by AnnSheybani | Jul 29, 2026 | Writing
Somewhere around chapter four of a manuscript I read last month, I hit a personal story and slid right off it. I’m telling you, it was pure Teflon! Nothing was wrong with the story, per se. The sentences were clean, grammatically correct, which, trust me, is a...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 26, 2026 | Writing
The other day I got on a call with a coach I’ve known for years. Smart woman. Built a real business, wrote a real book once, the hard way, the way that takes eighteen months and costs you a little piece of your soul. This time she’d written a new one in a...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 18, 2026 | Writing
Last weekend I was at a conference for book promotion and marketing. Which means I spent two days in a room full of book people — authors, publishers, marketers, the kind of crowd that shows up to the airport with three paperbacks in their carry-on just in case. And...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 13, 2026 | Reading
Long ago, the private high school my daughter attended had a wonderful yearly tradition. At the beginning of summer, they’d mail a reading list–a compilation of each teacher’s favorite books–to the house. Now, I’m sure the design was to...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 1, 2026 | Writing
I’m going to tell you about the worst nap I never took. Stick with me — this is about your manuscript, I promise. A few years back Walt and I were on Denali, in Alaska, five days into the climb. Eighty-pound pack on my back. Dragging a sled behind me with...
