Author & Ecologist
For the published author, a negative review can sting hard. We tend to confer disproportionate power on bad reviews, allowing a single sour note to negate all the wonderful things readers have said about our work. For this reason, many of my friends and colleagues resolve not to pay attention to reader reviews, but let's... Continue Reading →
This month, we began our fifth (!) semester under the Covid pandemic. I still remember when, two years ago, the news of Covid19 broke in China during January of 2020. Inside a couple weeks, cases hit 80,000 - a number that seemed phenomenal at the time. I remember thinking, "This could be it. This could... Continue Reading →
This marks the fifth installment of an ongoing series on query letters. So far, we've covered: Why query?What goes into a query letter?How do I place my book in the market?How do I pitch my book? Today we will talk about the Author Bio. Most query letters finish with a single, short paragraph outlining the... Continue Reading →
EOLYN and her companion novels had a makeover in 2021. Cover design by A Raven Designs Anyone else feel like there wasn't much of a holiday season this year? Everything blasted by so quickly. That's not to say I didn't have a nice holiday. Thanks to vaccines and loosened travel restrictions, I was able to... Continue Reading →
I'm participating in a number of writer challenges on Instagram. One recent challenge asked: Why is my story important? To answer this question, I focused on EOLYN, Book One of the Silver Web Trilogy. What drew me into Eolyn’s story was the immense courage and strength she demonstrates when confronting a brutal system intent on... Continue Reading →
A query letter should: Place your work within the market,Provide a brief, compelling description of the manuscript, andShare relevant information about you as an author. Each of these essential functions corresponds to one paragraph. All three paragraphs are assembled to craft the full letter. Taken together, the entire letter should fit on a standard letter... Continue Reading →
I had an interesting exchange with author Sierra Godfrey (@sierragodfrey on Instagram) that got me thinking about the whole question of querying. Sierra posted a great "pep talk post" encouraging authors to get their work into the querying cue. I, too, am an advocate for querying, though I understand why many authors are reluctant to... Continue Reading →
Our classic interdisciplinary course Ecology Through the Writers Lens ran under a different format this year, with local day trips instead of week-long overnight visit to the Flint Hills. Of course, everyone masked up. Photo by Amy Milakovic. As this extraordinary year winds down, I find myself reflecting not so much on what 2020 took... Continue Reading →
Normally this time of year I would be at my annual Women's Writing Retreat, more affectionately known as Dollbabies Week. Like so many other spring activities and conferences, that plan was washed away by the tide of Covid-19. My literary colleagues and I have organized a remote edition instead. It won't be the same, but... Continue Reading →
Avila University started its regular spring semester about two weeks ago. Seems I've hardly drawn a breath, and the month has already slipped by! After some worry that I might be teaching an overload again this spring, I managed to negotiate with the powers that be so that my teaching obligations remain within contract. This... Continue Reading →
Karin Rita Gastreich 