Christy Shuler

I've officially started the process of plotting my second novel. Hold your applause, please. After a bit of a break, I am excited to get back into the swing of writing again. After recently finishing what I hoped would be the last revision of my first novel, I was a little fried, to be honest. I thought I'd spend some time in research mode: reading more books, learning more about the publishing industry and finding other writers out there who were in the same sort of "limbo" that I am. (Side note: If you are one of them, please hit me up! I'm anxious to hear about your journey and if you are having any luck getting published!) I've also been sending queries to literary agents. Searching for the right agent seems to be a full time job in and of itself, but I'm still hopeful that I will connect with an agent when the time is right. Anyway, I decided to take a break from my "break" and get back into writing. :) I'm very excited about th...

My parents recently sold my childhood home. I knew it was coming, but I think it doesn't really hit you until you know you can never go back there again. I'll never have another excuse to drive down that street, or stop at the nearby gas station. It won't be any convenience for me to use that Dollar General, either. It's just weird. Luckily, I got to visit right before they moved everything out. The home is pretty old and beat up and nothing I'd want to move back into, to be honest. However walking through it I couldn't help but relive so many memories that happened in that house. The kitchen where my sister and I fought off the exploding mess of potato soup we made for the first time ever, trying to avoid the burn of potato-to-skin contact. The bathroom where one of my siblings would retreat during a round of tag, only to find a broom handle shoved under the door and waved emphatically as the tagger tried to hit his or her feet. The living room where ...

Sometimes things seem so much simpler with a fluffy pen... People always say that knowledge is power. But when is the threat of too much knowledge damaging to your creative vision? Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with the internet. Some days are amazing: I find just the right blog posts to fit my current mood and I learn so many wonderful new trends and ideas that I feel like I'm floating on a cloud of inspiration. The days I am not so fond of are the ones that during my surfing, I find that one thing that's been gnawing at me in the back of my mind. Writers probably know what I'm referring to. That fear that your book is too long or too short, or your genre is on its way out, or that agent you've been hoping to pitch to said something on twitter revealing they don't like your topic. Or maybe you find a brilliant writer the same age as you, who writes the same genre, who comes from the same background. Maybe you beat yourself up, asking why she...