It’s now a month since I launched my redesigned website, started blogging, re-branded my author page on Facebook, updated my LinkedIn profile and joined Twitter. I wish I could say that the result has been an unequivocal success with hundreds of site visits, subscribers, friends, connections and followers. Mostly, I feel as if I’m crawling […]
Learning from Failure
Long-time readers of this blog know that I’ve spent the last three years researching, writing and rewriting Ellen, a novel. I showed it to my agent twice along the way, and knew she had reservations about the premise, main character, time period and tone. I wrote the book anyway, and I turned it in. To […]
Measuring Success
I initially launched my website as a marketing tool, when Into the Wilderness, my first novel, was published in 2010. The site was incredibly useful during the first year the book was out and I was traveling to bookstores and libraries, giving readings. I posted my schedule of upcoming events on my landing page, […]
Living With Praise
In the seven years I’ve been broadcasting commentaries for Vermont Public Radio, I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me by phone, email, or in passing, to tell me how much they liked one my pieces they heard. Often, I’ll post a link to a commentary on Facebook and friends will […]
What Do You Do?
When you meet someone for the first time, how do you reply to their inevitable question, “What do you do?” When I held my first jobs, I was always excited to reply with my newly acquired title. “I’m an editorial assistant,” I said, straight out of college. “I teach writing,” I said, in graduate […]