Author: Laurie Boris

Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of four novels. She lives in New York’s lovely Hudson Valley. Learn more about Laurie at her website and her Amazon author page.

Getting Kids to Read

In the next few days, intrepid teens in a variety of towns across the US will bust into a variety of flash mobs. They won’t be break-pop-locking or singing parodies of “Call Me, Maybe.” (Even though this one was kind of cute.)

They plan to recite poems and stories by Edgar Allen Poe.

Kids will also roam graveyards, armed with flashlights and blankets. They’ll hold mock book-burnings. Without force, bribery, or threat of a failing grade, they will gather in groups to discuss the social ramifications of To Kill a Mockingbird. And in New Hampshire, they will debate the possible exoneration of Lizzie Borden, and if she did or did not take up that axe and give her mother forty whacks. Continue reading “Getting Kids to Read”

Working Title

Book titles are funny things. For some writers, a title presents itself before the first word gets typed into their word-makers. Some pop up along the way. I’ve been lucky, I guess. For nearly all of my projects, the title has always been there. Dependable as the adult diapers of approximately the same name. Not that I would know anything about that, of course. Continue reading “Working Title”

6 Lessons Learned from 138 Rejection Letters

I wrote my first novel in 1994, when self-publishing was like substance abuse: whispered about in dark corners, the afflicted looked upon with pity-filled glances. If I wanted to see this puppy in print I had two viable options: large press or small press, but both involved a thumbs-up from a gatekeeper.

I chose the large press route. For that, you needed a literary agent. Because that was The Way It Was Done Back Then. (And maybe still is, but I haven’t been in that burg for a while.) If you weren’t Clive Cussler’s nephew’s babysitter, you needed a literary agent or you went into the slush pile with the other wannabes. Blind determination netted me 138 rejections from literary agencies from New York to Los Angeles. As I move toward my third published book, and second self-published one, I’ve been thinking about the lessons learned from that dogged (if misguided) persistence. Continue reading “6 Lessons Learned from 138 Rejection Letters”

Celebrate Writers and Editors

Like every month, September contains a basket load of oddball holidays and observances. There’s National Lazy Mom’s Day, Wonderful Weirdos Day (technically, September 9th, but celebrated every day in my house), Stay Away from Seattle Day, and the delightfully amusing Talk Like a Pirate and One Hit Wonder Days. Although we just missed International Enthusiasm week, I hope you might have a little excitement left for one of my favorite September observances: Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month. No, I am not making this one up. In 1984, someone at Lone Star Publishing fielded one too many questions about to when use “lie” or “lay”, went completely off his nut and covered the entire office with red-Sharpied conjugations of several naughty Latin irregular verbs. Continue reading “Celebrate Writers and Editors”