Jami is insane

Does Good News Make You Worry?

May 14, 2013 News
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Being a writer can often feel like living on a rollercoaster, with huge hills and dips around every curve. Writer’s block, rejections, low sales figures, pirated books, and other bad news can make us feel heavier than gravity itself. We might wish we could sink through the floor and disappear. On the other hand, good [...]

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Do You Want to Be a Famous Author?

May 7, 2013 Random Musings
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Every once in a while, I come across an article about figuring out our goals as an author. Heck, I’ve written posts along those lines. As we learn more about the industry and grow as authors, our goals might change, so it’s smart to revisit the question occasionally. But there’s a Step Two to that self-analyzing process that [...]

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What’s Your Superpower?

April 9, 2013 Random Musings
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Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have heard the news about my recent broken bone. *sigh* Again. I have a special talent, it seems, for breaking my middle toe. That’s right. Not the big toe or any other appendage that sticks out. Nope. I have to be different and break that middle toe [...]

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12 Tips for Recovering from Writing Burnout

January 3, 2013 Writing Stuff
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As I write this, I’m suffering from acute sleep exhaustion after pulling an all-nighter. I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. to finalize not one, but two entries for RWA’s Golden Heart contest (the big contest for non-published romance writers) before the deadline. I’m glad I completed everything on time and met the deadline. However, I’ve now [...]

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Merry Christmas! Some Gifts for You…

December 25, 2012 Random Musings
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I’ll be offline for most of this week, but I wanted to leave you with some fun (and yummy) gifts. If you’re celebrating this week, I hope your plans all unfold smoothly, your travels all go safely, your family members all behave perfectly, and all your dreams for the New Year come true. Those of [...]

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NaNo Wrap-Up: Are You Happy with Your Accomplishment?

December 4, 2012 Over-Achieving Perfectionist
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For better or for worse, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) of November is over. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been catching up on sleep. (I lost count of how many nights I stayed up until midnight to get as many words in as possible.) It was a month of highs and [...]

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Writing Research: A Pain or a Gain?

November 27, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Readers often think that fiction writers just make stuff up. And that’s quite true—when it comes to most stories and characters. However, the supporting details of settings, props, jobs, and plot events are another matter. Whatever genre we write, we usually have to do some research in the course of drafting and revising our story. [...]

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The Point of a Scene: Thinking in Concepts

November 20, 2012 Writing Stuff
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A couple of months ago, I read a blog post that forever changed how I approached drafting scenes. That probably sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. We’ve often talked about the differences between plotters and pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants), and how as a die-hard-and-happy-about-it pantser, I don’t want to plot [...]

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Life Lessons from the “Epic Road Trip”

November 8, 2012 Random Musings
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Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have heard that my family and I took a two-week road trip a couple of months ago. And yes, it was “epic.” We traveled over 2100 miles on our way to visit four National Parks, two National Monuments, and one Tribal Park. Er, yeah. I had [...]

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Goodbye, Feedburner! Hello, Ownership of Our Platform

October 2, 2012 Random Musings
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Months ago, I wrote about the death of Google Friend Connect (GFC). Many people who used the GFC social media and feed reading service couldn’t believe that Google would drop a service used by so many. When it died, people lost blog readers and newsletter subscribers. Rumors are swirling that Google is at it again, this [...]

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