by Jamie Chavez | Feb 24, 2014 | The Book Biz, The Writing Craft
Trying to land a book deal is like trying to land a job. In both cases, the gatekeeper (agent, in-house editor, human resources manager) has lots of applicants for the position (a slot in the Fall 2016 fiction catalogue, a job) and must narrow down the field to,...
by Jamie Chavez | Feb 6, 2014 | Words & Language
I admit I’m sometimes out of the loop. (Or behind the curve. Or whatever.) I don’t watch television and it’s only me up here in the swanky second-floor office in the pink house with the blue door, so whole fads pass me by. Whole memes pass me by. But I am up on my...
by Jamie Chavez | Jan 11, 2014 | Words & Language
You know I’m fascinated by accents, dialect, colloquialisms, and slang, so when I stumbled on this interesting article, I was all over it. Business Insider says, Regional accents are a major part of what makes American English so interesting as a dialect. It seems...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 30, 2013 | The Writing Craft
Awhile back an author told me—after a little bit of gentle back-and-forth—she was disregarding my recommendations about her dialogue because, well, this was a fantasy she was writing, and my dicta* just didn’t work with fantasy. I never argue when I’m working, so I...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 21, 2013 | The Writing Craft, Words & Language
A couple weeks ago I was having a Twitter conversation with an editor at St. Martin’s Press, who was remarking about the overuse of the word amazing. One of her authors was swearing it off and tweeting about it. Ha! I said. This has been my personal bête noire for...
