Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: writing

  • When Mom’s Away…

    As I gear up to head to the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference in St. Louis, I’m tempted to fret over how my family can possibly manage without me. My husband is off work and my father-in-law will be flying in to keep him company, still I’m skeptical of two men being able to…

  • Falling Off the Writing Wagon

    “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” ~ Confucious Quite an inspiring declaration. Too bad “inspiring” is not synonymous with “truth.” I love to write. The process of weeding out an idea, then turning that idea into hundreds of pages, is beyond rewarding. But make no mistake about…

  • Deleted Scenes

    Ever watch the deleted scenes of a movie? Better yet, ever watch the deleted scenes of an animated movie? If you’d asked me that question ten years and three kids ago, my response might’ve been an incredulous, “What on earth for?” Nowadays, however, it’s an all-wise sounding, “But of course.” In the world of writing (an…

  • With Eyes Set Ahead

    Writing is…well…hard. The temptation to quit lurks at the crosswalk of every failure, around the corner of any rejection, and along the alleys of each hard-to-write story. It’s not when the temptation confronts me, but when I actually entertain it, that I’m given a way out of the temptation with a message that speaks exactly to what…

  • Blog Hop – My Writing Life

    I’ve been asked to participate in a blog hop. The assignment is to answer four questions about my writing, then select three other authors to answer the same questions on their blogs within the next couple of weeks. Be sure to see the links to their blogs at the end of this post and find out…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…