Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: amwriting

  • Dare to Live the Dream

    Every dream has a starting point. My love of reading, and the eventual desire to write, began in the pages of two childhood classics. Where the Red Fern Grows is the first book to ever make me weep. Not cry. Weep. Hysterically. As if my house had just gone up in flames and every family…

  • White Chocolate Banana Nut Bread

    My favorite banana bread recipe is from William-Sonoma’s Essentials of Baking cookbook. If you can find the book, which is no longer available through their site, I recommend you snag it. It’s a culinary gem. I’ve since slightly altered the way I make the banana bread recipe, mainly adding white chocolate, more nuts, and cutting or tweaking an ingredient…

  • WriMo NoMo, but Keep it Up Writers!

    NaNoWriMo is over, and like thousands of other writers, I hit over 50,000 words in thirty days. Sure a few things had to give. Blogging, for one, was chucked like an old pair of tennis shoes and left hanging on the telephone poll of “to-do-later.” And though I’d love to say my house stayed in…

  • NaNoWriMo: A Novel Goal

    Image courtesy of Just2shutter / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I’m amped. And not from pilfering candy. My blood is buzzing through my veins because, in little more than an hour, I’ll lay aside inhibitions, excuses–and a small portion of my sanity–and join thousands of writers around the world on a mission to write an entire novel…in one month.…

  • The Research Pill

    A novel starts off with an idea. If the idea is a good one, it takes root, causes a sort of anxious excitement that makes my fingers itch and stirs up feelings for these yet-to-be-developed characters. I can spit out the first chapter in no time. Maybe even plot out the whole story in a…

  • Tongue on Fire

    My son hovered over the boneless, tasty looking mango-habanero chicken wings with a gleam in his eye. “Don’t touch ’em son,” I told him. “They’re too spicy. We saved you the others.” He grabbed his wings, satisfied enough, but greedily licked the sauce from a finger that had grazed the forbidden ones. The small taste set…

  • Authors and Agents and Editors…Oh My!

    I’m going to keep this short. Because I’m supposed to be spending this week just enjoying my family, resting up, and . The girl in the picture has the view I’m missing, but at least I keep a steaming hot cup of luxury on my reading table. So I’m good. Now back to the update…

  • Ready…or Not: An Author’s Pre-Conference Petition (and Parody)

    In less than a week, I will kiss my husband and kids goodbye, board a plane, hoist my carry-on in the overhead compartment, and fly to Indianapolis for the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Conference. I’ve worked on my proposal and one-sheets (all that’s great about your novel on one page), practiced my elevator pitch,…

  • The Elevator Pitch

    I wrote this almost a year ago. Now that my story is finally ready for the pitching stage, I thought it appropriate to share again :-). The elevator pitch. In the writing world, it’s a short summary of your book that can be told to a prospective agent/editor/publisher in the time it takes to get…

  • Paper or Plastic?

    Aside from your regularly scheduled writing time (you do have that don’t you????) how do you write when spontaneous inspiration hits? Do you grab a notepad and scribble away? Or do you drum your fingers while waiting for the computer to boot up (or your tablet to charge, or your kid to pause Angry Birds on…