There is much to love about the freelance writing life, but one of the perhaps under-appreciated aspects is how much you get to learn about a wide diversity of subjects.

So I was supposed to do a booksigning and reading—two picturebooks from two different publishing houses (neither one from Roundtable)—and I thought I had all my ducks in a row. Since the books weren’t returnable, the bookstore that was the venue for the event said I would have to pre-purchase and bring the books in myself, a condition they had stipulated for my previous signing there, and therefore one that didn’t take me by surprise. I ordered the requisite number of each of the two books from their respective publishers and sent out notices to my “local list” (friends, associates,...

If you’re a fellow author or thinking of becoming an author, I hope you’re comfortable doing public speaking. The two kind of go hand in hand. That’s not as true for short-form writers as it is for book authors. But book authors often do public readings from their books to help get the word out about them, and nonfiction writers in particular (and fictioneers to a lesser extent) also appear on radio and TV.

I don’t remember now where I read it, but I just recently read somewhere a comment on the memoirs of two famous people of the past. It seems that one “invented” a boat that didn’t really exist, while the other left out any mention of numerous sexual affairs he had had.

Variety is the spice of life—and I definitely like my life “spicy.” I would hate to have a career in which I did the same thing over and over all day, every day, day in and day out. “But, Cynthia—you write and edit. All day, every day, the same two things,” I can hear you saying to me now. You’re wrong, however.

Today is February 14—Valentine’s Day. So I’m sending love to all you readers out there. Where would we writers be without our readers? We’d be “playing to an empty house,” to borrow the vernacular of the theatre. If nobody read our books (and articles and poems and essays and miscellany), we’d soon be out of business. We’d have to find “job jobs”—we’d have to be bank tellers or teachers or store clerks or security guards or flight attendants or sales reps…which, in fact, some writers are already, working their day jobs and then writing at night with whatever energy they...

A connection that may or may not be real occurred to me recently, and I thought I’d run it by you. How much truth do you think there is in this statement: Many people who are dissatisfied with their lives prefer reading fiction over nonfiction because through fiction they can escape to alternate lives. Many people who are happy with their lives prefer reading nonfiction over fiction because they have no need or desire to escape their own realities.

“It must be wonderful to do nothing but write all day. No boss, no job, work in your pajamas, just sit at the keyboard and write.” Thus sayeth many people. But they’re wrong. Yes, the life of a writer IS wonderful. But it’s not what you imagine. Let’s take it from the top. First: Many writers still have dayjobs. They work their 9-to-5s, come home, have dinner (and often have to cook that dinner themselves), and then, at the end of an exhausting day, have to summon the energy to sit, focus, and spend an hour or two or three...

So you think you’re too young to write your memoirs? Think again! Just as your life is a work in progress, your memoirs can be a work in progress too. If you’re 30 or 50 or even 70, and you’re not facing a dreaded illness, you probably have no reason to disbelieve that your life will stretch out quite a way ahead of you yet. But you can at least start writing the story of your life now—and add to it as you go along.

Much of the nation suffered through a cold spell last week, with blizzard conditions in the Northeast, snow in northern Florida, where such an occurrence is rare, and misery widespread. It was good weather for staying home and curling up with a good book. With many places of business closed due to life-hazardous conditions and impassable roads, if you aren’t a police officer or firefighter, doctor or nurse, or other crucial worker, you probably stayed home from work. As you hunkered down in the relative warmth of a weather-chilled house, what use did you make of your free time? I...