Hello, I am directing your wonderful play, The Love of Three Oranges. We have just begun rehearsals and are enjoying the process greatly. I want to ask you about the relationship between Pantalone and the King. What character in our world would you liken Pantalone...
The Love of Three Oranges: Original Recipe and new Citrus Blast (which is what I’m mentally calling the one-act version)
Aw, just look at them. They look so cute together. I had the two of them sitting on my desk and I just had to snap a picture. It's crazy. The one-act version went from "Eh, I'll try it." to published in less than a year. It was December of last year that I told...
On the unlikely hero of the author blog: the personal post
I am a human being. Flawed. Flailing. Far from polished. For the longest time, I've been trying to limit the number of personal posts I put on this blog. Things like word count updates, posts where I ramble about my various works in progress, or those posts where I...
NaNoWriMo Week 4: “I’m sick of sittin’ ’round here trying to write this book.” -Bruce Springsteen
"Stop looking at the mountain of words you've yet to write. You climb even the steepest path one step at a time and that’s how you’re going to reach your goal: word by word." -Hillary DePiano That quote above is from a pep talk I did for Camp NaNoWriMo (whole thing is...
Did anyone notice my cameo in Writer’s Digest’s NaNoWriMo issue?
One thing we've just got to discuss before NaNoWriMo ends is the fact that Writer's Digest actually did a whole issue devoted to NaNoWriMo. It was even the cover story! The whole issue was packed with tips about writing a novel in a month and support for the event....
The Love of Three Oranges becomes a panto at the Piccolo Theatre
I'm sure I'll have more to say about this production as its run continues but I had to just jump in quickly now and let you know about the production of The Love of Three Oranges happening at the Piccolo Theatre in Evanston, IL running from November 14-December 20th....
One Step At a Time: a pep talk for NaNoWriMo rebels or anyone who’s fallen behind on their word count
I was one of the NaNoWriMo pep talkers for the April 2014 Session of Camp and I never got to share that full pep talk here. While my focus in April was on rebels and everyone doing something other than a novel, the basics of this talk absolutely apply to everyone...
My NaNoWriMo novel is DONE, to the surprise of everyone (including me)!
I was in a NaNoWriMo write-in last night when, suddenly, my novel ended. We were doing a word sprint and I couldn't think of what scene came next (because, while I didn't outline, I did formulate a list of scenes I thought might appear somewhere just to give me...
On being an NaNoWriMo ML, a writing role model, and my own writing journey
I don't know how to write this blog post without sounding like a jerk but here goes. I'm ahead on NaNoWriMo. Like, really ahead. And this is going to sound like bragging but it's really just a statement of fact: I'm ahead and I'm not even working all that hard. Every...
Sprint your way to NaNoWriMo success by writing in timed bursts
For years, I used to wait until I had a good stretch of time to write. I'd get myself comfy in my favorite chair, get my favorite drink ready, have my special writing music playing and work on my book for hours. Sounds good, right? Except for the fact that long...
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Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.



