Emilie’s Books
Can You Judge An eBook By Its Cover?
I’ll confess of the more than sixty books I’ve written, I’ve had good covers and not-so-good covers. I’ve had a few great ones, too. Not surprisingly, those books sold the best. Have I made my point succinctly? Covers make a difference. A very big difference. And sometimes it’s hard to get them right. When I decided to…
Read MoreEbooks, Treasured Novels, and Becoming My Own Publisher
So there I was last October, in a packed room with treasured colleagues, authors I love, authors I’ve admired, and newish authors with infectious enthusiasm for this crazy career of ours. And in the front on the panels? Some of the most powerful people in publishing. Novelists, Inc., an international group of multi-published authors, is the only…
Read MoreSummer Winds and Winter Blizzards
Winter Blizzards I truly wasn’t expecting the storm that began last night. First, the Washington DC area, which has somehow managed to dodge all east coast blizzards this year, is suddenly under siege. We woke up to a white world, no telephone, television or internet. Our neighborhood was lucky, because despite that, we still had power. This…
Read MoreEndings and Beginnings, Careers, Novels and Quilts
Although I have never started a novel I didn’t finish, I have a host of quilts I’ve begun that are still waiting for their final stitch. I quilt because it’s fun. Not because I need warm covers on my bed or bright patches of color on my walls. The real reason I quilt is because it…
Read MoreNovels, Novellas and Novellinis
I’ve always loved writing novellas. I’ve written more than a few in my years as an author, most often in a collection as a holiday promotion from my publisher. For someone who writes long books, novellas are an odd attraction. Still, from the beginning, I found the format was a welcome break. While our practice as…
Read MoreWhen That Pesky “But Maybe. . .” Comes Calling
Last month I submitted a proposal for a new series to my editor and agent, both of whom liked it. A lot. How lovely. Whether an editor and agent like a book is not the first hurdle an author experiences. To begin we must come up with the germ of an idea, then expand it into something…
Read MoreThe Fine Art of Letting Go
So there I was on Christmas Eve, getting ready for the big day and all the celebration. The Christmas carols were turned up full volume, and the house smelled like baking bread. Cookie dough was waiting its own turn in the oven, but with all this good cheer, I still couldn’t shake an unusual sense of…
Read MoreYou Have My Sympathy. . . Not
The beginning stages of a novel are often the most fun. Restrictions and limitations? Fuhgeddaboudit. This is the time when a book assumes mythic proportions in the author’s mind. If not the best book ever written, this will be the best book the author has ever written, each sentence perfectly constructed, each scene building on the…
Read MoreConversations With The Dead–Flying Kites in Guatemala
I had the good fortune to visit Guatemala in early 2009, an unusual journey since I’d written about the political struggles in Guatemala in my novel Endless Chain, the second book of my Shenandoah Album series, but had never visited the country. Although only the back story took place in Guatemala, I found it strange to…
Read MoreYou Say You Want A Digital Revolution?
If you read my recent blog on writers and friendship, you know I spent last week at the Novelist’s Inc. workshop on St. Pete Beach, my old stomping grounds. It’s always a surprise when I go home to find not the huge changes we sometimes see, but a re-creation of the past. My neighborhood looks much the…
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