Women writers among you have probably already heard about She Writes new self-publishing press. What makes it different–and this is an idea I worked on in a project dubbed Chicago Public Press that we had trouble getting funded–is the vetting of manuscripts. It’s self-publishing, but not for every manuscript, so if you read a She...Read More
June 22, 2012 By Mary Hutchings Reed We started to begin last month, and didn’t get past beginning to commence to begin. Are you ready now? In the past couple of months, you’ve limbered up with morning pages, started your writer’s journal and probably read a little too much about how to write your...Read More
My friend Leilani Garrett’s first novel, After the Burn, is being shopped in NYC this week, and we are excited for her and jealous as hell! I have a wonderful agent who believes in my work and has sent it out, but it’s a tough market out there for mainstream literary fiction by first time...Read More
For Mike, and everyone considering self-publishing: My first novel, Courting Kathleen Hannigan, was a disappointment to literary agents. I was a lawyer. I was female. I was from Chicago. Unread, they’d anointed me the next Scottie Turow or at least Scottolini. But I let them down. I’d written a novel about the life of a...Read More
Mary helped her niece pick out the flowers for her May 11 wedding, and in the process got to try on the florist’s extensive collection of crowns. They suited her immensely!Read More
I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week getting entries ready for some contests with May 1 deadlines: stories, novellas, novels in progress, novels. The entry fees are usualy $15, but some go as high as $40. It’s a terrible business. You don’t hear for months, and then often the announcement is “we had 768...Read More
I’m so grateful to have the support of writer, editor, friend, blogger and, as it used to say on her business card–(it may still)–bon vivant and ranconteur, Author! Author!, Anne Mini. If you’ve ever wondered whether you should go to a writers’ conference, Anne Mini would be #1 on my Top Ten List. We met...Read More
I’m going to start blogging! The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin asked me to contribute to their Nonbillable Hours page once a month (4th Fridays), which will give me a chance to write about something I am very interested in, and have come to know a lot about: making the transition from being a legal writer...Read More
My Fairways composer, Curt Powell and his wife, Scottie Kersta-Wilson scored the tickets for Obama’s Grant Park celebration, and it was a night to remember. Inspirational! If you haven’t read Liza Mundy’s biography of Michelle, “Michelle,” do it now! And pay special attention to the part where she refers to Courting Kathleen Hannigan!Read More
Thank you to so many people who wrote to me about the passing of my wonderful mother, Mary Jo Hutchings, on July 31, 2008. The Chicago Tribune had a lovely story about her in the August 5, 2008 issue. I am attaching a copy of that and a picture of her, and below is the...Read More
