April Davila - Author
Last week I got feedback from my class on my new opening pages. When I finished the last draft of my story, I asked a former teacher of mine, Rita Williams, to give it a read. Her biggest note was that she felt I came into the story too late. In … [Continue reading] about Feedback on my New Opening
The kids' school tagged a teacher-development day onto this three-day weekend to make it a whopping four-day extravaganza. So I'm sitting here, in the airport, on a Tuesday, after four fantastic days in Northern California, with mixed feelings about … [Continue reading] about Creative Community
I mentioned a while back that I was planning to take a UCLA fiction writing course, Novel IV. My motivations were twofold. First, I really enjoy getting know local writers and I figured an advanced course would have some interesting people in it. … [Continue reading] about Always Learning
For the past four years, I have been getting up at 5am to write. It was a tough transition at first, getting up that early, but between working full-time, taking care of two kids, and occasionally exercising, it just ended up being the easiest time … [Continue reading] about Defending My Writing Time
Daniel was asleep when I got home last night. I snuck into bed and curled up beside him. At about 1 in the morning he rolled over and asked me what I was doing on March 4th. I think I groaned something like "shut up," because really, 1 in the morning … [Continue reading] about We Got The House!
I carry a small writer's notebook with me everywhere I go. It's something I've done for nearly a decade, though for a long time I did it simply because I had a general feeling that I should. It wasn't until 2010 that I got organized about it, and … [Continue reading] about My Writer’s Notebook
I'm counting it as a success. I wrote 32,778 words in November. Given the family demands of the Thanksgiving holiday, and the fact that my guy's birthday was two days before, I didn't participate in the final push that a lot of people do at the end … [Continue reading] about A Qualified NaNoWriMo Success