I spent the day at the Budapest Book Fair listening to Jonathan Franzen talk about birds and writing, and making jokes that nobody laughed at because they were waiting for the translation to come through their headphones. I jotted down a few pearls of wisdom that should be useful to writers everywhere. #1. Writing is an The 3 secrets to book...
I spent months working on my first novel. When I was halfway finished, I sent email queries to some literary agents, and got a few positive emails back and even a phone call based on my pitch. But the project festered, I couldn’t wrap it up, I didn’t know how to develop it. I The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted...
Gearing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month?) Great! It’s a fun and challenging opportunity to be part of a huge community of writers learning how to complete 50,000 words in one month. If you’re stuck, or can’t seem to finish anything, or always put off writing your book, it’s a great experience. However...
I’m a couple days late posting this – just a reminder, it’s not a contest with prizes, but an event where participation helps improve your skills and may also boost your traffic and platform by giving you some visibility. And if I get enough quality short stories I’ll publish as a little anthology. Romance is The 3...
A while ago I shared one of these on Twitter and recommending printing it out and putting it near the desk; somebody asked “do you have a high-res version we can print?” I’m not sure who made the original, so I had it remade… You can share these smaller ones online or click the links The 3 secrets to book marketing...
At the house we’re renting in Coeur d’Alene Idaho is a large collection of books, upon which I found a family of small volumes, well worn with by age and careful scrutiny, called The Best of the World’s Classics. One passage within is Alexander Pope’s comments on epic poetry, which I found may be useful in The 3...
A few years ago I read the YA series “Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by Heather Brewer. While no JK Rowling, the books nevertheless have many eerie parallels to the magical world of Hogwarts – except that the secret society of magical people are vampires, not witches. I’m not accusing Brewer of plagiarism; she’s...
