Emilie’s Krewe of Review
If you didn’t open my October newsletter, or you haven’t yet subscribed, let me tell you about Emilie’s Krewe of Review. At the Novelist’s Inc. conference last month I learned so many exciting ideas. One came from a workshop about review teams. “Street” teams have been around for years. A street team is a group of…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Day of the Dead
My husband was in Guatemala several years ago when the Day of the Dead was being celebrated, and he says it was one of the most impressive sights he had ever seen. This video is very similar to what he saw, people picnicking and flying kites in cemeteries and displaying colorful giant kites. I wrote about this tradition…
Read MoreQuestion and Answer: Facebook Readers to the Rescue
I have to smile. I just looked up the blogs listed here under I Really Want to Know. And yes, after difficult deadlines, apparently question and answer seems positively enlightened. I came up with the same solution in 2013, proving once again that we are, if nothing else, creatures of habit.My Facebook Readers came to the rescue this time,…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Becoming Kinder
Are you a kind person? Would you like to be kinder? Becoming kinder is something all of us — or almost all of us — strive for. Why? Because we want to be good people mostly. But to be honest there’s a selfish reason as well: we know that the kinder we are the happier…
Read MoreThe Writing Process 2015: Saying Goodbye to Characters
Are you a fan of classic movies? Remember all the times a novelist–usually madly typing on a vintage typewriter–finished his book with a flourish, and as the camera moved over his shoulder, typed “The End.” He (it’s usually a he) ripped the paper out of his machine, stuffed it, along with a huge stack of similar pages, into a manila envelope…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Hope in spite of…
https://youtu.be/-MH2HNA4de4 This short video moved me and I think it will move you, too. I find it perplexing that people who have so much going for them are often starved for hope –celebrities come to mind who seem to have everything and yet become addicted or suicidal. Others have so little and yet live with and…
Read MoreThe Blog That Isn’t Today
Just a quick heads-up. I’m nearly finished editing my latest book, When We Were Sisters. I hoped to blog today, but the book keeps calling. So tune in next week and I’ll be back. I’m planning to tell you all about this final stage of writing a novel. If I survive it. For those of…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Love is better
These words seem so obvious in a way, and yet so difficult to achieve. Certainly love is better, hope is better, and optimism is better. But the hard part is keeping those values central in our lives, like the sun being framed by the heart of hands in the photo. Every day, a multitude of…
Read MoreWriters Conferences: NINC 2015
I’m home from the Novelists INC conference in St. Petersburg, Florida at the Tradewinds Resort after a jam-packed four days of workshops, conversations and panels. Wow. My head is still spinning. So much energy, so much I still don’t know. Everything in publishing is changing at the speed of light, and it’s difficult, if not impossible,…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: The Impostor Syndrome
Do you suffer from The Impostor Syndrome? You would be surprised how many people do — including me. No matter how successful you may be, you may feel like an impostor and fraud. I feel it sometimes when I’m with colleagues, which I am now. Attending the annual NINC conference are authors who have…
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