@CarlaWoody1 Shares Her Seven Tips to Make Journaling Your Writing Ally #WriteTip #AmWriting

Seven Tips to Make Journaling Your Writing Ally

Once you consider a writing project, you embark on a journey of sorts. This is particularly true if the idea won’t leave you alone, and you’re compelled to pursue it. You become involved in a process, not unlike the Hero’s Journey that mythologist Joseph Campbell documented in his many books.
For most of us, it takes courage to face the blank page to even get started. Then there’s writer’s block which can raise its ugly head…and…ugh…the rewrite and editing. In those times, don’t you wonder why you ever considered writing to begin with?

What I’ve found over the years is that journaling can be your ally and get you through—if you really use it that way. Here are tips on seven areas that are rich to dig into. By focusing on them, you’ll not only gain increased understanding of yourself but added material for your writing—and inspiration.

1. Thoughts and feelings. A lot of authors would say that writing is a form of therapy. Depending on your subject matter, it can reignite hopes, bring up unresolved personal areas, create nostalgia or instill dreams. You may find yourself having old or new thoughts and feelings in the process. By journaling about what comes up, you can create: greater mental clarity, direction and stress release.

2. Resistance. If you find yourself dragging your feet on getting started, staying with it or even a particular character’s voice, look deeper. Is it something to do with an old personal pattern? Is your heart in the subject matter? Find out if it’s an authentic area of discomfort or how you get in your own way. Undoubtedly it’s emerged for a reason: resolution.

3. Creativity. New ideas and possibilities will crowd your mind as you leave an opening for them to emerge. Document and explore them. As you continue the process you can discover which ones are a right fit.

4. Dreams. By undertaking the writing journey, you’ve given a signal to your mind. You may dream vividly—and remember your dreams even if that’s normally not the case. You may find yourself working through personal things or storylines during sleeping hours. It’s particularly important to record your dreams at such times. Don’t think you’ll remember them. You won’t. They’re elusive. I’d encourage you to take the content of your dreams not so much literally as metaphorically. Look for symbolism. What could something represent? Then explore those elements.

5. Synchronicities. For me, when I’m immersed in a creative venture, it’s like living in some altered plane. Many folks report it that way. You may begin to notice great and small coincidences, more frequently, in your life. These aren’t coincidences at all, but a phenomenon called
synchronicity. Carl Jung first introduced the occurrences as simultaneous, unrelated happenings that aren’t so much grouped by cause but by the meaning they produce. Some may offer real guidance. Be alert! Journaling about them will help you notice.

6. Overall differences. Real transformation takes place at an unconscious level. When change occurs at that level, it lasts. There’s nothing you have to remind yourself to do or say, it just becomes part of who you are. It’s often a challenge to recognize the change going on inside because it seems so natural and can be subtle. In your journal, note what you find different in your life. Use the differences as markers of your progress, telling you where you’ve been and where you may yet want to go.

7. Acknowledgement. It is so important to acknowledge yourself at each step of the way. When any significant part of your project is complete…celebrate! How does it make you feel? What are your thoughts about having taken this journey? Don’t scrimp on this important part. It will provide inspiration for the next trip.

Of course, you can use what I’ve written here as guidelines for any aspect of your life, not just writing. I’ve adapted the content of this post from my mentoring program Navigating Your Lifepath, which guides folks on how to live through their deeply held values—and thrive. 

What is your experience with journaling? I’d love to see your comments below. 

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Genre – Nonfiction, Spirituality

Rating – PG

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Sebastiana Randone – Virtue Of The Adjective @sebasti29567440

Virtue Of The Adjective
In the same way that a palette replete of every colour imaginable, equips the artist with endless possibilities from which to capture flights of fancy, the adjective, in all its boundlessness, provides the writer with a lexical feast from which to express the vast spectrum of emotion.
Description, as clay for the sculptor, delineates and shapes characters and places. At times fantastical and wondrous, or harrowingly real and visceral. Were it not for the adjective, the reader could not connect emotionally with newfound friends, foes or lovers. Or walk down shadowy alley ways, scale craggy and dramatic moors, or drift into a hidden island where sought treasures lie hidden amongst predacious fauna.
Many adjectives came out to play in my book, The House.  This detailed approach was predicated by the need to evoke settings reminiscent of the 19^th century.  Later in the story, it is discovered that one of the characters penned this novel. Therefore in order to adhere to the integrity of the story, I adopted a pictorial writing style.
It was, at times, a challenging feat, that I cannot attest to having mastered. The process was vicissitudinous, as I ascended the heights of euphoria only to fall crashing down into a puddle of self doubt. I do however love the literary abandonment that poetic language affords one.
The difficulty in creating, often lie in the limitless number of choices. Where at times, monotones craft a discernible poignancy, whilst in other instances a strong commanding outline can be exhilarating when accompanied by a mosaic of colour and detail.
Despite past readers accustomed to language laden in adjectives, contemporary audiences have adopted and embraced a more economical approach to the art of expression.  Although not a long read, The House moves at a dizzying pace, and may require an occasional visit to the dictionary.  I imagine it is suited to those who have the time and freedom to go wandering into the past, on the way encountering a large cast of distinctive characters whose tribulations and attitudes are familiar to us all.
It is not a book that will appeal to those engaging in the technique of speed reading – that questionable practice which enables one to follow a narrative whilst washing over extraneous details.
Time poor as many are today, it is not surprising that very little space in one’s mental clutter exists for reflection, let alone to imbibe a long illuminative line of prose.
As with the ubiquitous car chase sequence prevalent in the modern day film, many mainstream readers now demand that the narrative moves quickly and cuts to the chase (no pun intended). Simply put descriptions that serve to convey the dramatic impetus and so propel the narrative.
Whilst The House, does indeed move at a brisk pace, it will however suit readers, who have the time to meander along a brook that ripples in rhythm with the lover’s caress; or to witness a tempest lay siege upon a bedevilled town, ringing in the vituperative howl of nature’s malcontent.
Whilst verbs present energy and movement, adjectives tend to stand still by portraying a portrait or landscape imagined by the writer. It is an intimate exchange that can often render the author vulnerable and exposed, particularly when the work is being analysed objectively.

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Genre - Historical, Fantasy, Romance

Rating - PG-16

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Ian Truman – Make It as Real as Possible: How to Write Good Dialogue In Fiction @iantruman

Make It as Real as Possible: How to Write Good Dialogue In Fiction.

Benoit Lelièvre from Dead End Follies once said of my work that, “Truman is at his best when people talk.”

I do believe that speech is one of my strong points. I probably can’t spell that well and grammar is a never-ending nightmare to me, but dialogue makes everything worthwhile as far as I am concerned.

I love to listen to how people speak. I love to emulate how “the rest of us” speaks. We really suck at languages. Most of us have shitty grammar to start with. We are flawed. Nearly none of us have a degree in literature or creative writing. I mean, look at me. I graduated even with my slang/working class English because what’s really important is not whether the way you speak/write is correct accordingly to Oxford and the school of Chicago. What’s important is if it represents who you are/where you are from at a certain point in time.

I love slang, because most people love slang. I’m not a fan of “proper” English or civilized dialogue. The stories I write are the stories of people right here, down to earth, who live the daily grind of modern life for better or worst. Sure, I put my characters through situations that may occur only once or twice in their lifetime, but I am trying to tell a story here, right?

As far as dialogue is concerned, I believe that if you want to make it good, you have to make it as realistic as possible and “stay out of the way” as an author. Let them speak and do include all the “wrong words” and the “small words” people use in their daily conversations. The yeah, sure, nah, right! why?, come on, are you serious, meh, so?” are important for a reason. This is especially true if the dialogue is mostly a monologue.

When you speak to someone in your everyday life, those small words are used to pace the discussion. You might not even realize it. They keep the one who speaks the less involved in the conversation on a psychological level. It also tells the one who speaks the most that the other person is interested in what they are saying. Most of all, it feels natural: we all do it. So your characters should do it as well.

Another way to make it more realistic is to “pace” your dialogue. Of course, you need to do it with subtlety (and I still feel I’m not subtle enough). It’s something you should be aware of. Make your characters hesitate when it’s appropriate. Stop a sentence in the middle of it, the same way we hesitate sometime when we speak. Do it well, but do it. It adds to the natural flow of conversations. You can also pace your sentences with a little bit of action, or a well-placed “he said/she said” (as little as possible) when you need the speech to slow down a little.

When you want that seen to “speed up” you just put people in context and let the reader fill the rest of the surroundings in his/her mind: just let the characters talk. When you talk to someone in real life, if the discussion is any interesting, then you zone out of your environment and your brain focuses solely on the discussion, a novel works just the same way.

Try a few things out if you want to exercise. Take the metro (I’m sorry, subway) or go to the farmer’s market and try to hear people around you, not necessarily one discussion specifically, but see how they fill the air and add to the place you’re in. If you can duplicate that sentiment on the page through your dialogue, you’re ahead of the rest of us.

Take care,

Ian

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Genre - Literary, Coming of Age

Rating – PG13

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Website http://www.iantruman.com

Brietta Tatro - 10 THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING @BriettaTatro

10 THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING

After five years of writing and editing and more writing and polishing, I decided to take the self-publishing route. While I cannot say whether or not I chose wisely, I can share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

1.) TO MARKET, TO MARKET: Here’s a little twist on the old tree falling in the forest question: if a book appears for sale online and no one knows about it, does it really exist? In what may have been the cruelest cut of all for an introvert like me, I realized that it wasn’t enough just to write a book, I had to market it as well. Thus began a steep learning curve… part of which is this blog post!

2.) LANGUAGE LESSONS: If you’re not tech-savvy, then you better know someone who is. I know enough to get around online, but when people start tossing out terms like epub and mobi files and metadata and widgets, I panic. It really is all Greek to me. Thankfully, I have a couple of tech-savvy people in my life who have held my hand the whole way.

3.) ISBN: I’ll be honest. This one is still a muddy issue for me. I thought, “One book, one ISBN, right?” Wrong. Evidently, a different ISBN is needed for each platform on which you publish. So one for Amazon, one for Barnes and Noble, one for Kobo and so on (but don’t quote me on this, because I am not an expert). To make matters more confusing, some of these entities have their own internal identifying numbers. See? Clear as mud.

4.) JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: I’ve always known that people really do judge books by their covers, but for some reason I forgot this when it came to my own. I reasoned that a graphic designer would be too expensive and I could get by without one. When I finally decided to revamp the cover, I did some research and found a graphic designer whose previous work fit my own aesthetic (a big shout out to Streetlight Graphics here!). They created a gorgeous cover that not only pops off the screen, it also tells a story. And it wasn’t that expensive.

5.) “LIKE” ME!… OR ELSE: At the same time I commissioned a new cover, I put in a request for a Facebook banner. For me, creating a FB page was way more daunting than publishing my book online. The act of hanging out my shingle and declaring myself an author felt audacious. Even more daunting was sending out invitations to “like” my page. This scenario was ripe for all sorts of insecurities to rear their ugly heads, but it turned out alright in the end. I now have a lot of fun with my FB page; not only do I use it as a platform to promote my book, I also funnel my literary musings, memes, quotes and blog posts through there. So… “like” me? https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBriettaTatro

6.) TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG: I’m not a very disciplined writer and I begged off of blogging for years because I reasoned that if the stars do align and I not only have the time, but the creative energy to write, I should spend that working on my book, not a blog. A compromise was needed. After I placed my book on Goodreads, I noticed they had an option for an author blog. Et voilà, my blog Fierce Bee and Other Falsehoods was born. My posts are used occasionally for promotional purposes, but usually they’re random essays springing from the impulse of the moment. Not only is Fierce Bee an outlet to express myself outside of Echo’s world, it’s also a way to connect with my readers on another level.

7.) HUMBLE TWITTER PIE: Speaking of blogs, I recently recounted my Twitter tale on my blog. For years, I have resisted joining Twitter. As a self-described wallflower, I’m intimidated by Twitter; it’s like Facebook on steroids, a colossal spider‘s web of self-promotion. Then I ran into another author who set me straight. After I loftily declared to her that I would never open up a Twitter account, she solemnly replied that it had been the most helpful tool for marketing her book. Before I could respond, her attention was diverted and I was left standing there… foot in mouth. How did I redeem myself? I went home and set up a Twitter account. Oh how the mighty have fallen. J

8.) MAD WOMAN: In another example of the mighty falling, I was also very much against the notion of advertising. I dipped my toe into the ad waters this month, however, and am coming around to the idea. My budget is small, but I now see how a small ad campaign here and there can be quite helpful.

9.) POSTCARDS FROM THE UNDERWORLD: I contacted that wonderful graphic designer again and asked if they could design a promotional postcard for me. They did and I sent it off to the printer and my order just arrived last week. My plan is to hit up friends with businesses to put some postcards out for their customers to see. I’m also going to visit local middle and high schools and offer to speak about my writing experience to English classes and I will have the postcards to hand out.

10.) IT’S ALREADY AWESOME SAUCE: I encountered this inspired phrase at a recent book club meeting and instantly imagined an old fashioned glass medicine bottle full of magical BBQ sauce. When I start to doubt myself or the path I’ve chosen, I can just conjure up an image of this bottle as a reminder that whatever happens or doesn’t happen with my book, it’s already awesome sauce. The joy is in the journey, not the destination.

On an autumn afternoon, seventeen year-old Echo Tenbrook slips into a woodland park near her Seattle home and unwittingly awakens her ability to perceive the spirit world, setting into motion a chain of events that will lead her across the globe and into a lost world.

When Echo and her younger sister Persephone are lured into a forbidden cave in the shadow of their ancestral Tuscan villa, they find themselves at the mercy of Oca, a witch who has need of Echo’s sixth sense. To save her sister’s life, Echo undertakes a perilous quest to find a magical tree, long since hidden by a dead king. With Oca’s mysterious servant Samuel as her guide and protector, Echo travels across a subterranean sea to an ancient city and beyond, encountering dangerous obstacles and mythological creatures along the way.

The farther she travels into the unknown, the deeper Echo falls under the twin spells of the Underworld and her guide, Samuel. But not all is as it seems. Before Echo completes her quest, she will learn the full extent of Oca’s treachery. With the lives of many hanging in the balance and her own heart on the line, Echo will have to find the courage to confront the darkness that envelops her, inside and out.

Inspired by fairy tales and mythology, Echo in the Underworld is an enchanting adventure story that celebrates the discovery of magic, of things lost and found and of one’s quiet inner strength when all hope seems gone.

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Genre - Young Adult Fantasy

Rating – PG

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The Power of Mentors – Regan Black @ReganBlack

The Power of Mentors

Thanks for hosting me here today! It’s a pleasure to be here and connect with your readers by way of Orangeberry Book Tours. As a paranormal romance and romantic suspense author, much of my day is spent in relative solitude – when two retired greyhounds and two cats with inflated egos are hanging out in the office it’s hard to be lonely.

And yet…

While my pets have plenty of personality and aren’t afraid to interrupt me or even ‘talk back’ during my writing time, they aren’t as helpful at identifying a story problem or resolving a marketing question as a human.

Mentors are the people we look up to and admire for their various skills or accomplishments. They are the people we’d like to resemble when we grow up. Debra Webb, one of the top names in romantic suspense, has been that person for me for the majority of my career.

Since our first meeting at a writer’s conference, I’ve leaned on the advice Debra offered in those sessions and during more casual chats afterward. She gave me an outstanding cover quote for my first novel (Justice Incarnate) and she did the same recently for Bulletproof, calling the book “Dark, gritty, sexy suspense with one hell of a hot hero.”

Oh, yeah, I did backflips when I saw that!

I’ve been fortunate to enjoy a close friendship with my mentor through the years and without Debra, I can say Bulletproof  and the Unknown Identities series would still be a strong idea languishing in the ‘to be developed’ file. You see, I was spinning my wheels with several options and no confidence to choose a direction. It took my mentor’s intervention to push me out of my own way.

About a year ago, when Debra’s acclaimed Faces of Evil series was soaring to amazing heights, she called to check on me. Suffice it to say my year wasn’t going nearly as well as hers. In fact, I was sure my career was going down in flames. I had the obituary written (it was some of my best work), but Deb refused to believe it.

More importantly, she refused to let me believe it.

Our friendly phone call quickly shifted into a serious business meeting. I took pages of notes while she dissected my career, listened to my goals and ideas, assessed my strengths and productivity, and laid out a plan to move me forward.

Bulletproof is the next step in that plan:

A soldier is nothing without his honor.

To avoid a dishonorable end to his decorated military career, John Noble made a deal with the devil. He gave up his name, endured harrowing training, and accepted every mission thrown at him for one purpose: redemption.

An ambitious reporter, Amelia Bennett, is about to break the story of her career, if she lives long enough to tell it. Caving to her boss’s demand, she hires a bodyguard and soon it is obvious John Noble is the only obstacle standing between her and certain death.

Debra’s expert guidance gave me confidence as these characters moved from concept to three-dimensional people. With in-depth brainstorming and “Oh! What if…?” phone sessions the story came alive on the page. She kept me motivated with hard release dates, editing, and even advice for the cover art concepts.

The past year has been a productive adventure for me, and I hope readers will enjoy the results with Bulletproof and the subsequent stories in the Unknown Identities series.

Live the adventure,

Regan

“Dark, gritty, sexy suspense with one hell of a hot hero.” -USA Today bestseller Debra Webb

A soldier is nothing without his honor.

To avoid a dishonorable end to his decorated military career, John Noble made a deal with the devil. He gave up his name, endured harrowing training, and accepted every mission thrown at him for one purpose: redemption.

When he accepts his latest orders, providing personal security for a reporter in trouble, he bargains hard to guarantee it will be his last job for the shadow agency he knows only Unknown Identities (UI).

An ambitious reporter, Amelia Bennett, is about to break the story of her career, if she lives long enough to tell it. Caving to her boss’s demand, she hires a bodyguard and soon it is obvious John Noble is the only obstacle standing between her and certain death.

Just when John believes he has found someone he can trust and love, who loves him unconditionally for who and what he has become, his orders are amended: Amelia Bennett is to be terminated.

Introducing Unknown Identities: an alternative for elite soldiers and spies facing criminal charges… if they can survive the program.

Don’t miss Double Vision, the next installment of this sizzling, action-packed series.

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Genre - Romantic Suspense

Rating – R

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Website http://www.reganblack.com

Tom Skinner – Rage Against The Machine > Embrace rejection @PictureBookTom

Do You Have More Blocks Than A Lego Set? > Writer’s block

by Tom Skinner

SUPER SAGE

Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol. (Steve Martin)

FAB FIVE

Sometimes things (people/rivers) just dry up.

Walk and/or walk away from your manuscript.

Change the where and/or time you write.

Baby steps. Warm up with smaller/easier scribbles eg journal.

#### happens. Is there other stuff/trash going on?

TIME FOR THE GURU

Reward yourself. It works a treat.

CLICK ME

Huffington Post: writer’s block is bunk by Lev Raphael

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Genre – Children’s Picture Book

Rating – G

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Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.

Michael Dismuke – 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer @MTDismuke

10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer

1.     Never write while operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery.

2.     The delete key is your best friend, get to know him.

3.     There is no need to light a candle, it’s just a story.

4.     It’s okay if your mom or spouse edits your work, just don’t tell everyone.

5.     It’s not immoral to kill off characters with the likeness and name of friends, family and co-workers, tell them it was somebody else.

6.     If you are unable to hold your breath long enough to finish reading the paragraph, it was probably too long to begin with.

7.     If you had to look the word up in a dictionary, the chances are, so will I.

8.     Naming characters can be fun, but if you wouldn’t name your own child that, don’t even go there.

9.     If you find yourself stuck in the story, have your main character kill everyone, just for fun.

10. Finally, it’s your story, write it the way you want to write it and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

An otherworldly force opens a gate in a remote mountain range in Colorado and unleashes an alien organism into the forest. Once the gate opens, a shield is placed over the entire area blocking all communications in or out of the zone. It then releases a time pulse every 30 minutes locking everything inside the shield into a checkpoint. If anything destroys the gate, everything within the shield is reset back to the previous checkpoint before the gate was destroyed.

The organism is highly infectious and anything it touches mutates and joins the invading force. They become soldiers with a darker will and help spread the infection even further. Survivors caught within the shield try to escape and stop the organism from leaving, but something keeps destroying the gate, resetting time, and changing their fates.

INVASION is the first volume in the Darkness & Daemons series, event 1-10.

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Genre – SciFi Horror

Rating – PG-13

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A Day in the Life of Regan Black – Regan Black

A Day in the Life of Regan Black

Thanks so much to Orangeberry Book Tours for arranging this visit today. It’s a pleasure to be here! I heard you might be intrigued by a typical day in my world. Hold on to your hats, because my life is almost more glam than I can stand.

As much as I like to wing it when it comes to writing my action-packed paranormal romantic suspense stories, I’m a real creature of habit when it comes to the day to day stuff.

After being awakened to the gentle sounds of a waterfall my live-in masseuse, Sven, gives me a quick massage to help loosen up my back… oh wait… you didn’t want the fictional rendition? Fine… reality is much different:

Morning still starts early in our house, no matter that both of our children are away at school now. Our pets still like breakfast early. So after one cat walks across my hair once or twice and the other cat punches me in the side or chases my toes out from under the covers, I’m mostly awake enough to roll out of bed safely.

Naturally, as I’m grumbling dire warnings at felines, the greyhounds start to get restless and join the morning entertainment with a squeaky toy serenade. Somehow, my husband dozes through all of this until his alarm actually goes off. His ability to tune stuff out used to irritate me, now I admire his tenacity.

But deep down, grumbling or not, I’m the sort of person who is always looking for the positive side of things. So the best part of getting downstairs and dealing with breakfast for two greyhounds, two cats, and two finches, is getting first dibs on the coffee. Anyone with a passing acquaintance of me (in person or on social media) knows just how much I treasure my coffee.

After the pets settle down with full bellies and my husband heads out to work, I aim for my grandmother’s desk to write. She was an accomplished author and playwright and there is such good energy at her desk. It’s one of my favorite places to draft my novels.

The morning hours usually speed away, full of new story developments broken up by social media, coffee refills, and yoga breaks (since, you know Sven is fictional). Or, if a character or scene is being particularly stubborn, vacuuming, laundry, or other household chores get accomplished while my brain dukes it out with the characters.

By afternoon, I usually put myself through a real workout while I mull over the next stage in the story. Or prep dinner. But usually it’s the story. Thank goodness my husband is an excellent cook. Now that it’s just the two of us most days, we’ve been having fun cooking again and experimenting with different dishes.

It’s kind of cool with just the two of us at the table again. This empty nest thing is almost a romantic renaissance. Dinner conversation covers our respective days, any word from the kids, business news from his world (at least the stuff he can share) and usually a rundown of my story-in-progress or publishing news stuff. (He considers that the ‘fair warning’ segment of the program and takes it as a general indicator of my mood).

If I’m on a deadline, I’ll go back to the story, but if I’m not, we usually chill out with a movie, a favorite television show, or some sort of sporting event while we alternate who entertains the greyhound puppy or the cats.

Then it’s rinse and repeat for the next day…

Live the adventure!

Regan

Whoever said, “You only live once” didn’t know Jaden Michaels.

The year is 2096 and evil is running rampant in Chicago. As the police chief, Brian Thomas has seen it all, until he runs into a would-be thief on her way to the museum.

In every life Jaden has chased down a predatory demon, exacting her fatal brand of justice, only to lose her own life in the process. This time, as she searches for the weapon that will banish the demon forever, she must also fight for the love that has always managed to slip through her grasp.

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Genre – Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://www.reganblack.com

The Making of a Sensational Best Seller – London Tracy

The Making of a Sensational Best Seller

It should warm every writer’s heart knowing that even if he or she does not obtain an agent, or find a publisher to publish their work, that they can self-publish for FREE and set the world on fire with their sensational work of fiction.

Since “50 Shades of Grey,” there have been other authors trying to copy the style and flavor, by attempting to write even more intriguing porn, but the boom has yet to happen, and the reason is simple. No one really knows what the secret is to sensational success. Even if there was such a formula, every book published would be a sensation, and we know that is not going to happen.

Even if there was a formula, it would probably only work the first time because if it were duplicated, it would no longer translate into a sensation. Case in point: Several years ago, a founder of a nonprofit organization wanted to get the attention of Oprah Winfrey so he paid for a billboard sign a block from where Oprah worked, thinking that she might see it. He was right. She did see it, and he was invited on the show. A month later, another person tried it, paid for a billboard sign and absolutely nothing came of it. You have one time to make your mark.

Back to the subject at hand, based on a book such as “50 Shades of Grey,” I theorize that there are three characteristics of a sensation.

(1) Dynamic lead character. When I say, dynamic, I mean original and eccentric. This is a character like no one we have met before. Think Christian Grey. How many men do you know who requires that his female partner sign a contract before they engage in the sexual act. Like I said, original.

(2) Intriguing story that resonates with millions. Think “Eat, Pray, Love.” How many women identified with the premise of a woman taking a year off to find herself.

(3) Memorable scenes that demand to be shared with the world. Think “The Help.” How could you not tell people what Minnie did to her ex-employer’s pie.

A sensational story is like interviewing for a job by millions of people and having at least one-half of them love and adore you. How hard is that? How do you get that many people to love and adore you? Two words: New and different.

I think about books that come out every day. Most books are seldom read by millions of readers and have a very limited audience, even some best sellers. It takes a very special kind of book to attract millions of readers. And the reason is simple.

Most books are similar to all the others on the market. The stories and characters are basically the same. However, “50 Shades of Grey” gave us something new and different, a character we never met before and water-cooler scenes galore.

If a book cannot deliver new and different, then there is no sensation.

London Tracy is an author, screenwriter and freelance writer. She is the author of “Your Life Story Could Be a Best Seller” and “The Curse.”

From HBO’s hit series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” comes, “The Curse, a teleplay:” After Larry David quarrels with his lesbian neighbors, he finds himself under a seven-day curse of bad luck.

LONDON TRACY is an author, screenwriter and freelance writer. She lives in Los Angeles.

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Genre – Comedy

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://londontracy.wordpress.com

Lori Ryan – A few things you need to know before you become a writer @loriryanauthor

A few things you need to know before you become a writer
I knew zip about being a writer before I entered this field last year. I had a bunch of ideas for books and a few friends had read my work and thought it was good. So, I ran out and found an editor and began my journey as a writer. I’d say I’m getting pretty good at it. I’m growing and that’s the important thing.
So, are there things you should know before you go into this field? You bet!
First, a lot of what you’ll need to do is marketing. If you self-publish, you need to market your work. If you don’t self-publish, you’ll basically be marketing anyway because you need to sell it to an agent or a publisher first and then after being published, you’ll need to do a lot of the marketing yourself, too.
Second, you’ll need to network. You need to connect yourself with other authors for joint projects and joint marketing efforts and to help spread the word about your books.
Third, you don’t get time between books to relax and recoup. Your readers want the next book and you need to publish again and again to stay at the top. In fact, if you’re self-publishing, I strongly encourage you to have at least three books completed before you publish and then begin writing the fourth one as soon as your first three are out there.
Last, the thrill you get from opening that first reader email telling you how much someone loves your work or reading the first five star review of your work or seeing your name in one of Amazon’s Top 100 lists cannot be beat! It’s worth every drop of sweat and every minute of wringing your hands wondering if someone will like your work.
So, don’t procrastinate. Get out there and write. Show your work to friends and get feedback. Get help and accept criticism gracefully. Rewrite, edit, and rework. And, someday, send your baby out into the world. It’s worth it.
Lori Ryan writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense. She is frequently ranked in the top 100 romantic suspense authors on Amazon.com. To find her work, visit http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00CFUKD1E.

Jennie Evan’s heart broke when she lost her high school sweetheart and husband just after college graduation. She’s found some semblance of a new life with good friends and a job she loves at Sutton Capital, but she knows she’ll never love again. That part of her died with Kyle.

Chad Thompson sees the heartache Jennie hides from the world. Despite the chemistry he and Jennie always fight against, Chad vows to keep their relationship friendly. Anything more would hurt Jennie and Chad knows he can’t cause her more pain.

When their well-meaning friends throw Jennie and Chad together in a plot designed to push their comfort zone, Jennie ends up in more danger than anyone could have foreseen. Chad knows he can protect her, but he isn’t able to protect his own heart in the process.

Fans of Sutton Capital have been waiting for Jennie and Chad’s story. Dive in and fall in love right along with them!

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Genre –  Romantic Suspense

Rating – R

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Bio:

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes contemporary romance with a twist of suspense. She lives with an extremely understanding husband, two wonderful children, two mostly-behaved dogs, and a lone little cat in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing.

Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and has written three more books since then. Each of Lori’s books have made their way to the Amazon bestseller list and she quickly climbed the Amazon bestselling author list, as well. In November, 2013, Lori and a group of romantic suspense authors landed on the USA Today and NY Times bestseller lists with an anthology only eight months after the release of Lori’s first book. Lori loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog. Oh, and if you’ve read Lori’s books and loved them, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. Writers live and die by their reviews and Lori promises to do a happy dance around her office every time you write one!

Laila Ibrahim – My favorite reviews

This is one of my favorite reviews.  It was written by my niece for a school report when she was a Freshman in high school.

Main Course: Honest Reaction

By Rachel Ibrahim

The book, Yellow Crocus, by Laila Ibrahim is one of my all time favorite books. I don’t normally like historical fiction books; I get too bored with them, and don’t find them as interesting as science fiction or fantasy books. I was surprised by how engaging the read was; I could not put the book down because it brings you into the world of the two main characters, Lizbeth and Mattie. I can really feel, and almost experience the feelings and relationship that they have with each other. I would highly recommend this book because it’s a well written, captivating, but easy read that you can let loose in. It’s easy to understand, but is education while still appealing. This 1830’s slavery story is fun, loving, and heartbreaking to any reader.

My favorite thing about this book is how much everything in the book relates to the author, my aunt, Laila. Our families are close, and with them living in Berkley, I get to see her often. This book was a major accomplishment for her and I could just see how happy it made her when it was finally published. Truthfully, I would not have read this book if she didn’t write it, and I do not rate this book based on my relationship with her, or just to make her happy, but I truly did love it, and am glad that I read it. Every time I turn the page, even after reading this book for the 5^th time, I can imagine her writing. Everything in the book reminds me of how Laila is, especially the main character Mattie. They are both inspiring, strong women who fight for what is right, even if society disapproves, and society will never be able to change the mind of my aunt. It’s amazing to see people like that, and by writing this book I think she shares her courage and I could not love her more for the person she is.

In 1837, Lisbeth Wainwright is born to the white mistress of a sprawling Virginia plantation. Seconds later, she is delivered into the arms of her black wet nurse, Mattie. For a field hand like Mattie, her transfer to the big house is supposed to be considered an honor—except that the move tears Mattie away from her beloved grandfather and her infant son, Samuel. But Mattie is a slave, with no say in the matter, and so she devotes herself to her master’s daughter, though she longs to be raising her own child. Growing up under Mattie’s tender care, little Lisbeth adopts the woman’s deep-seated faith in God, her love of music and black-eyed peas, and the tradition of hunting for yellow crocuses in the early days of spring.

As the years pass, Lisbeth is drawn slowly back into her white parents’ world and begins to learn the ins and outs of life for a high-born young lady. Still she retains her connection to Mattie, befriending Samuel and drifting comfortably between the two worlds. She accepts her parents’ assertion that their slaves depend upon them for guidance and protection, yet that notion becomes more and more difficult to believe as she gains awareness of the inequality of life in the big house versus the slave quarters. When, on the threshold of her society wedding to debonair Edward Cunningham, Lisbeth bears witness to a shockingly brutal act, the final vestiges of her naiveté crumble around her. Just twenty-one years old, she is forced to choose between what is socially acceptable and what is right, a decision that will change her life forever.

This compelling historical novel chronicles young Lisbeth Wainwright’s coming-of-age during one of the most difficult chapters of American history. Lisbeth’s powerful bond with Mattie makes her loss of innocence in the face of society’s ugly secrets all the more heartbreaking, and yet it is the courage she learns from her stand in mother that enables Lisbeth to blaze a new path for herself. Yellow Crocus offers moving proof of how the greatest social change often blooms forth from small personal acts of love.

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Genre - Historical Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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Breathing for Two by Wolf Pascoe @WolfPascoe

ONE
BREATHING LESSONS

IN the freshman year of my anesthesia residency, I was given a lesson in breathing by a patient whom I’ll call Otto. Anesthesia residencies come replete with breathing lessons, but Otto was also teaching humility that day, a subject absent from the formal anesthesia curriculum.
A doctor gets humility not from curricula but from his patients. I acquired a truckload of humility the day I met Otto, and the truck has only gotten larger since.
Otto was undergoing a cystoscopy, a look inside the bladder performed by passing a thin viewing scope through the urethra. There is no incision in such a procedure.
Generally, you don’t need anything fancy to support a patient’s breathing while giving anesthesia during a cystoscopy. As the patient passes from wakefulness into unconsciousness you can let him continue to breathe for himself.
In Otto’s case, I strapped a rubber anesthesia mask over his mouth and nose to make an airtight seal against his skin, and delivered through the mask an appropriate combination of oxygen and anesthetic gas. In principle, what I did was essentially what the Boston dentist, William Thomas Green Morton, had done during the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia in 1846.
The modern anesthesia face mask is a hollow cone of rubber or plastic. It’s like the oxygen mask that drops down from above a passenger’s head on an airplane, though it’s more substantially built. The base is malleable and cushioned by a ring of air, a sort of inner tube. The mask is shaped to fit around the nose and mouth; with a bit of pressure, it seals against the skin. The top of the mask connects to a source of anesthetic vapor and oxygen.
Readers of a certain age may remember the TV series, Marcus Welby, M.D., which began each week with Dr. Welby lowering a black anesthesia mask down over the camera lens. In those days, apparently, the family doctor did everything.
The anesthesia machine—the “cascade of glass columns, porcelain knobs and metal conduits” I described previously—is the gas delivery system. The machine connects to an oxygen tank and directs the flow of oxygen from the tank through a vaporizer where the oxygen mixes with anesthesia gas. The mixture passes out of the machine through plastic tubing (“anesthesia hose”) that connects to the face mask.
The patient breathes the mixture.
Gas leaving the anesthesia machine actually flows through the anesthesia tubing in a circle—in fact it’s called the circle system. One limb of the circle travels from the machine to the anesthesia mask, where the patient inhales it. The other limb, carrying exhaled gas, travels from the mask back to the machine, where excess carbon dioxide from the patient is filtered out. The filtered gas is mixed with fresh gas and travels back to the patient.
The same gases, minus the carbon dioxide, keep going round and round. The system is airtight, except for a pop-off valve that relieves excess pressure.
Otto was a large man with a thickly muscled neck, but by extending his head I could keep his airway clear, allowing him to continue breathing while the urologist worked. Instead of using an anesthesia mask to deliver my mix of gases, I could have assured Otto’s airway by using an endotracheal tube. This is a long breathing tube (about a centimeter in diameter) inserted through the mouth all the way into the trachea.
But getting an endotracheal tube in isn’t always easy, and it’s usually not necessary during a cystoscopy. Most often an anesthesia mask will do.
One side effect of anesthesia is the loss of normal muscle tone. This happened to Otto. A few minutes into the case, his flaccid tongue fell back in his throat. His diaphragm continued to contract, but air couldn’t get through to the lungs—his airway was obstructed. Otto was, of course, completely unconscious at this point.
Everyone loses some muscle tone during sleep—this is the cause of snoring, and of the more serious condition of sleep apnea. But the loss of tone is even greater under anesthesia, and the anesthetized patient cannot rouse herself to find a better breathing position.
I managed the problem by putting a short plastic tube called an airway into Otto’s mouth. The airway depressed the tongue and cleared a passage for air. It wasn’t as good as an endotracheal tube, which would have extended all the way into Otto’s trachea, but it seemed to do the trick.

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Genre – Non-fiction / Memoir

Rating – G

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Website http://wolfpascoe.com

How Did I Launch My First Book? by Bobbie Cole @cole_bobbie

Choosing the Date

My personal faith memoir, She Does Not Fear the Snow, launched September 6, 2013, the 5^th anniversary of my wedding to husband, Butch.

Since the book deals with how I came to meet and marry him, it was an appropriate date for the launch.

I would recommend linking a book launch to a significant date. It gives you one more thing to talk about. I celebrated with a photo montage of our five years and a huge cake.

Local Launch

My marketing for my launch was to my local audience, here in Fredericton, NB, Canada, and to my potential Kindle audience, worldwide but primarily in the USA.

The first was a traditional campaign. It involved a bookstore signing and leading an evening service at my church, to which approximately 100 people came.

I announced these events through local press and radio and postcards, distributed to local churches. My church also promoted it.

I communicated repeatedly to Facebook and Linked In connections in the local area, posting short extracts from the book and photos of people my circles would recognise, holding a copy of the book.

I asked everyone to share the news and many did.

Wherever I was dealing with people who wouldn’t know what my book was about, I added a byline in my communications: A trail of miracles led her from a Jerusalem church to love in Atlantic Canada.

I also created a countdown Facebook tile that I posted on my own pages, groups I belonged to and my Linked In profile, as well as on Pinterest.

This tile counted down the days to launch and directed everyone to the book page, where a free sample chapter was available for download, along with my promo video.

I took some trouble over the video. Sitting, surrounded by snow, I summarize my story – (It was minus 20 degrees on the day of the shoot!) – with sweet piano music in the background.

I created additional tiles in respect of the book signing and the evening service I was leading and posted these in all media, splashed ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Today’, across them, in the run-up to these events.

About three weeks before the launch, I had a guest post on well-known Christian author, Mary de Muth’s blog (http://www.marydemuth.com/god-sent-me-a-crab-awesome-guest-post/). I sent everyone I knew to read it.

This post got good traction from her own audience and ended up with over 40 comments. Some of her readers spontaneously tweeted about it.

The Kindle Promo

My Kindle promo was over 3 free download days, Sept 6-8. I also created a tile about this and posted it widely, adding Today / Ends Tomorrow and Ends Midnight Pacific splashes, as the campaign unfolded.

I requested a listing for the Kindle promotion on every Christian and non-Christian book promotion site that I could find. In some cases, I made small ‘donations’ . Mostly, they were free.

I tweeted about each of these events as they were coming up and requested retweets, which many people did.

Personal Email List

I emailed my own personal email list, dividing it into local to Fredericton and non-local. The local people were told about the signing and evening service events, as well as the free Kindle promo.

The non-local people were only told about the Kindle.

Reviews

I sought reviews from everyone who had already read the book, having made it available as a pdf on a closed Facebook site several months prior to the launch, to whom I invited readers. I also sought reviews from volunteer readers on writing sites and professional readers.

My Blog

I have a blog, http://testimonytrain.com, a hub for honing and sharing our Christian testimonies. It’s brand new and has few followers at present. Nevertheless, the pages from my book I posted there, as well as testimonies of others, were mentioned on my Facebook page and in Linked In messages. Next time around, I know this blog will reach many people in its own right.

What has been the result of all this?

I had about 650 free downloads of the Kindle version and sold nearly 50 books during the weekend events.

This is very encouraging. Reviews will start to grow. The book will become established.

At this stage, it’s not about the sales but about the buzz.

I’m pleased and confident.

What would I do differently next time?

I’d get way more guest posts set up. I should have been on this three months ahead of time.

I’d have all my tiles prepared for my countdowns etc. three months ahead of launch date also.

I totally underestimated the amount of time required in engaging with others. Being prepared would have made this less hectic.

And I’d find some methods for working out what worked and what didn’t. This campaign was a battery of shots that has left me not knowing what worked best.

Bio:

Bobbie Ann Cole is author of her faith memoir, She Does Not Fear the Snow. A trail of miracles led her from a Jerusalem church, where she wasn’t supposed to be, to meet and marry her Boaz in Atlantic Canada. Free sample chapter and promo video: www.shedoesnotfearthesnow.com. Bobbie, AKA The Testimony Lady, will help you write your testimony, too.  Download her free workbook, Start Writing Your Christian Testimony: http://testimonytrain.com.

Bobbie Ann Cole’s inspirational memoir charts her personal journey to faith and redemption. Broken by cancer and the failure of her marriage, she visits Israel, seeking direction and new meaning for her life. She has a profound spiritual experience in a Jerusalem church, where, as a Jew, she’s not supposed to be. Her experience there marks the start of a chain of supernatural events, through which God reveals His purposes to her. This transformational story of love, set on three continents, echoes that of biblical Ruth, who accepts faith in the Land of Israel and receives God’s blessing in the shape of a new husband of faith, a Canadian.

‘Filled with humor, warmth and love, She Does Not Fear the Snow is the promise of love after a battle with cancer and the sting of divorce. Bobbie Ann Cole has written an honest, touching memoir which permits the reader to accompany her through a time of healing, self-discovery and faith. Bobbie’s transparency makes it hard to put down. A great read for those healing from their own journey. You will find encouragement here.’ Kim de Blecourt, Author of Until We All Come Home: A Harrowing Journey, a Mother’s Courage, a Race to Freedom (FaithWords, November, 2012)

‘This book will inspire you to look for God’s voice in everyday events of life. It will cause you to reflect on past experiences and see how God’s hand led you in the right path. It’s a beautiful story full of romance, forgiveness and coming to faith.’ Evangeline Inman, Author of The Divine Heartmender and Extreme Worship for Songwriters

‘Bobbie’s story greatly encourages us that life is not to be lived or viewed through the lens of chance. Open your heart as you read, and embrace the personal truth that God in His providence will direct our steps and bring us to our destiny.’ Pastor Wayne Flowers, Smythe Street Cathedral, Fredericton, NB, Canada

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre –  Faith Memoir

Rating – PG

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Website www.shedoesnotfearthesnow.com

5 Writing Tips by Ben Galley @BenGalley

Tip 1: Write a great book

The future of any author rests on none other than a great book, as it always has.

Of course – ‘great’ means many different things to many different people. Not every bestseller is a work of genius, but they sell because they are popular with masses of readers. They could be popular great because they engage, or challenge, or cross boundaries, or inspire. That is the mark of a great book – not just its literary quality, but what it does to the reader. Great books make people talk, and those are the books that sell and will keep selling.

So how exactly do we write a great book? Well, that’s the hard part. Firstly, through practice. Even the best writers on the planet are still writing and practicing, every day. And when you write, you should always strive for the best quality of writing that you can, and strive to engage the reader. Aim high. Do something different. Have a solid and airtight plot. Create deep and varied characters and worlds. Spend time thinking about what you want your book to do and say.

Tip 2: Get a great cover:

So once you’ve finished your book, it’s time to start polishing it – making it into a professional and sellable product.

The cover is the packaging of your book, and therefore the first point of contact for a reader. Contrary to the old adage, readers will judge books by their cover. They make up their minds about a book’s genre, price, quality, and therefore whether they want to buy it, in the first few seconds. This is why it is important to get not just a good cover, but a great one. You want it to match all the effort you’ve put into its contents.

Cover design is an area where many indie, or self-publishing, authors fall down, mainly due to the fact that good graphic design costs money, and also due to the fact that people assume they can DIY it. Unfortunately, unless you are a professional designer, this simply isn’t true.

I always recommend outsourcing a professional. Anything less simply won’t cut the mustard. In today’s market, indie books need to be indistinguishable from traditional books, both to shrug off any preconceptions and also to rise above the huge volume of poor-quality books now on the market.

Tip 3: Editing it to perfection:

Editing is as important as cover design, and another area that a huge amount of indies get wrong. What’s vital about editing is that it affects your marketing.

Unfortunately, there’s a certain stigma about indie books. A large amount of readers expect them to be full of errors and mistakes, due to the fact they haven’t been through a publishing house. We need to shrug off that stigma. Bad editing can mean bad reviews, scuppering your sales. As with cover design, we should be aiming for a professional standard. You need to do that great book of yours justice.

There are two ways to edit your books – either hire a freelance editor, or DIY. The first is expensive, while the second is difficult, as few authors are professional editors. I would always recommend the first – shelling out for a good editor. Or, like me, if you don’t want to shell out for an editor, you can use beta readers.

Beta reading, or crowd-editing as it is sometimes known, is a way of using multiple semi-pro editors. You ask a number of people (I recommend avid readers, honest fans, English teachers, professionals etc) to proofread and give detailed feedback on your manuscript. You get your book edited to a professional standard, and in return your betas get a sneak peek of your book, a free copy, perhaps even a mention in the dedication – whatever you want to offer!

Tip 4: Market it, and then market it again:

So, you’ve published yourself a great product, now you need to sell it. How? Well, gone are the days (if they even existed!) when simple availability resulted in sales. Due to the sheer volume of books now in the market, a book (even a great book!) that isn’t being marketed will be drowned out and make few, if any, sales. Marketing is a must for today’s indie author.

As we discussed, people spread the word about a good book, and this is the biggest key to marketing – Word of mouth.

A good website is paramount, followed closely by good blurbs, bios, and a professional appearance. Next up is getting readers. Social media is a good place to start. Twitter and Facebook, don’t convert very well into sales but are good for being, you guessed it - social. By following and engaging with people on a social level they will be more likely to read and recommend your books.

Customer reviews are also very important. Readers put a lot of stock in reviews, so having a lot of positive reviews will really help sales. Source as many as you can from the readers you meet on Twitter on Facebook, and also contact book blogs and ask for reviews. Comments from respected and well-known sites will also add a little validity to your book.

Basically, get talking!

Tip 5: Give it time and effort:

Lastly, you need to give it time and effort.

Simply having a book on a shelf will not make you millions overnight. Skill can gain you some success and income, but effort and time is also needed, as we’ve seen above.

Perseverance is needed too, and I urge everyone to keep working and keep trying. It will seem like you’re getting nowhere fast at first. It may seem overwhelming, but marketing is a day by day, reader by reader process. Keep at it, attack from every angle, and trust me, you will have a shot at success.

Good luck out there.

Ben Galley is a young indie author from sunny England. The author of the epic and dark fantasy series – The Emaneska Series, he has published five books so far, and has many more on the way. Ben is very zealous about helping other indie authors, and provides self-publishing advice and services via his website Shelf Help, which can be found at www.bengalley.com.

His name is Farden.
They whisper that he’s dangerous.
Dangerous is only the half of it.

Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options.

Entangled in a web of lies and politics and dragged halfway across icy Emaneska and back, Farden must unearth a secret even he doesn’t want to know, a secret that will shake the foundations of his world. Dragons, drugs, magick, death, and the deepest of betrayals await.

Welcome to Emaneska.

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Genre –  Epic Fantasy

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://www.bengalley.com

Owen Banner – Why We Procrastinate @OwenBanner

Why We Procrastinate and How to Stop

by Owen Banner 

There are two reasons why we procrastinate: either we are scared of failure or we are just really, really comfortable where we are. When it comes to quitting the job we hate or breaking up with the boyfriend that’s not good for us, we put it off because we are afraid that it’s the best we can get, and because we’re comfortable. As bad as our situation is, at least its a sure thing. “What if I break up with this guy and never find another boyfriend again?” We ask ourselves, or, “what if no one else wants to hire me?”

Then there are those things that we don’t try because we’re afraid that we’ll fail. We don’t try anything new in our marriage or in our parenting, because we’re scared of opening up and being rejected, or that it’ll be a stupid idea. We don’t sit down to write that novel or sign the contract to start our own bakery, because we’re scared we’re not good enough. It’s what keeps us dreaming about it, but always saying “tomorrow” when we have the opportunity to actually put work into that dream.

And then there’s comfort. Comfort is actually the less scientific term for the word “intertia”. Intertia is the tendency of an object (or person) to just keep doing the same thing over and over again, whether it’s moving or sitting still. Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion was that things resist change. If they are moving, they are going to keep going on the same path at the same pace. If they are sitting still, they are going to stay there, until force is applied that is greater than that inertia. So, we don’t start on that exercise program, decide to have that talk, start on that term paper, or crack open War and Peace, because it’s going to require some work.

Well, that’s great information, but now what? The good news is that we can actually do something about both the fear of failure and our tendency towards inertia. Here’s a few things that help me:

• Get visual: Create a collage, print out a poster, set your desktop background to keep your vision in front of you. Right now, I have a collage of the major plot points in my next novel posted above my desk.
• Break big projects into small ones: I don’t sit down to write a novel. I sit down to write a scene. All I need to do is focus on the action and the dialogue that is happening at that moment between the few characters involved in that scene. Publishing has been the same= start a blog, start a twitter account, join Goodreads, make five friends today, comment on three forums, etc.
• Put it on a calendar: If it doesn’t get planned, it won’t get done. To make sure that you get it done, put it first thing in the morning.
• Make friends with people who have the same goal as you: That shared value will inspire you and keep you accountable.
• Keep it simple: Jesus said it best, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.” If you commit to doing it, do it. If you commit to not doing it, don’t do it. No more maybes, unless you’re Carly Rae Jepsen.
• Make the cut: Understand that saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to that other thing. Evaluate, prioritize, cut it out.

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Genre - Thriller

Rating – R

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Website http://www.owenbanner.com/

Emily Kinney – How to Make Your Characters Believable @theshadylady

How to Make Your Characters Believable

Characters are, disputably, the life and breath of any story. Unless, of course, you are purposely wasting paper just to describe things, such as an era or certain scenery. However, these in no way can be considered stories, for stories, as most will stubbornly agree, must be about something. Preferably, beings who think, feel, and live in the harsh environment known as the world, or even other worlds. In stories, there is what happens, and then there are those whom it happens to. The most effective way to connect with readers is when they can relate to the person, or animal, robot, what have you, the story centers upon.

Making characters believable is a constant plight for writers. Usually, the easiest tactic to employ is to model the character’s personality after someone they’ve met or know in real life, so that there is a credible reference out in reality. This has been done countless times, and tends to result in character favorites among readers. Characters based on real people always seem to leave an indelible mark, mainly because their realness radiates so strongly.

However, what if you create a character out of pure, thin air, with nary an existing relation or acquaintance to mold him or her after? What does a writer do then? The obvious would be to take cues from real-life examples. For instance, how would a regular person react to discovering a seven talon claw sticking out of the bedroom wall? In this day and age, where people are both reasonable and stupid, it could all boil down to the specific personality of the person. A reasonable person might run away, issuing squeals of terror, while a stupid person would unavoidably approach the claw because it looked cool.

But the initial reaction of the reader would be to think, “What’s this dude’s problem? Get away from there, you dolt!” It could easily turn into a case of the reader thinking that the author made the character choose to do that in order to create conflict. And while, yes, stories are driven by conflict, and therefore will never be fully realistic, since there aren’t too many adventures occurring on a day to day basis in the world, readers still relate to characters who handle the conflict in a way that they might themselves.

By giving your characters all the elements of a real person, such as fears, doubts, confusion, emotions, bodily reactions, it makes them feel authentic and substantial. There are many instances where the author neglects to mention these aspects about a character, and while the character is fun to follow and cheer for, there is always this sense of fantasy that accompanies the reading. Sometimes it is borderline fakeness. Such as an impenetrable cowboy hero, or an extremely clever sorcerer who is always one step ahead of his adversaries. These are engaging characters that can carry a story, but they fail to convey a believable, real quality.

In order to construct believable heroes, heroines, foes, monsters, mentors, side-kicks, they have to be multi-dimensional in the same way non-metaphysical folk of flesh and blood are. There must be a competent mix of psychology, philosophy, mentality, emotions, and motivation. On and on. All the real injected into the fake.

Milo Hestler is a lonely, unusual, fourteen-year-old girl. She is constantly moving from home to home with her oblivious parents. The only friend she has is her conscience, whom she has named Bob. Her only comforts are cooking and listening to hip-hop.

When her family moves yet again, Milo is bullied mercilessly by her classmates. Such treatment prompts her to travel to Australia for summer camp. During the plane ride, Milo awakens to find the plane deserted and about to crash.
After parachuting into the ocean, she discovers she is near an island. Milo passes out, and upon waking, learns she was rescued by a boy named Simon, who is cute, but can’t speak English. Not able to understand him, she accidentally says yes when he asks her to marry him.

He leads her to a small town on the island, where they locate someone who can translate for them. Milo is outraged to hear that she is engaged to Simon and wants to call it off, but learns that this island has rules that cannot be broken. She must go through with the marriage against her will.

After learning about the trick he played on her, Milo hates Simon, though it is obvious that sixteen-year-old Simon really likes her. What will happen next on The Island of Lote? From her earliest memories, Emily Kinney has wanted to be a writer. She lives in Maine. “This book is just the first of many to come, rest assured.” Publisher’s website: sbpra.com/EmilyKinney

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Genre - Young Adult Fiction

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Emily Kinney on Facebook & Twitter

 

 

Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.

Sonja Hegman – 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Being an Author I Didn’t Know Before @ChiefWordsmith

10 Things I Wish I Knew About Being an Author I Didn’t Know Before

By Sonja Hegman

Being an author is not filled will all the glitz and glam you might think. It’s hard work. You can’t just write your book, send it off and be done. The before and after prep for a book become a full-time job after writing itself.

1. I’ll admit, I was a little blind-sided by everything indie authors must accomplish just to make themselves known. It’s not easy task. And so, here are a few things I wish I’d known about being author before I ever typed my first word.Marketing would become my full-time job. Once your book is written, you must become a full-time marketer and sales person. No one else is going to do this for you, not even your publisher. You must be on Twitter and Facebook and Goodreads and possibly a few other social networking sites to generate sales for yourself. If you have the money, you can always hire someone (like me) to perform these tasks for you. But when you’re first starting, you’ll most likely be on your own.

2. Your first royalty check might be $1,000 … or $12. As long as you understand this up front, you won’t be disappointed when you get your first royalty check of twelve whole dollars.

3. Some people care too much that you wrote a book. These people are whom I like to call “leeches.” After I wrote my first book, friends I hadn’t heard from in years suddenly came out of the woodwork. If you write a book, you’re automatically rich, right? Refer back to No. 2.

4. Some people won’t care you wrote a book. I never thought everyone would jump for joy because I achieved my author dream. I was extremely excited so I somehow thought everyone else would be too. Now, I actually prefer it when people don’t make a big deal about it.

5. Writing a book might not change your life. I assumed that becoming an author would change my life quickly and significantly. Gobs of money would fall from the sky and Hollywood would come knocking. See, I know that my book is amazing and others should recognize it too. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that.

6. Start promoting your book as soon as the idea is solid. For Trials of an Entrepreneurial Virgin, I began heavy promotion in July 2012 for my book’s October 2012 release. This was not even close to enough time to generate a real conversation about the book. It took until April 2013 (nine months after I first started to promote and six months after my book’s release) for things to finally start happening with sales.

7. Think of yourself as a brand. What do I mean by this? You are not just a person any longer; you are a product — just like Nike and Coca Cola. I know that you don’t like to think of yourself this way. But, you can’t expect to sell thousands of books during your first week in print if no one has an inkling of who you are or that you’ve written a book.

8. Online relationships will make or break your book. Social media is an awesome tool for authors today. I’ve chatted with people all over the world who otherwise might have never heard of me. Just be sure to reciprocate when someone does you a solid. One-sided relationships never work out.

9. Virtual Book Tours are a thing. When I used to think of book tours, like most people, I thought of a physical tour. Doing readings and signings in physical, brick and mortar bookstores. How cool is it that book tours now happen virtually? We authors can now travel the world without even getting off the couch.

10. Book trailers aren’t widely used yet. I’ve always been a fan of video and to me it just seems logical to use video to promote a book. I first heard of book trailers a few years ago so I assumed every author probably had one. They are apparently just on a cusp of becoming a big thing. Get on that wagon if you can.

Have you always dreamed of earning your living as a full time writer?

Sonja Hegman has made that dream work for her. Now she tells other writers and “virgin” business owners how to do it, too. In Trials of an Entrepreneurial Virgin Hegman explains how to:

• Choose a business structure
• Write a client contract
• Handle those “clients from hell”
• Develop your marketing materials
• And of course, the ins and outs of networking—both online and in-person

From working at a small town Minnesota newspaper to taking on The Big Apple and finally discovering her niche as a business writer and social media consultant, Hegman tells us about her triumphs and her trials—and offers us the “virgin writing professional’s” practical advice along the way.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Non-fiction

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Sonja Hegman on Facebook, Google+ & Twitter

Website http://www.writerschatstew.com/