Meet Betsy
Welcome to my virtual studio. As both a writer and designer, I’m driven by a curiosity about the world. In my studio, I take that curiosity and use it to create new worlds. I write for kids and adults as well as a good deal of freelance non-fiction. Explore to find out more about me, my books, and my thoughts on writing as well as the thoughts of friends who stop by the studio. If you’ve got something you’d like to share reach out to me through the contact form. I’d love to hear from you. Scroll down to read what’s been happening in the studio.
Games and Writing: Shared Worldbuilding
In my pandemic-induced sense of writer’s block, though, something strange happened. The players – many of whom are writers. or artists, or game designers, or photographers, or even musicians – would ask questions about the world they were playing in, and I would not have the answers they sought. I was forced to make it up . . .
Katzenberger: Fear & Friendship in IT WILL BE OK
The theme of the story—that we can be afraid of things that appear very small to others but feel very big to us—seems obvious to me now. But I don’t think I knew what I was trying to say until many, many revisions into the writing . . .
Review: Universe of Two
What a pleasure for the reader to see an already fine novelist grow and get even better with his skill and commitment to excellence. Vermont author Stephen P. Kiernan’s past works were fine, much more than competent novels, but his newest— Universe Of Two —is what Italians art aficionados would call, il tuo capolavoro— his masterpiece . . .
Judy Blume’s Puzzle
Judy Blume takes on first drafts like jigsaw puzzles. Instead of plotting everything out ahead of time or beginning on page one and writing through to the end, Blume begins by . . .
Structuring A Great Story
If we think of it as architecture, plot is your unique stained glass window made up of all the tiny bits of beauty that are your unique story. Structure is the stone walls that hold it, less dazzling but equally important. Without a good structure, everything else falls apart.
Review: David Sedaris’ THE BEST OF ME
I’ve never been a huge fan of memoir. More often than not I find one story blends hypnotically into the next in an unchanging monotony of tone and theme. However, I have always loved David Sedaris’ memoirs.
This recent ‘best of’ collection includes one scene that explained for me why his stories work so much better than others I’ve read. In that story, Sedaris describes . . .
Jumping Into The Right Critique Group
Building your writing community is like throwing a stone into a pond. You, your work, and the act of putting yourself out there is that stone. The outgoing ripples are the connections you make with the world.
Often, finding a reliable critique group is more of a journey than a quick, one-stop transaction. Critique groups are not one-size-fits-all. To find the right group for you, you’ll need to look inward and ask yourself what you want to get out of the collaborative experience. You might need to try on a few groups for size before finding the one that fits you best.
Winter Sports
Winter is a time for words. My favorite winter sports include reading, writing, and hanging out with friends around the fireplace. Pandemic might have moved those fireside chats to FaceTime, but it can’t change the joy of cozying up inside my imagination while the snow falls thick outside. We’re glad to share this winter with all of you.
TD Inman on Martian Trump
After the first chaotic months of the Trump administration. I needed to channel my anxiety and anger into something constructive. I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea I just couldn’t shake: Donald Trump stranded on Mars, all alone, with only his self-described genius intellect to guide him seemed irresistibly ripe for parody.
New World By Candlelight
Ryan LaSala talks about revealing the innovative details of rich fantasy worlds without it becoming an info dump.
Review: A Wreath for Emmett Till
The story it tells and the moving way it tells it is well worth a review, but what I want to talk about is the structure. Emmett Till’s story is told in a heroic crown of sonnets. A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. A crown of sonnets is a sequence of fifteen interlinked sonnets in which the last line of each is the first line of the next and the final sonnet is made up of the first lines of each of the preceding fourteen poems.
Cut the Should
Years ago I was rattling off a list of worries to my therapist when she said, “Stop shoulding all over yourself.”
In shock, I said, “But I want to do all these things. They will help me succeed. They will make me happy.”
To which my very patient therapist asked “Will the happiness they bring outweigh the miserable feeling of carrying around a giant pile of should?”
Practice Writing
Free writing, or practice writing as Natalie Goldberg refers to the exercise in Writing Down The Bones, is one of the best tools for writers of all levels from the person looking to write their first piece to the seasoned writer needing to break through an endless block and reconnect with their lost or forgotten muse. Timed prompt-writing never fails to jump-start one’s creative flow, lead a writer to discover their voice, or strengthen the voice already in place.
Multiplication in Revision
Elena K. Arnold and Brandy Colbert drew from their experience writing numerous novels, many award-winners, to give an outstanding webinar on revising for plot. One suggestion, that stood out is to look where multiplying the voices in a scene might add richness to your work. Typically writers . . .
CYNTHIA FRANCA & CHERYL PERREAULT: A Project for Hope
2020 has been a hard year for the arts. Performers are out of work. Festivals are canceled and authors are struggling to connect with readers in a world without live events. Still the drive to create does not stop and some people are using that drive for good. That is exactly what Cynthia Franca and Cheryl Perreault are doing with their new anthology.
Hope through Community is a collection of poems, stories, and photographs from people around the world. This collection offers a tapestry of authentic . . .
Review: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The cover of this book is a doorknob and when opened readers are swept into a journey through world after wondrous world created by Harrow through the evocative use of sensory detail. It is gritty soil between fingers, moisture hanging thick in the sea air, and the cracked feel of aged leather as January explores the collection of relics of the imposing mansion that confines her. Opening the book at random I read the lines . . .
6 Weeks, 600 views
It’s been a little over six weeks since we launched and so far the site has seen more than 300 unique visitors and over 600 page views. Not too shabby! We’ve had great articles and book reviews from guest contributors such as Jim DeFilippi and Nolan Libby as well as one from our contributing editor Bobbi Lerman. We have tons of growth ideas planned for 2021: a short story collection, a novel-generating class, a writer’s resource page, as well as much more insightful content and wonderful guests.
The Club Dumas
A quick review of what Nolan Libby loves about The Club Dumas:
The book was better. We’ve all heard this and it’s usually true. It’s why one of my guilty pleasures is reading source material after seeing a movie. The Club Dumas, however, swims in exposition veiled as a conversation to move the hero, Lucas Corso, on his task to authenticate a demonic tome.
The Three Camps of Book Publishing
With 38 years of experience, Jim DeFilippi has done it all: traditional publishing with HarperCollins, independent publishing with, The Permanent Press, and direct publishing. So far his total book output is in the 30s— crime, humor, history, screenplays, stage dramas, even some poetry, and even a cookbook. Today, he gives us his take on the world of book publishing.