Susan Henderson started LitPark in 2006 with the goal of building a supportive community for writers. She asked monthly questions intended to bond and inspire writers with storytelling. She interviewed writers from the unknown to the debut to Neil Gaiman and Lemony Snicket. But what she didn’t realize she was doing was chronicling the ups and downs of writing and submitting her novel, THE RUBY CUP, which will be published by Harper Collins in September 2010. Follow the peaks and valleys of that process—the writer’s block, the false hope, the face-on-the-floor depression, and the hard work of creating a novel. She hopes this is helpful, especially to those of you in the face-on-the-floor stage. You may be closer than you think!

So here is The Evolution of the Book and a story about organizing a reading for shy writers.

Here’s the good news. My first novel was reviewed by the New York Times. Here’s the bad news. It was a horrible review. I do not hyperbolize. It was really bad. So that you understand how terrible it is, I’ve included it entirely as the next full paragraph. Please feel free to gasp, snicker, or [...]