For those authors learning to write a specific genre, or how the publishing world works, there are many conferences online if you know how to look. Many of them are free; many aren’t. Most require registration.
 
This month I’ll be “appearing” (the digital me, anyway) at Coyote Con.  http://coyotecon.com/  
 
Drollerie Press  http://drolleriepress.com/ is organizing the conference.  It’s a small, new, publisher of ebooks.
 
It’s primarily geared toward writers of speculative fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal fiction. But several sessions can be useful for non-spec-fic writers.  These include discussions on such topics as passive verbs, historical fiction, creating series characters, e-publishing, and writing politically, how to write queries, writing sex scenes, writing about mental illness and poetry.
 
The schedule can be found here. http://coyotecon.com/the-schedule/
 
My sessions are:
 
8 Saturday 7 pm EST  — Non-Western Perspectives. With Rudy Ch. Garcia and Joyce Chng
 
15 Saturday 3 pm EST – Writing While Disabled. Joining me will be Nalo Hopkinson, Joselle Vanderhooft and JA Howe
 
15 Saturday 7 pm EST – The Speculative Christian. Those in the sessions with me are: Geralyn Beauchamp, Sue McGeown, Deena Fisher
28 Friday 7 pm EST — Race 101 for Writers- Those with me in this section are Monica Jackson and Victor Infante
 
All sessions are free, but Special Sessions require a ticket. With the exception of Writing While Disabled, all my sessions are special sessions. Please click on the “Special Sessions” link to obtain your ticket. All other sessions are on a first-come, first-served basis.
An in-depth description of all the sessions can be found at http://coyotecon.com/topics/

Carole McDonnell

While working on my YA, I almost added a personality trait to a secondary character which would’ve taken the novel down a different route and – in the composition of the novel– added a false note.
 
False notes happen when a certain event, character trait, or scene in a novel simply jangles with the rest of [...]

Many beginning writers are often under the misguided notion that editors and agents will give them “the benefit of the doubt.” They are assuming that an editor who does not know their name will so like the idea of their novel that the editor will overlook obvious flaws in their manuscript until the author shows [...]

Many Christian writers confuse the theme of a story with the moral of a story. They say, “I’m going to show how God takes care of the poor.” Or, “I’ll write a story that shows that even the most sinful prostitute-drug dealer-egotist-alcoholic-wife abuser- can be turned into a good person.” This intention is, of course, [...]

Recently a discussion came up among my fellow writers and I about the film adaptation of My Sister’s Keeper. To make a long story short, the ending in the film adaptation was totally different from the ending in the book.  It wasn’t just a changed ending, however. By changing the ending, the filmmakers had also [...]

About four months ago, I decided to write a YA novel for Delacorte’s annual First Young Adult Novel award. I don’t know why I decided to. But I suppose the BG did. The BG is short for the Black Gang, a term for the subconscious. Some call it the muse. The Black Gang is non-linear [...]

Writers don’t become writers because they want to become rich. They write because some inner impulse calls them to write. They like stories, they like inventing characters. They have something to say about something in the world. If the money comes, that’s good. If not, at least they know they’ve done their best and tried. [...]

I’m working on a little novel. It’s going to be only 220 pages. It HAS to be. This means there will be none of the typical Carole McDonnell sub-plots. It’ll have to be streamlined and fast, clear-sighted and focused.
Not that novels with large plots are unfocused, but for this little story with big themes, I’ll [...]

One of the worst things that can happen to any creative person is the strange scary feeling that “something is missing” in one’s art. I’m not a musician but I suspect many a musician has leaped for joy when she realized she needed to add this little bit of harmony or a clarinet or a [...]

While working on my latest work-in-progress, I suddenly realized that I was like Dante. I had found myself lost in the woods. Sure, the plot elements were all there. Events swirled all around my characters. Scary stuff happened. But I was feeling so overwhelmed by the trees and the elements of plot– characterization, goals, description, [...]