There has been loads of time during my first week here that could be used for writing, but the same thing that always happens when I visit happened again. Spending my days speaking Swedish means I can’t put English worth a crap on the page. My sentences are all wrong. I reverse the noun-verb order and can’t find a synonym to save my soul. My sentence structure becomes super simple and my work read like a first graders’ “What I did this Summer” essay. This visit, I have writing deadlines for paying gigs. So to keep my brain in English …

Frank Zafiro is the author of the River City crime novels and also writes mainstream fiction under the name Frank Scalise, which is his actual name. Born and raised in Spokane, he joined the U.S. Army after high school graduation and served in Military Intelligence. He’s been a Spokane police officer since 1993 and has served as patrol officer, corporal, detective, sergeant and lieutenant. His current title is captain. Zafiro has written seriously since he was thirteen, starting out with short stories and poetry. Last week I reviewed his River City series for Bark. If you didn’t read that post, …

(Also posted on Bark) It’s summer, I don’t have to go back to full time teaching until the fall and in between the projects on my to do list for this time off (garden work that will never happen, filling out the paperwork for becoming an American citizen, brushing the dog, planning for lessons, watching bad TV) I thought I would do some writing. However, my motivation to put words on paper plummeted to the lowest low when Monday’s mail brought  two rejection letters. Scott, Shira, and Sam have already “barked” on the subject and I don’t have anything to …

(This also posted at Bark.) I’m having a party on June 18th at 6 pm and you are invited. This isn’t just any kind of party, I will host a gathering at my house, but at the same time, all around the world, other people will have the same party—on the same theme. What’s our theme you ask? I’ll tell you, we’re CONNECTING THROUGH FOOD, one of my favorite ways of connecting. We’re also celebrating the release of Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World (a Three River Press original). Forty-one authors, of …

Maybe celebrating Christmas at home in Sweden with my three-year-old nephew and brand new nice has made me extra sensitive to violations against my childhood literary heroes. My English husband certainly thinks so after I treated him to a long tirade this morning about slimy fraudulent business men doing anything for a buck. The source of my morning anger is Svenska Dagbladet’s article about Astrid Lindgren’s relatives spending hundreds of thousands of kronor on protecting character names from her books on the American market, only to find out that the copyright firm they used turned out to be fraudulent. Saltkråkan …

I’ve known about the book for a while now, but when I received the cover it it really sunk in that I’m going to be published–in a book! I may be biased, but this is the most beautiful book cover I have ever seen. I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hand, hope there are many more that feels the same way and that it will make a ton of money for the kids in India. It’s an honor to be part of this project with Rita and to be published among such fantastic writers. As you Buy …

As if it’s not enough stress to carve out enough time in the day for writing, aspiring authors also have to research marketing opportunities and start to establish themselves in the webby-facebooky-myspacey-bloggosphere. I know what you’re thinking; shouldn’t you have a book published before you start working on your marketing plan? And yes, I should, but it isn’t just the books you’re marketing, it’s also yourself, your image, your presence, etc. Look at how many authors are on Facebook and/or have webpages and/or blogs. Why does Malcolm Gladwell publish a bunch of essay in the New Yorker right before one …

Don’t get me wrong, I love my genre. Nonfiction moves me, thrills me, and inspires me. In short, it completes me. Okay, so maybe that was a little over the top, but you get the picture. I’m a big fan of nonfiction. But, this quarter I’m hanging out in another fiction class and loving it. This form and theory class is looking at point of view and time. The reading list is awesome: To the Lighthouse, Cloud Atlas, A Mercy, As I Lay Dying, The Known World, Pedro Paramo, Runaway, and The Zero. Homegrown author and local hero Jess Walter …