Lainey is a sixteen year old girl finally coming to stride with her teenage years. After years of moving around the country with her Uncle Gareth, they settle down in a rural Georgia town. She's able to make a lovable if not crazy best friend. She works hard in school and plans to graduate early. There may even be her first boyfriend on the horizon. Everything is going Lainey's way. Until she starts being haunted by a ghost, finds out she's a witch and becomes the last Keeper of an ancient and power magic book called the Grimoire. 

This is the perfect time to pick up new habits for the year. There are a number of habits you can start to help you improve your writing and further your career. Here are some ideas:

Welcome to "Why I'm Not Writing." We all know that the only thing writers like doing better than writing is avoiding writing. So every Friday I list five things that have distracted me from my writing that week. 

Alice lives on the road with her mom. They travel from city to city, state to state, running from what seems to be an unavoidable spell of bad luck. A flooded apartment, mysteriously killed landlords, motel fires. When Alice's grandmother, the infamous author of Tales from the Hinterlands, dies, Alice's mother believes their luck has changed. They settle down in New York, her mother gets married and Alice begins to experience real life. Unfortunately, their bad luck catches up to them sooner than expected. Alice's mother is kidnapped and everything seems to circle around her grandmother, the Hinterlands and her estate, The Hazel Wood. 

In a dystopian world created by Lorraine Thomson, Sorrel lives in her small village. Her life is unrewarding, but easy. She has a blooming love with her childhood friend David, a lifelong nemesis named Mara, a struggling relationship with her mother, and two younger siblings to take care of. When mutants attack her village, though, her whole world is flipped on its head. Her mother is killed, her friends and brother taken, and her entire home burned to the ground. Now, she must navigate a strange and complicated world with only her knife and feisty personality to keep her safe. 

Aza is a sixteen year old in Indianapolis. She has a dedicated mother, a lively best friend and terrible crippling anxiety. She runs into a childhood friend, Davis, when his billionaire father goes missing. For a little while, everything seems to be perfect, until her anxiety worsens and Davis' father's mystery grows deeper. As the world around her gets darker, so does Aza's mind as her anxiety attempts to take over. 

Writing is an art that takes constant work, reevaluation and exercises. You can write every day but if you don't read and study, you miss out on a whole new level of your art. Craft books, essays by writers writing about writing, are a great place to start. Below are some of my favorites.

Welcome to "Why I'm Not Writing." We all know that the only thing writers like doing better than writing is avoiding writing. So every Friday I list five things that have distracted me from my writing that week. 

Demitra Hecataki is a spirited street magician from Greece who longs to escape her boring life. Victor Garnett is a popular English schoolboy with a cocky attitude and an unusual secret. When both suddenly come into the possession of mysterious crystals, it sets in motion a chain of events that are far beyond their control.

Are struggling to find a great gift for your writer friend or family member? Tired of buying journals that never get written in? Feel bad buying that random book the Barnes and Nobel cashier recommended but you know nothing about? Here are some great ideas of original gifts to get that special writer in your life? 

Welcome to "Why I'm Not Writing." We all know that the only thing writers like doing better than writing is avoiding writing. So every Friday I list five things that have distracted me from my writing that week. 

"Satellite is a contemporary YA novel told from the perspectives of two Chicago teenagers, Levon and Harmony, who’ve grown up together as their fathers are in love. Levon and Harmony’s relationship is complicated: they’re not quite stepsiblings as their dads never got married, but they’re a lot more than best friends, and a few different times over the years, their friendship has crossed a line into something potentially romantic."

Welcome to "Why I'm Not Writing." We all know that the only thing writers like doing better than writing is avoiding writing. So every Friday I list five things that have distracted me from my writing that week.