Dear Readers, I'm thrilled to be a guest at RavenCon 14 on April 5-7 in Williamsburg, VA! It's my first time at this con, and I'm looking forward to all the exciting panels and discussions we're going to have. Here's my schedule: Saturday 10 am (Panel) Focus on Dialogue / Room 8 11 am (Panel) Crutch Words and Verbing Adverbly / Room F 12:25 pm - 12:50 pm (Reading) Room 4 6 pm (Panel) Small Presses: How They Work... / Room L Midnight (Panel) Smut, Gore, and More: 18+ / Room 8

As a senior editor for a romance e-publisher, oftentimes, my job is to disappoint hopeful authors, to tell them that their work is not up to par. I often joke that my job is to tell people their book baby is ugly. As an author, I know how criticism and rejection can sting. I know the knee-jerk reaction to call that agent, that editor, that publisher a stupid stupidface who doesn't understand you, your work, the genre, anything. I get it. I really do. As writers, we're passion

In my role as an author and editor, I am often asked, what do I consider to be the hallmarks of a professional writer? How do you tell the pros from the amateurs? And most importantly, how do you become a pro? So, I’ve compiled this non-exhaustive-but-pretty-darn-close list based on my personal experiences and interactions on both sides of the publishing industry—author side and editor side. Being a professional writer means: Being creative when you're down or sick or hungove