Mary Frances Hill’s Blog

I was in a book marketing group for self-published writers that started to dwindle in numbers. When the leader announced her decision to eliminate the group, we received an email from one of the participants. It said that he truly enjoyed the group and how sad he was that it was...

This week I pulled out my Kindle and read three self-published novels. As I’ve mentioned before, I love supporting other self-published authors. Plus, I always gain something from the reading experience… inspiration or a technique I want to apply to...

Last week, a friend, who’s an excellent writer, submitted a short story that didn’t land with our critique group. But when the author spoke about her submission, we all perked up. Her premise was unique and compelling, the protagonist interesting...

Have you ever wondered why some writers get stuck in the writing and revising loop and they never level-up and put their work out into the world? I was on a Zoom call yesterday, and a writer friend and I realized simultaneously that our critique group members weren’t publishing....

Yesterday I listened to a podcast about the eleven kinds of high achievers. If you’re interested in this topic, you can find the episode on Trish Blackwell’s, The Confidence Podcast. She even provides a quiz. After taking said quiz, I discovered...

Being that today is Mother’s Day, writing about my mother seems fitting. I’ve written about her before, and if you’ve read some of those posts, you already know that she was my everything. You also know that she wasn’t a writer herself, but she was a huge reader. Her favorite genre was...

Yesterday I saw the play Something Rotten! If you ever get the opportunity to see Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick’s show, you should.  It’s super entertaining. Not only is it funny, but it’s also filled with tap dancing and a ton of Broadway and literary references. The story focuses on...

Having put my move behind me, I’ve prioritized my writing again. This means I’ve been reevaluating my writing practices, including my critique groups. I am currently a member of two critique groups. Both meet on Zoom. Prior to COVID, that wasn’t the case. One group met weekly at a local...

Writing is one of the first things I do every morning. I always work on my novel right after I shower, walk my dog, and grab coffee daily. I prioritized it. At least, I used to. But about four months ago, my husband and I decided to move from our two-story house to a single-level home,...

I naturally write dark stories about people, usually women, who do unforgivable things. Because of this, my novels can make readers uncomfortable, as they offer no happy resolution to the protagonist’s dilemma.  I’ve always owned the darkness of my books. If someone complained, I’d say,...