Blog

  • Selling books and eBooks with a Dash of Inspiration

    Selling books and eBooks with a Dash of Inspiration

    A recent Publisher’s Weekly article, How To Succeed at Self-Publishing,  zeroed in on self-published author, Victorine Lieske. Her ebook romance, Not What She Seems, sold 150,000 copies and blew up the best seller lists. She talked to Publisher’s Weekly about the secret of her success. Read more

  • Hypocrite? Who me? Say it isn’t so!

    Hypocrite? Who me? Say it isn’t so!

    Yesterday I posted a rambling review of The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Sharp readers no doubt noticed at the end of the post that I contradicted myself. I talked about avoiding the fourth installment of the Millenium series initially just because Stieg Larsson, the series’ creator, passed on and a new author picked up the thread… Read more

  • Caught in the Spider’s Web

    Caught in the Spider’s Web

    I just finished The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz, book 4 in the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you’ve decided to skip the book out of loyalty for Larsson. That was my plan but it went off the rails when my fellow audio book junkies (aka my IT office mates)… Read more

  • Expand your horizons

    Expand your horizons

    When you left school, did you leave learning behind? Or like me, do you hunger for knowledge? Yes the internet is full of information but unless you find a site or sites that’s curated by someone that knows their shit, you could be surfing through a whole lot of crap. Don’t get me started on the emails… Read more

  • Image

    Image

    I dodge raindrops. Through the camera on my cellphone, I frame the world. Then I cut the it up. Pummel the image in photoshop and slap bleeding slivers of it on my blog. Smile for the camera, you’re up next on my digital dissection table. The crop tool will cut you now. Resize, sharpen, apply a bit of curve and only a fragment out… Read more

  • Maintaining the Fictional Dream

    Maintaining the Fictional Dream

    As writers we’re charged with the responsibility of drawing the reader in, making him care about the character and identify with the characters. To do that, we must create and maintain the fictional dream. There’s an article on that on the website in the Writers’ Aids section, but let me say here that it is… Read more

  • How much should you write every day?

    How much should you write every day?

    “Write 10,000 Words Everyday is Terrible Advice” so says @virajpatel24 on Medium.com and I agree with him. I’ve seen a lot of posts lately here and on Medium.com about word counts mixed in with advice about how to write. These posts came up during a search for editing/revising advice and curiosity made me read them. Who doesn’t… Read more

  • For My Sister

    For My Sister

    Today you would have turned 31, but death cut you off at 29. Your last words still ring in my ears: Promise me that you’ll publish it–that you’ll publish all of it. I promised then and I promise it again now because you asked it off me. I will publish it–all of it. I had… Read more

  • Off to the NY Renaissance Fair!

    Off to the NY Renaissance Fair!

    I’m taking a break from editing/rewriting today to attend the NY Renaissance Fair in Sterling Forest. I’m so excited! Having no running water Thursday night through this morning at my apartment, I feel like I’m halfway to the renaissance already. Losing power overnight added to the effect. I hope all is restored to normal by… Read more

  • Inspired

    Jodi Taylor, author of the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series, which I love by the way, got her start by self-publishing. She published the first Chronicles of St. Mary’s story as an ebook! (I love that book by the way: Just One Damned Thing After Another) If you like history, time travel and a lot of comedy, her Chronicles of St.… Read more