In Which We Have a Cover!

Orbit unveiled the cover for Torn last week and GUYS. I love this thing!

One thing that's very weird about the cover of one's book is that, unless your circumstances are very unusual in traditional publishing or you're a multi-talented self-pubber who did her own cover, it's, um, not actually your work. So people are generously complimenting me on it and I can't take the credit at all! The artists at Orbit are amazing--captured the essence of the story and the vitals of the plot without resorting to anything too trope-y or sentimental.

The other thing that's kinda weird (everything is a little weird for me right now, it's all so new) is that your publisher sends your book to established authors to ask for quotes or "blurbs" about it. Hopefully these are positive and not, you know, "about on par with the back of my cereal box." They then feature these on the cover (unless they're the cereal box thing), and let me tell you--it's flattering and embarrassing and exciting all at once that real live authors said nice things about Torn.

So--hooray! It's like a real book and everything!

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Accountable to the Page: Writing and Schedules

Tuesday I shared what gets me motivated to write--today I'm thinking about what I can do to hold myself to write. Having a schedule or goal or other expectation keeps you accountable to your work--and the best partner, I think, to creativity is accountability. We writers have a little problem most of the time during our writing careers: We aren't accountable to anyone but ourselves and the page--no boss, no time card, no nosy coworkers--so we have to create that accountability for ourselves. I want more of a schedule-based writing life, and a few ways of doing so have emerged for me: 1) The Clock Method . This one is basic--you clock in, you clock out. Your butt is in your chair for a set number of hours each day, hands on keyboard, writing. 2) The Goal Method . A little more flexible, but also, in my opinion, harder to hold yourself to. You have a daily (or, depending on your schedule and lifestyle, weekly) writing goal, and you meet it by scheduling yourself to com

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Rowenna, Writing

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