By Katrin Schumann

My friend Stephen had an incredibly interesting life. When he died at age 50, he left behind a small family and lots of burned bridges. One thing he didn’t leave behind—something so important that its absence is a tragedy—was any kind of cogent record of his life or work. 

There are pictures and half remembered stories. There are paintings and sculptures, covered in Saharan dust, the details of their provenance lost forever

By Katrin Schumann

This spring, a new writer—let’s call her Sharon—sent out dozens of queries for her novel and received zero response. Nothing, not even a single no thanks. She contacted me to ask if I could help with her query letter. Understandably, she thought there might be a secret to writing a query that would catch an agent's attention, and she'd missed it.

By Katrin Schumann

The best advice comes from people who have been in the trenches. Battled the highs and lows, enjoyed successes and perhaps been disappointed--or delighted--by the unexpected.

I recently asked some of my writer colleagues, friends, clients and former students--all now published--for advice they wish they'd known before launching into the process. Here are the top twenty tips:

By Katrin Schumann

Instead of feeling grateful I was annoyed. My husband and I were wandering among the 18^th century gravestones, talking books. 

He was excited. “And then you can have the guy, it’s set in modern times, maybe he’s an international spy or a drug lord or something big, and he’s thinking back on what happened with his mother and that’s how you tell the Ibiza story?”

By Katrin Schumann

Are you attending The Muse and the Marketplace this weekend? It promises to be a great one! Here are some random tips to get the most out of it:

• Make a list of your top goal(s) for the conference. It is entirely okay to have as your goal: Listen and learn. Sometimes absorbing information and then acting on it later is the best approach.