Author Heather McCorkle

I'm sorry peeps, I didn't get on Twitter much this last week at all! Chances are you caught more links than I did. But I did have a few really good ones for you. This first one is a writer's cruise retreat with super agent Deirdre Knight of The Knight Literary Agency. I'm keeping a space in my calendar clear for it just in case I can make it! Check out her tweet about it here: @DeidreKnight Hey, tweeps! Want to come on a writing cruise with me? Deets here: http://bit.ly/9zDSx1   The fabulous ladies from WriteOnCon have put together another excellent chat with literary agent Sara Megibow. You don't want to miss this one! It's occurring one week from now! Get the details here: @Casey_McCormick Did ya see? Didja? We have Sara Megibow for our next WriteOnCon Live Chat! http://bit.ly/cwOkl8 Here's an opportunity to have your first page critiqued by an agent from The Knight Agency! Check it out here: @KnightAgency Hey tweeps! We're starting a 1st p...

As the empty suitcase yawns at me this question arises. Thankfully I've been to a writer's retreat before and so I have a good idea of what to throw into that shrinking abyss. Since it's in Hawaii the temptation to throw in all my cute shoes and clothes is tough to fight. However, with the rising cost of checked luggage I will be limiting myself to one checked bag, one carry on, and of course my laptop. The thing I have to remember here is that a retreat is all about improving my book. Therefore I must take everything necessary to achieve that end. This means not only my computer, but a printer, a lot of paper, extra ink, and all the appropriate cables and plugs. Not much room left for my favorite wedge sandals. Not knowing what parts of the book we'll be working on I must remember to have my query letter ready, my synopsis, a chapter index, an outline, and oh yeah, the manuscript! Thankfully these don't need to be hard copies, whew! Having all these things already ...

Last year I attended both the Hawaii Writer's Conference and the retreat. I had an excellent time at both. So why am I only going to the retreat this year? Several reasons came into play. Last year's retreat was a huge eye opener for me. My writing skills increased by leaps and bounds and I met a lot of great people that I still stay in touch with today. The book I took to work on went from being a good idea to a publishable piece of work that is now represented and is being presented by an agent to editors. Achieving that was priceless. The conference was an excellent opportunity to meet people in the industry and make connections, which I did do. A conference is a lot of lectures and success stories with the chance to pitch your work to agents and editors thrown in. The agent I met in Hawaii last year is now considering my YA novel. So why am I only going to the retreat when it sounds like you get your money's worth out of both? Cost aside, I decided to go to just the ret...

Attending a writer's retreat will sharpen your writing skills and give you a chance to network with some of the people in the business. It's one of the most beneficial things you can do to give your writing a kick in the bindings too! With the state of today's economy its not an easy thing to do, but it's an investment in your future that's well worth it. My writing has improved exponentially from the retreat I attended in the past and this year I hope to move it to a whole new level yet again. For those of you who can't attend one stay tuned because I'll give you a play by play of the one I'm attending this year so you can benefit from my experience. For those of you who can manage to attend one I highly recommend doing so. I'd love to say there are a lot of great retreats out there, but honestly I've been looking and coming up pretty empty handed. If you know of any please leave me a comment so I can check them out. That said, what should you l...

Sounds like an easy question, until you start realizing how many elements are in your book. It took me a while to figure this out for one of my first books. Since I was talking to a friend about it on twitter it brought the issue back to the forefront of my mind. I recall this coming up last year when I went to my first writer's retreat. We all sat down around the table and our teacher (a NY Times Bestseller who seemed very intimidating at the time) asked us to tell the class what genre our book was and talk a little about it. The only reason I didn't crawl under the table and try to hide was because I was already knee deep in the query process trying to find an agent and kind of had an idea of how to answer the question. So went around the table, everyone described their book and said what the genre was. Some had trouble, they weren't sure, just like myself in the beginning. Our teacher told us to think of where we might find it on the shelf in a bookstore. That really hel...

Why the heck should you care what I'm reading? Well, because it's fabulous. Alas, that is not the point of my post, though I'll come back to it. At the retreats and conferences I go to I keep hearing this great piece of advice so I thought I should pass it on to all my writer friends: read! Seriously, that's it. More to the point though, know what's selling in your genre, get a feel for the competition. I love reading fantasy to the point where I read it almost exclusively. But, when I started writing my YA novel I realized I had to read YA first. I'm glad I did because it has helped tremendously! So, back to what I'm reading. I just finished Aprilynne Pike's Wings (which has since hit the bestseller list, whoo hoo!), but it was so great I have to rave about it too. If your writing YA you should really read this book because it's fresh, different, and has already become hugely popular. Aprilynne captures the 'voice' of a 16 year old girl so ...

After a lot of deliberation and looking over funds I've decided to attend the Hawaii Writer's Retreat (formerly known as the Maui Writer's Retreat) again this year. Again, you say? My God she's crazy! And I am, crazy dedicated to my career. Last year I learned so much that I got every dollars worth out of it. I sat down with a NY Times bestseller in a room with only six other students and got one on one critiquing from him. He helped us practice pitching to an agent, both in query form and in person. He also helped us improve our books and take a good honest look at them. Which beleive me, if you've never done it, you need to! My book improved exponentially. Everyone's book can use improvement. If you disagree, ask an editor and do a reality check. With the state of today's economy and my own finances, this was no easy decision to make. But, it's an investment in my future. The fact that going will help the economy and support the industry I want to work...