Tag: books
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Where I Am Now: Restructuring Countess of Cons After Beta Reader Feedback
It’s been almost a month since I received all my beta readers’ feedback on Countess of Cons. You know that moment when you realize you weren’t as close to the finish line as you thought? Not exactly a surprise, but still… The gist: readers needed neck collars to recover from the whiplash caused by too…
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Polished-but-Dead: Editing With AI (It’s Complicated)
Remember that song, “Video Killed the Radio Star?” (If you don’t then I’m pretty pleased—that means younger people are reading my blog!!) Lately, while editing Countess of Cons with Scripty McPromptface in the room, that song has been looping in my head. Because the way MTV changed music in the 1980s—suddenly it wasn’t just the…
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A Small New Thing: My Newsletter
I’m starting a newsletter. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I already share updates on my blogs, and I’m not exactly shy about posting when something is brewing. So why add a newsletter? Because the internet has become a scavenger hunt. Between social media algorithms, disappearing posts, and the general…
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When Your Editing Software Loves You… Then Tries to Ruin Your Life
Me vs. ProWritingAid This morning, I made a terrible mistake: I ran two ProWritingAid reports back-to-back. If you’ve never done this, imagine getting a standing ovation and a slap across the face in the same ten seconds. That’s the vibe. I started with the Virtual Beta Reader report for Countess of Cons, which basically sent…
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From Ancestry Message Board to Arson Files: Uncovering Catherine Seeley’s True Motive
NOTE: This post has also been cross-posted to my genealogy blog, https://whoweareandhowwegotthisway.com/ I didn’t set out to write about a con artist. I wasn’t even researching criminals. I was trying to get the facts straight about my husband’s great-grandmother, known in the family as Catherine C. Fitzallen. I was scrolling through an Ancestry message board,…
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From Gilded Age Grifter to Aer Lingus Diva
I’m sitting at Gate 9 at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, waiting to board a 6:05 p.m. plane to Dublin. The seats are filling fast. Uh oh. Does that mean some poor schmuck is going to get wedged between me and my husband? He likes the window. I like the aisle. (Seventy-year-old bladder. Two kids.)…
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Postmarked from the Past: A Message from Catherine
Today, Scott, one of the members of my writing group, the Daily Sprinters, gave us an assignment: Write a postcard to yourself from an ancestor using exactly 100 words. I chose to “receive” my message from Catherine, the protagonist of my forthcoming novel, currently titled Draped in Deceit: The Story of a Gilded Age Grifter.…
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Using AI Art to Illustrate a Children’s Book: Confessions from a Reluctant Collaborator
When I first started working on Doris’s New Home—the illustrated children’s companion to my novel Nothing Really Bad Will Happen, about a young Jewish girl fleeing Vienna in 1938—I didn’t expect to have so many sleepless nights over the pictures. Words? Sure, I know how to choose a verb, tighten a paragraph, untangle a timeline.…
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“Done-ish”: That Time I Finished My Book—Until Catherine Seeley Said Otherwise
I typed “The End,” pushed back from my desk, and smiled. My manuscript was done. Complete. Finished. I even told people so. Silly me. I was about 75% through reviewing my “finished” manuscript—one final read before sending it off to my writing coach for a developmental edit—when I decided to double-check a small fact. You…
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Three Times NOT the Charm: When AI Illustrations Go Off the Rails
When I set out to improve an illustration for my forthcoming children’s book, Doris’s New Home, I wasn’t expecting a breakdown of logic, perspective, and anatomy. I expected a quick revision. Just a few tweaks, really. I just wanted a warm family dinner scene. So I gave ChatGPT a clear prompt: “All the family members…
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