We're forfeiting our power if we succumb to apathy.

Camille Perri

Categorized in : Our Succumb Power Apathy

I'm big on coffee shops. Fortunately, I live in Brooklyn where there are many to choose from.

choose live big coffee

Keeping a journal is the number-one best way to develop your written voice.

your best voice way

You know that secret novel you've been working on? The one that's really about you and your friends and your psycho ex-girlfriend? The one that, if discovered, would socially annihilate you for eternity? Yeah, go ahead and burn it.

burn you psycho friends

I think the skyrocketing cost of a college education has placed it in the sphere of being a luxury-priced necessity.

being think college education

John Austin, author of 'Cubicle Warfare,' has outdone himself with 'Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction,' a fully illustrated step-by-step guide to constructing thirty-five pocket-sized war machines, including a Clothespin Shooter, a Hanger Slingshot, a Paper-Clip Trebuchet, and Shoelace Darts.

himself machines destruction war

I like clothes. I like fashion, particularly men's fashion. Both my father and my grandmother on my mother's side were tailors, so I think it's in my blood.

fashion mother men father

My favorite lesbian romance of all time is the 1999 movie 'But I'm a Cheerleader,' starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall. RuPaul is also in it; so is the brilliant Melanie Lynskey.

lesbian brilliant romance time

Clothing reveals what a character is trying to project as well as what they're giving away about themselves without even realizing it: their socioeconomic class; their confidence level; their vulnerabilities.

confidence trying giving character

When I was coming to terms with my sexuality, I often felt like I needed to seek out sanctuary outside of my house, and the library was the first place I went. It was a place that I could go and seek out information and look for answers to questions that maybe I was too afraid to ask another person.

place look library house

I can't tell you how much debt I took on to attend New York University because, at the time, I didn't care to notice. And besides, what teenager has a clue about interest rates? What I can tell you is that by my mid-20s, I owed somewhere around $50,000.

new you care time

Apparently, blaming oneself for debilitating student debt is common.

blaming student debt oneself

As our nation's student debt crisis has reached a breaking point, we've been hearing lots of talk about student loan forgiveness. It's taken me 20 years to forgive myself for my loan - and just as long to pay it off.

myself me forgiveness long

Before my mother died, I was supposed to go to the local university, where I'd applied early decision. It was the same school my two older sisters had graduated from, which had been the sole criteria for choosing it.

go decision mother school

Remember that input is as important as output. Take in something for inspiration, to relight the fire inside you, and ideas on how to fix whatever isn't working in your writing will usually follow.

you fire remember ideas

They say you don't want to know how sausage is made. Book coverage is like sausage in that way: better not to know exactly how the gatekeepers of mainstream media choose which books to crown as must-reads each season - just swallow it down with a cold beer and call it a night.

you beer night book

The fact that there are still mainstream print media outlets willing to devote precious pages to book coverage at all is a triumph we should all be celebrating.

precious triumph media book

Word of mouth will trump media attention every time.

will media time attention

People do judge books by their covers, and the magazine editors deciding whether to include your book on their pages are working in a visual medium. So if you're less than thrilled by the cover your publisher proposes, don't be afraid to ask for an alternate version. Odds are that they want you to be happy with the final product, anyway.

be-happy you happy people

I wanted to write a book about two women falling in love that wasn't hinged on tragedy or that involved some horrible identity-based misfortune. I wanted to write a pretty standard romantic comedy where nobody dies, nobody gets hurt, nobody gets sick.

women sick love romantic

I certainly firsthand know and love people who didn't fall in love with a woman or didn't even realize they were attracted to women until much later in life, and I'm sure that's true for many men who find themselves attracted to men as well. It doesn't always happen in adolescence. And that experience is completely valid and OK.

women love men life