critically acclaimed detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling was written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Here’s an article in the Telegraph with details about the new revelation. It got great reviews, but […]
by Anne R. Allen First: full disclosure—I’ve never NaNo’ed. I’m a slo-o-o-w writer. My editor despairs. I’ve got a new Camilla Randall mystery due in November (No Place Like Home) which I’ve been working on for a year and haven’t finished yet. (Yes, I’ve been writing, editing and launching six other books and two […]
Ruth and I are totally jazzed to announce that this blog has been named one of the Top 50 Blogs for Writers by Tribal Messenger Daily. To be up there with Konrath, Kristen Lamb, and Jane Friedman is an amazing honor. Here’s what they said: One stimulating blog, two of the most prolific digital and print authors […]
by Anne R. Allen Maybe you’ve got a novel finished and you’ve been sending out queries. Lots. And you’re getting rejections. Lots. Or worse, that slow disappointment of no response at all. Or maybe you write short fiction and poetry and you’ve got a bunch of pieces you’ve been sending out to contests and […]
We have a big announcement: Ruth Harris has started her own blog! No, she’s not going to abandon us over here. Her new blog is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish links. She will be posting a daily collection of links to articles she finds intriguing, unique, or just plain wacky. Fun stuff to […]
by Anne R. Allen NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Recently, my publisher, MWiDP, relaunched Shirley S. Allen’s cozy mystery, ACADEMIC BODY as an ebook. Sales had slowed for the print version published by Mainly Murder Press in 2010, but Mark Williams saw my ad for the book on this blog, read it and loved […]
by Anne R. Allen We still know nothing of the motives of the demented gunman who perpetrated the horrors at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises on Thursday night—and my heart goes out to the victims of that tragedy. But I think it’s important to note that earlier that day, the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site had […]
by Anne R. Allen “What? Glad?” sez you. “There is nothing that makes a writer sadder than a bad review!” That’s true. They can feel like a sudden, nasty downpour on the biggest parade of your life. Whether you self-pubbed or worked with a traditional publisher, the publication of your first book is a […]
First: The big day has arrived!The ebook version of HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE…And Keep Your E-Sanity which I wrote with my mentor Catherine Ryan Hyde is now available on Amazon from MWiDP. For a limited time, the e-book price will be $2.99 in the US and roughly the equivalent in the UK. (This book […]
by Ruth Harris I‘m a TradPubbed NYT bestselling author gone indie. I was also an editor for over 20 years (Macmillan, Bantam, Dell) and the Publisher of Kensington—so let me put rejection into a little perspective. Let’s be clear: Manuscripts get rejected; not writers. Trust me. (Most of the time) it’s not personal. Let me […]
by Anne R. Allen I started feeling it this last week: that dark heaviness lurking somewhere just below my conscious thoughts. It makes me burst into tears for no reason. I get clumsy and out of touch with my own body. I feel raw and unprotected. My joints ache. All I want to do […]
Thanks to all of you who voted for our blog in the Association of American Publishers and Goodreads Independent Book Blogger Awards. We made it to the Finalist list for Best Publishing Industry Blog. 10,000 people voted in a field of over 800 nominees. The winner in that category is the uber-awesome Victoria Strauss of Writer […]
