by hollandrae | Mar 23, 2020 | Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research
With the world in a state of flux and many schools and organizations requiring workers to stay home, it can be difficult to get much done. I’ve been a self-employed writer and journalist for going on two years and there is definitely a learning curve when it comes to...
by hollandrae | Mar 16, 2020 | Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books
Writing is hard. On the best of days, when the phone doesn’t ring and the dog doesn’t bark and your other jobs or schoolwork or family obligations remain mercifully quiet, writing is still a challenge. And the truth is, most days aren’t going to be like that. As I...
by hollandrae | Mar 9, 2020 | Editing, Industry, Musings, My Books, Research
I have played many roles in the writer world. I’d put myself as a novelist first, a journalist second, and an editor third, but these positions are far from black and white and they overlap and intersect in many unique and sometimes frustrating ways. To be a writer,...
by hollandrae | Feb 27, 2020 | Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Writing
Being a writer is hard. That’s what they tell you when you’re ten years old and write an essay on what you want to be when you grow up. You should have a backup plan. That’s what they tell you when you pursue writing as a career and you realize you’re going to be...
by hollandrae | Jan 29, 2020 | Characters, Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Reading, Research
Easy reading is damn hard writing. – Nathaniel Hawthorne From the outside, writing doesn’t look too hard. After all, I spent eight to ten hours a day on my computer, doing the thing I love most in the world. What could be difficult about that? I get to...
by hollandrae | Jan 14, 2020 | Characters, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research, Romance Novels
I’m not going to take the necessary time to go over all the ways romance gets a bad rap. If you read or write the genre, you know that it’s up against a high level of misconception and condescension for myriad reasons. But despite all those things people tend to say...