File This Under: Are You Kidding Me

I heard about a little Twitter dust-up from Nathan Bransford's blog: One of the Fastest Paths to Rejection: Implying You Don't Read Much. There isn't much that I can add other than, Are you kidding me? I know the urge on Twitter is to rev up those couple of hundred characters and voice an opinion, …

That New Novel Smell

It's NaNoWriMo again. Man that came up fast, didn't we just do this last year? Actually I have never done a NaNoWriMo challenge. I guess I am this month. I had a unique idea come to me in my sleep and figured I'd give a crack at getting it all down. Along with that, I …

From the Blogs

I came across this piece on Anne R. Allen's blog. I know I have experienced a host of starts and stalls with my writing. My family and friends are always there with support, especially my wife. Still I can see how for some that might not be the case. Read on and see: How Well-Intentioned …

A Little Sh*t Can’t Hurt

As a librarian I can tell you many people will religiously read the same authors' books. We see this constantly as the request list for the latest Patterson or Steele novels head into the hundreds. As a reader myself I've read a familiar author's book that once I was done said, "that was a waste …

Avoiding Emotional Cliches

I came across this great piece of advice from Anne R Allen's great blog. How to Avoid Cliched Emotional Responses We've all fallen into the trap at least once. Cliches are easy and sometime our brains just don't have anything more to say about something. One of my favorite things is to mix up the …

Newsletters For Authors

9 Reasons to consider a newsletter if you're an author.

From the Blogs: Writing Yourself Into a Corner

I can see this as more of an issue with seat-of-their-pants writers. Still I can imagine sitting over an outline and realizing that it's not going where you need and or want. Scott Hale, over at The Creative Pen has some great advice for dealing with that. https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2019/04/19/why-writing-yourself-into-a-corner-can-improve-your-writing/

Should All Authors Blog

This was a very interesting post from Rachel Gardner. Should All Authors Blog A few years ago that answer would be, "of course, don't be silly." Now that is not necessarily so, and this piece puts it into perspective. If you are an author and thinking if you need to blog I would stop everything …

Writing Contests Yay or Nay

I'm no where near an expert on the subject of writing contests as I've only entered a handful or so. I have had success, garnering an honorable mention for one of my short stories. Still when I came across this post on Anne R. Allen's blog I thought I'd share it. Writing Contests Are Important: …

Some Great Do’s and Don’ts

I came across this article on Anne R Allen's great blog. You Finished Your First Novel! What To Do Now: 7 Do's and Don'ts I often get asked what the steps are after the novel is finished. There truly is no single one answer nor is there a path that works for everyone. This piece …