JOANNA ELM, Author, Journalist, Attorney
The Pleasures and Perils Of A Writing Life
If your website is going to crash, the week of Thanksgiving is probably the best time for it to happen. No, I’m not kidding. It happened to me last week. And, I discovered there’s an upside when your website crashes during a major holiday week. Continue reading “Sorry, My Website Crashed Last Week”
Gearing up for the big pitch of my suspense novel to publishers, my new literary agent, Paula Munier, suggested I find a new author photo for this website.
She’s right — as usual. The old one was dark, dingy, small and black/white.
So, this week, I made a stab at finding a substitute. Then, I updated my Welcome Page, to boot.
For regular subscribers who faithfully read my weekly blogs, I provide a link here to my Welcome Page so you can take a look at the new photo and let me know what you think.
The link also works for those who have bookmarked my website and skim over the Welcome Page to click on Recent Posts.
I also replaced my photo on my About Me page.
For those who feel the blog this week falls short, and who have not been regular readers since the inception of this website, there are earlier posts you may access by clicking on any of the links on the Welcome Page. I am always happy to hear your opinions as to which blogs you enjoy — and those you don’t.
The Washington Nationals — and I — had a good week last week. We both won in sports events that were “mind-bending, odds-shattering, pundit-shaming and impossibly thrilling.”
So, okay, the quote above comes from The Washington Post and describes the Nationals’ triumph over the Houston Astros in the World Series final last Wednesday. But it could just as easily describe my own win in the third match of a new singles tennis season.
As faithful readers of this blog may have read a couple of weeks ago, I decided to prove I’m totally insane by signing up (again) for a singles tennis tournament. (Last season, I lost every match. This season, I lost my first two matches.)
This time, I signed up because I’m treading water while waiting for my literary agent to spring my revised, edited, re-revised, and re-titled novel on publishers all over North America. Continue reading “I Won! It Won’t Happen Again”
I’m always aware of that old saying about idle minds becoming the devil’s playthings. So naturally, once I sent my revised manuscript out of the house and on its way into my agent’s inbox, I looked around for something worthwhile to do. Continue reading “My Evening With Vogue Editor, Anna Wintour: A Review”
My husband, Joe, bought these gorgeous roses for me. He thought they would brighten my week as I plowed through another set of edits, revisions and changes.
What! you say. More edits? More revisions? Are you kidding me? Didn’t you just sign with a literary agent? Continue reading “When Your Agent Says: Love Your Novel, Now Change It”