April Davila - Author
This is a text exchange I had recently with a good friend and fellow writer who is determined to get her debut novel out to agents this March. We both have novels we’ve been working on for a while. A long while. Every year we say this is the year. … [Continue reading] about Let’s Get Our Damn Books to Agents This March
Before Saturday, I had never been to a literary salon. I guess I figured they were a thing of the past. When I pictured a literary salon I saw Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, and Lytton Strachey sitting around smoking cigarettes and drinking … [Continue reading] about A Modern Literary Salon
A couple of years back, I taught a class on writing well. My students were super smart engineers, who happened to write poorly. The aim wasn't to turn them into brilliant storytellers, but rather, to ensure that they could communicate their ideas … [Continue reading] about On Writing Well
A few months back I shared a submission spreadsheet that I created in Google docs to track when and where I submit my short stories. If you missed that post, you can check it out here for a full explanation of what this thing is all about. Since … [Continue reading] about My Updated Submission Spreadsheet
I hate premature declarations. If I walk into a store the day after halloween and see Christmas decorations, I am likely to leave. Likewise, I hear people talk about the end of summer in July and can't help but think "whaaaa?" That said, for me, … [Continue reading] about The End of Summer
I've been writing fiction for a number of years now, and I've sent a fair number of stories off to literary journals. Most, but not all, of those submissions have been met with rejection. So at this point I feel like I have a pretty solid sense of … [Continue reading] about How to Write a Good Rejection, Says Me
On Sunday, I attended a one-day writing seminar in my new home town of La Canada. Honestly, the location was the only reason I signed up. My mom was in town, and the timing wasn't great, but I'm on a bit of a mission to find a community of writers … [Continue reading] about Studying with Barbara Abercrombie