Nikki Loftin

Okay, today is the big day. I have a Writer Friend who has agreed we should hold one another accountable for reaching a certain number of words on our WIPs each week… and today’s the day we show what we’ve got. Only, I haven’t *quite* reached my magic number, so it’s a head-down, fingers aching, [...]

Ah, bliss! The Book Fairy came today. But her teeth look pretty sharp.
Let me explain. I received three pacakages in the mail from a silent auction I went bidaholic on a few weeks back. Many, many books from that moneysuck, I mean, worthy charitable donation opportunity,  are now or soon will be in my possession. [...]

I should probably be wary of taking song lyrics as blog posts — someone might think I had a delusion that this blog were fabulous like Betsy Lerner’s — but what the heck. I wanted to talk about writing books today anyway. Not the act of writing books, no. I mean books about writing, written [...]

My life is full of chickens. I have the actual living, clucking kind here on my pretend farm in the Hill Country, the hens who lay their darling little brown eggs, rendering every day of my life an Easter egg hunt in miniature — oh blissful country life! (Dang. Where is that sarcasm font?)  Also, [...]

April is, as you are all no doubt aware, National Poetry Month. Many of my Writer Friends and Writer Acquaintances have very bold plans for the month, like writing a poem every day. Seriously. There’s tons of them doing it.
It makes me tired to think about this.
Because I love you (I do, I assure you, [...]

Happy April Fool’s Day!
I love this holiday. I don’t get QUITE as into it as some of my friends (like the one who painted her sons’ fingernails in the night, and – oh, no! – couldn’t find the remover before school this morning), but I do my share.
This morning, I pranked my Zumba class by [...]

When I was in high school, my Senior English teacher asked one of those questions that seemed provocative at the time, but was really just her pointing out how we were all sleepwalking through our lives since we hadn’t really ever thought about anything substantial. The question was something along the lines of: What is [...]

Oh, Writer Friends, I wasn’t being flippant in my last post. I do adore you. And so, I will share the following with you all: One of my agent-sisters (Suzette Saxton) is having a contest on her blog, with some very nice prizes. The grand prize is a 40-page partial submission WITH critique with Mon [...]

I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve discovered something that’s more terrifying, humiliating, and painful than trying on a pile of swimsuits in April, after a long winter of chocolates and eggnog lattes.
Revising.
I’ve also discovered something that’s more thrilling, energizing, and plain-old-fashioned fun than a trip to Nordstrom’s with a girlfriend to buy shoes.
Yup, [...]

Okay, so I’m not really one of those people who gives stuff up for Lent. I think one year I tried to give up chocolate and lasted for about three days. Since I’m not certain it’s the thought that counts when it comes to Lenten Promises, and I never want to tick off the Big [...]