image from www.chalkboardmanifesto.com procrastinate: from Latin, of tomorrow I can be a procrastinator. There. I admit it. I can put things off until…whenever. I can delay. I can come up with excuses. I can opt to do the easy rather than the...
our stories, ourselves
Playing Make-Believe: World-Building and World-Crafting
Writers are atlas makers Do you remember playing make-believe when you were little? Playing with your friends, or with dolls or stuffed animals, and creating elaborate and often complex scenarios, relationships, situations, and rules within a make-believe world...
Hearing and Tasting Our Work
"I always find if you read fiction out loud you know what you have to change by what you stumble over." - Alice Hoffman. As anyone who has worked with me knows, I'm a huge proponent of reading our manuscripts aloud. It's critical to do this when your work is a...
What Does Our Backlist Say About Us?
Publishers have backlist – the list of older books still available to the public, as opposed to titles newly published, called frontlist. Building a strong and reputable backlist has traditionally been seen as the way to produce a profitable publishing house. Backlist...
Are You Being Served? A Recipe for a Great Critique Group
Ingredients: - 2-12 dedicated authors (can be of different genres & formats; can be of same genre & format) - heaping doses of imagination - heaping doses of respect - heaping doses of sensitivity - liberal doses of gentle honesty (if you opt for...
today marks the 3rd anniversary of drydenbks!
As hard as it is to believe three years have gone by since I put out my shingle, it’s entirely gratifying to be so busy and fulfilled by the work I love—by work that seems to be filling a need in the children’s book community. During these three years...