Banana Peel on My Mind: How to Give Success the Slip

So many banana peels, so little time. 

This week, I'm guest blogging on Elizabeth Stevens Omlor's Banana Peelin blog - Elizabeth's worthy mission is to name and classify every single banana peel on the road to getting published (sounds like procrastination to me, but hey).

Anyway ... the road to publication is LITTERED with banana peels. For every book published, four score and seven commissioning editors lie snoring, bored to oblivion by their slushpile. Let not their sacrifice be in vain.

Read my ten tips on how to give success the slip 

I'm on Dear Teen Me!

Candy at 15 with
baby brother Armand,  just two.

I'm so excited because I'm the featured author on Dear Teen Me. It's a blog featuring authors writing to their teenage selves with all the wealth of possibility that suggests. What would you say to your spotty young self? Do you have the wisdom to face up to all those insecurities, fears, hurts that you kept bottled up in those formative years? Or maybe you just want to say it's gonna be okay.

Help! I've crossed to the other side of my century!

Interrogation time!

Sarah McIntyre responded to the Q&A in cartoons! Wish I had the idea first!

Over on the StoryBlog, we're all responding to a Q&A! You can read my grumpy answers here.

What I Learned from Writing My Second Novel

I can't believe it! After two and a half years of gnashing my teeth, SHINE is finished! Neil Gaiman, quoting Gene Wolfe, says: "You never learn to write a novel. You only learn to write the novel you're on."

So what did I learn on the road to finishing SHINE? I've posted half a dozen nuggets of wisdom extracted in the most excruciating manner possible from Shine's roller coaster writing journey. Read it and share my teeth-gnashing over at Notes from the Slushpile.

Then,  I shall be eternally grateful if thus alerted to my suffering, you could please, maybe, kindly,  leave a comment on the post, perhaps a kind word of encouragement, a hint of sympathy, and then, erm, well, you know,  pre-order Shine.