This morning I had the privilege of hearing author Shawn Smucker speak at a local Writer’s meeting. It wasn’t a “how to” workshop, or the Top Ten Tips on getting published. It was just a guy sharing his journey of writing, publishing, then writing some more. And ya know what? It’s exactly what I needed to hear. I may not have walked away with pages filled with notes on the do’s and don’ts of writing, but hearing his stories and thoughts were exactly the encouragement I needed

Almost there! Tomorrow will be one full week into 2014 NaNoWriMo. How is it going? Have you begun writing yet? What are you writing about? Are you going in circles trying to even get started? Yeah, I’ve been there, too – no shame, my friends! I’m happy to say that for this NaNoWriMo, I’m well into my project of doing a major edit on my novel, “Fallen Ashes”. Each night I lie in bed and think about the story, where it’s going and how I’m inspired to make it better. Counting th

Well, it’s officially November – Time for NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month! I’ve been back and forth on whether to actually dive in with writing a brand new novel or not, when I have others I want to edit and pursue getting published. But I finally decided it doesn’t need to be an either / or decision – I’m going to participate by finishing a novel I’ve already written! 🙂 A novel I wrote over a year ago – and had returned to editing a few months back – needs more edi

It is done. That’s it folks. Seriously. When I began this crazy adventure back in April, I didn’t think about what this day would actually feel like. The final novel in my novella series has been published. Wow. Just wow. I cried a few months ago, when I typed the very last words of this installment, and I cried a few weeks ago, when I edited them for the final time. The journey of Sadie and Delylah has come to an end. And people – I am so happy! I set out to share my love of

So, here I am. At the end of a journey that has taken the better part of a year. I still remember the convo I had with a fellow writer about the idea of releasing one of my works in novella form. I had been encouraging her to step out and just publish what she had written, and not to fear what others thought. Then I realized I needed to take my own advice. The “Now I Sleep” novella series was first released in April 2014. The last one will be available this month. And I’m a l

A month ago, we had our end of the summer hurrah by visiting a beach we’d never been to before – Bethany Beach, DE. We’d heard nothing but good things about it from countless people and needless to say, the anticipation for this weeklong venture was monumental. And then a curious thing happened. Between our family and friends, we got three tickets in our very first day. Ouch. That hurts. So badly. How on earth could we, alone, get two in one day? So, we did what any modern fa

Dear friends, The next and final installment of my novella series, “Now I Sleep” is slated to be published by the end of this month. I’m sorry to say, that’s just not going to happen. Phew! There! I said it! Honestly? I’ve been dreading telling those that have faithfully been following the series, that they were going to have to wait a little longer to find out the fate of Sadie, Gabe, Levi and company. I didn’t want to have to come out and admit defeat – I just haven’t had t

So, I’ve been doing this writing thing for a while now. (Technically ever since I can remember.) Even before I published my first novella back in April, I had done months (read: years) researching publishing options, reading books and blogs on honing my craft and basically trying to figure out how to hit this thing without looking too much like a newbie. (Not sure I accomplished that 😉 ) So pretty much since day one of pubbing the “Now I Sleep” series, I’ve been stressing ab

It is finally here! The next book in the ‘Now I Sleep’ series has been released on Amazon and through Smashwords! This means it will be available to download from Smashwords and Amazon now, and will be on other retailer websites – like iBooks, Barnes and Noble and Kobo – within the week! Yippee!! I know I’m technically a day late getting this out – it had been promised in August and we’re now 7 hours into Sept 😉 – but editing took a little more time while on vacation, than I

Recently I read a post by another blogger who posed the question to other writers, Are you currently in a writing mode? It was an interesting question, one I hadn’t considered recently, as I’ve been caught up with things of life. My writing has always gone in waves, some months much more productive than others. I’ve written entire 80,000 word novels in 3 weeks but have also taken 6 months to complete a much smaller manuscript. A few months ago, I was in a particular ‘writer’s

I am writing. Yay. (This is me writing. Happy, happy, happy.) I can’t tell you how much I love when I get to write. It’s been a while, since I’ve been spending most of my time editing each of the novellas in the ‘Now I Sleep’ series and my upcoming full length novel ‘Fallen Ashes’. My manuscripts go through this process every few months – I will do nothing but write for a while, which will then leave me with nothing to do but to edit. I really don’t like editing. Actually, I

It may have happened that my dearly beloved husband threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday (a mere ten years ago) whilst I was still pregnant with my middle daughter. It was a hit, my friends and family had fun, he embarrassed me with baby pictures, I think there may have been a Spa theme in there somewhere (?). All was well and I knew he’d most likely bake something up for my 40th. I was right. I wasn’t shocked when I figured out that he’d decided to (*try to*) surpr

So, earlier this week I went to Longwood Gardens with a dear friend of mine from college. As we walked through the plants and displays of flowers, a thought occurred to me about how similar all those growing things related to my journey in writing. You see, in all the years I’ve put my thoughts on paper, I’ve had my days (weeks, months, etc) that were happy, productive, creative – and those days that were empty, stagnant, lifeless. On the days that were positive, words would

Yep. I’m there. Right now. Can’t avoid it and can’t pretend it will all just go away. My three year old continues to fight the final step in potty training (i.e. choosing to walk up the eight measley stairs to the bathroom, rather than just let loose on every surface in our house) despite her many days of being completely dry. Sadly, I feel like I’ve spent more time mopping, cleaning and giving her showers than I have writing, of late. But, don’t fret! Book #3 in the “Now I S

here it is! my new website. hopefully i will answer any an all questions you may have regarding mrs. laura l. zimmerman, author 😉 if i don’t, feel free to contact me, letting me know what you’d like to see on this site! for now, i hope i satisfy you by providing pertinent info on the books i’ve written, upcoming projects and any other tidbits of info you might find interesting. i’ll aim to leave reviews of some recent books i’ve read, since, ya know, i happen to be reading a