A Maass of Good News

I’m thrilled to announce that Donald Maass has agreed to an interview with me for Writer Unboxed. Maass, as most of you probably already know, has his own agency (Donald Maass Literary Agency) and is the author of my very favorite craft book for unboxing story, Writing the Breakout Novel. Seriously, if you don’t have this book on your shelf already, if you haven’t digested it and then gone back to chew on it some more, you are probably not doing your wip the service you could be. Get. The. Book.

Maass also has a new craft book coming out soon called The Fire in Fiction. I’m hoping that we learn a little about this, too.

In other news, Kath and I have been sending out more interview requests, completing interviews and reading books in order to conduct interviews. I’d say our autumn slate is nearly complete at this point. Soon you’ll be reading about suspense author M.J. Rose and her latest novel, Reincarnationist; editor for the Writer’s Market, Robert Brewer; UK women’s fiction author Katie Fforde; editor of the Audible Serial Thriller Project, Jim Fusilli; multi-genre novelist Karin Tabke; Writers House agent Daniel Lazar; prolific author of the Wilderness series (and much more), Rosina Lippi/Sara Donati; and the creator of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Chris Baty. And wait, there’s more.

WU contributor Juliet Marillier is also going to be conducting an interview for us–a really exciting one–with New Times best-selling fantasy novelist and author of Kushiel’s Justice, Jacqueline Carey.

And guess what? After all of those interviews have been posted, we’ll have hit the big 5-0. Fifty interviews for Writer Unboxed. I think we might take a week off at that point, what do you think?

WU contributor Allison Winn Scotch just sold her second novel, TIME OF MY LIFE, to Random House. Look for the book in Fall, 2008. Congrats, Allison!

Have you heard the latest on “If I Did It,” Penguin’s “Classics” re-releases, Bantam’s dual-format publishing, and musty-book-smell stickers for e-books? Check out the WU Google Notebook HERE.

In personal news, I finished the 2nd edit of my completed manuscript. It’s time to send it out to critique friends, polish some more and do a read-through out loud–an especially good technique for catching repeated words.

And last but not least, my mother was married this past weekend to a great guy.

Blissful happiness, all around.

I hope you’re all doing well, busting through your blocks and carrying on with the business of writing. Till next week, write on, all.

Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.

Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.

Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.

www.theresewalsh.com/