Calendars, Christmas and Cards--The Daze has Set In

Okay, this was going to be my personal blog post, but I completely forgot to post on the RM blog this morning. It wasn't until my good CP emailed me to remind me of my duties, that I figured out I had to do the blog today.

Sorry! But I have a good excuse.... I am knee deep in Christmas wrapping paper, ordering cards, trying to make calendars, shopping at COSTCO and hunting for presents while still trying to eek out a little personal writing time.

The writers on other blogs are calling this the "haze of Christmas." I call it the DAZE. Man, oh man, I remember when I enjoyed making pretty cards on line and writing a funny letter filled stories about our family. I remember when making photo calendars was a blast. I remember when I actually took time to do all of these things and I anticipated them with great joy.

Boy, have things changed since I became a writer (albeit unpublished, I am treating as a full time profession). Last night I grumped about the time I needed to put into making the calendars (meh--it's a lot of work). My DH said, you're just mad cause you'd rather write (mind you he isn't taking over the job--cause he gets paid to do his argh). This morning I cursed (well not loudly, but in my head) the iPhoto program that allowed me to make my cute little picture card on-line and put in a little letter. I didn't write much. I put in bullet points for our entire year--easier that way.

But that's better than what I sent last year: I said we moved, that's it. Everyone was asking about the letter and said they missed it, but my creative juices are drained by the time Christmas rolls around.

I'm still stuck making calendars. I also have to make photo books for a relative in Canada. And I haven't even begun wrapping yet. AACK. I love Christmas, but all the chores wear me out. I am in a DAZE. I went to COSTCO--haven't been there in months--haven't missed it. I had no idea they sold jumbo sized vitamins for half the cost I was paying at my local apothecary (easier to get to). Will I go there in the New Year, when all this hoopla settles down? Not likely. It takes too long to get there and I want to write.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the holiday season and all the good family times. The lunches with friends. The food. Don't forget the food. The presents. The joy of getting up at, oh, 4AM--never mind, that I could do without--and seeing our Christmas movie. Sigh. It's just that it is draining, it is like a one woman job (seriously? who invented all this work for us?) and all I want for Christmas is a nice glass of chardonnay, a good book, and a little time to myself to do nothing.

I always start off the month thinking, I'll try to write a half an hour a day. Some days I manage. Other days, I get way more done. Today? Nope. Ain't going to happen. All my creative juice is pouring into calendars, photo books and blogging.

I think I've forgotten what it is like to do nothing.

So, what did you used to LOVE about Christmas (or the holiday season as you celebrate it) that you dread doing now or feel takes too much time away from your writing obsession? Is it a one woman show where you live? And how do you manage to squeeze time in to write?

What Do Most People Ask Authors At Booksignings?

And pictures from the Christmas lunch and book signing.

Are We Having Fun Yet ?

This post is a product of a conversation I had with a friend who has decided to give up writing. Bummed me out. She's really talented - great insight, quirky humor, sense of the dramatic and adventurous is spot on. She'd set a goal in January of finishing her second book by October and entering it in the Golden Heart. Didn't make it so now she's done. Makes me sad and also makes me wonder.

At what point is it time to throw in the towel and what reason is good enough to give up on something you've worked so hard to attain?

How many of you enjoy every minute of writing, every minute of the process? For how many of you is it fun every day and you jump up ready to get at it and don't want to get out of the chair, even to go to the bathroom?

When I was in high school I was in the marching band. Fortunately I played the clarinet. Not a particularly heavy instrument to carry around in 100 degree heat in Alabama in August. I felt really badly for the tuba players. All that weight on their shoulders and standing at attention for hours on end. As we stood in formation in the boiling heat, sweat dripping while our director stepped off the next formation we used to ask each other in sneaky whispers "Are we having fun yet?" The answer was always "Not yet, but it's coming." Until we heard a resounding thud and the sound of a big bell tolling. One of the tuba players had hit the dirt, bell first, and the baritone sax player would say "NOW, we're having fun."

Writing is kind of like that. You write and write and write. You suffer the tortures of hell. It's fun if you and your fellow writers can commiserate. Sometimes you get to perform and everyone applauds. Sometimes you have to stand there and boil and let a master step off what you do next. And sometimes it gets so bad you feel like a tuba player in full gear going down for the count. Is any of it fun? All of it? Why do you keep doing it?

How about our published authors? You've got the contract. You have made it! Does it get any better? Any worse? Are deadlines killing you? Are there times you are ready to throw in the towel because it isn't fun or you think you'll never top what you did in your first book or you can't finish books as quickly as Nora Roberts? I mean Harper Lee wrote ONE book. One! It won a Pulitzer Prize. Talk about pressure. Was she having fun? Did she enjoy the process. How long did it take her to write the book and why didn't she write anything else? Ever wonder? I have.

I take about 8 months to a year to write a book. Eight months to a year of every minute of my free time and I produce ONE BOOK. I've produced three since I started this writing thing almost four years ago. That is SLOW. I hear about other people writing books in three months and I am amazed. And scared. And slightly ticked off at their ability to do so, but I'll get over that. One day. And how many books do you write without getting one published before you finally say "I'm not cut out for this."? By the way, what's the longest you've taken to finish a book? The shortest? Be truthful, even if the rest of us might throw rocks at you.

I started training to be an opera singer at the age of sixteen. I began auditioning for roles with opera companies at the age of twenty. I was invited to audition at the Met in New York at the age of twenty-five. I sang beautifully. Didn't get the part or the contract. I auditioned for years. Got some nice compliments. Got some raves. Got some "Don't call us, we'll call you's." What I didn't get was a contract or a role. I was twenty-nine when I sang my debut role as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflote in Austria. For those of you who don't know, twenty-nine is OLD for a soprano to debut.

And all of those hokey movies are true. When you are a singer you spend hours singing scales over and over again. You do vocal exercises. You spend hours listening to recordings of operas. You spend hours alone in a practice studio, just you and a piano and teach yourself the entire score of a 3 to 5 hour opera all by yourself. You rehearse with a pianist. You rehearse with a vocal coach. You eat, sleep and drink opera. You drag yourself (and sometimes your husband or your parents) all over the country to audition for bored opera directors who act like they are doing you a favor by listening to you. It is NOT fun. It is lonely, hard, sometimes depressing work. And many of my fellow aspiring singers fell by the wayside. Some of them were far more talented than I. Better looking too. (In the States that matters. In Europe all they want to know is can you sing and you can you sing over a 250 piece orchestra without a mike.)

Why did I stick with it? I have no idea. Can't decide if I was stupid, naive, stubborn, ambitious, masochistic or just didn't know when to quit. Or maybe, just maybe I knew in spite of all of the work and insults and pain and all of the hours spent slaving over a role alone with no hope in hell anyone would ever hear me sing it I kept going because sometimes you have to see it through no matter what. Sometimes what you are creating isn't about deadlines, or money, or fame or receiving some sort of praise from someone. Sometimes it's about doing it for yourself, as a sort of legacy, to say "I was here. I created something from myself. And when I'm gone, somehow it will still be here forever." Somewhere on the wind are the notes I sang in my debut role twenty-two years ago. They will always be part of the wind.

Why do I write with no idea if I'll be published or not? Cause I ain't done yet!

Let Me Be The Judge Of That

As many of you know, we are in the middle of judging the entries for the Linda Howard Award of Excellence Contest. Like the marines, we are still looking for a few good men--oops, I should say, men or women--to judge the remaining entries.

For me, the experience of judging entries, has been both educational and illuminating.

When judging an entry I can easily look at the manuscript and see the strengths and weakness of the author's work. Why can't I see the same deficiencies in my own creations? I suspect that I am too close to the material. Errors in plot, change of point of view and providing too much telling instead of showing, might just as well be highlighted in neon in another author's manuscript. I am blind to similar mistakes of my own.

Recently, I came close to placing in the finals in a writing contest. I attribute that to more experience, patient critique partners and my experience as a judge of the Linda Howard Award of Excellence Contest. Following a checklist and dissecting a manuscript written by someone else has helped me to be able to look at my own writing more objectively.

If you are a Pro or Pan writer, and you haven't already volunteered to be a judge this year, give some thought to doing so now. Trust me, you will get more out of it than you give. Contact Carla Swafford at CarlaSwafford@charter.net for more details.

For those of you who have judged a contest, what was the best or most surprising thing you got out of doing it?

I Still Believe

When I was nine years old, I wanted to be a mermaid. I used to draw pictures of them and my sister and I decided when we died we would ask God if He could make us mermaids instead of angels...

Yeah, I was nine..

My freshmen year of college, I wrote a paper on the Loch Ness Monster for my English class. While I still insist I presented a valid argument for its existence, I didn't quite manage to make a believer out of my professor.

I still think I should have received an A for creativity, not that B...


Mermaids. Big Foot. The Jersey Devil. The Loch Ness Monster. They have all fascinated me. They're beautiful, mysterious, wondrous, even dangerous. And as varied as they are in their locations, appearances and histories, they all have one thing in common.

They take me away.

Staring at pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, I'm transported to a land of mystery and lore. I visit a time when fairies danced beneath hills and spirits whispered in the Highland mists. As I read about the Jersey Devil I'm carried to a dark, unpaved road, the bare denuded trees like skeletons as their bony branches stretch upward. Out of the eerie quiet echoes a heavy flap of wings and a gargoyle-like creature casts its shadow across the gleam of the full moon.
In those worlds I am a part of the magic. I can pet the sloped head of the Loch Ness Monster. Dive beneath the waves into the depths of the sea as a mermaid. Become another person. Escape.

Isn't that why we read?

Whether it's to walk in the shadow of Big Foot or delve into the world of vampires...Whether it's to crash land in the fairy kingdom of Oberon or fall in love and hungry passion with the man harboring a dark secret...We read to discover different worlds, and for a couple of hours, become part of those worlds. We're heroines, lovers, warriors, immortal...we're readers.

Magic, mythical creatures and legends do exist in this world of science, technology and explanations. And they're found between the pages of a book.

Landing Safely

“Heads down” yelled the stewardess. I heard the edge of hysteria in her voice as I leaned over and put my hands over my head. Just a few minutes ago, as my flight was coming in for a landing, the pilot had announced that there was a problem. He and his co-pilot, due to a malfunction, were unable to determine if the landing gear was down and they were not taking any chances. They were treating this as a potential plane crash and we would have to make preparation for a rough landing. We were going to be met by emergency vehicles.

I remember the overwhelming iciness of fear flowing over me as I heard this. There was no time to write notes and this was a few years before cell phones were the norm. I looked sideways at the woman sitting next to me. We’d taken our seats two hours ago and never spoken. I was in my early twenties, she was in her forties. Her face mirrored my own, nervousness and something close to panic. I blurted out, my first words to her. “I have to pee.” She laughed and for a split second our fear broke. She said she did too, than as the plane descended and the stewardesses yelled out the warnings, she grabbed my hand.

We waited.

We hit the tarmac with a gentle thump. The landing gear had worked. Everyone on the plane cheered, and true enough the brightly colored emergency vehicles were there waiting.

We made it safely to our destination. I never saw that woman again.

I won’t ever forget that panic.

This brings me to the point of the story-fear.

I am hearing rumors, and reading about the realignments of publishing houses. Writers are nervous, old and new. Things are changing. Those of us who are unpublished writers are afraid. We wonder will we ever get published? Is it even possible? Are we pursuing a fools dream? Even seasoned authors are uneasy.

We all are on that plane, and we are not sure if the landing gear is going to come down. The possibility that all you are working for will come to nothing is very real. It inspires in us the dark iciness of panic. We could pretend things are not going to change and ignore it, or we could duck our heads down, and brace for impact.

I suggest we meet our fear head on, we acknowledge it, then clasp each other’s hands and forge ahead, keeping our eyes and ears wide open. Things are changing whether we like it or not, but we can meet it without being crippled by our fear. We can help each other. Stories are waiting to be told, and to be read. There is a place for all of us, although it may be far different than we expected.

Just wait and see. We’ll land safely on the other side.

What do you think? Do you think upheaval and possible changes coming in the publishing world is to be feared, or should we embrace it and make it work for us? What are your thoughts?

Blessings

When I was sixteen, my family chose to move to a new city.  Great.  A junior in a brand new high school.  I knew no one and had no friends.  A long, lonely first month passed.  And then I saw this guy.  He was running on the stadium track behind the school. Gym shorts, no shirt. Hmmm - maybe this new school wasn't going to be so bad after all.... 

For a number of years now, my husband and I have taken a short pre-Thanksgiving trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We usually leave Birmingham on either the Saturday or Sunday before the holiday and return on Wednesday, just in time for me to cook all evening in preparation for the great family feast.  Actually our first trip as a married couple occurred on our honeymoon, followed by a long stretch of years spent finishing college, establishing careers, and raising a family before we chose to return.  Some of these trips have included family members and friends which we both totally enjoyed.  And yet others, like this one, were just the two of us. Again.

As with all vacations, once away from the usual daily stresses, we took the time to remember the little things.  Hand in hand, we strolled the busy sidewalks enjoying the holiday lights and the festive decorations.  To stay warm, we huddled together on the ski lift as we made our way up the side of the mountain.  We teased each other, laughing and flirting - much like that teenage boy and girl and yet so much more.  An added depth that the passage of time and the sharing of lives brings.

I share this rather personal story with you because today is Thanksgiving.  And I am so very thankful for blessings too numerous to list but one of which is that I'm a romantic.  I absolutely love love stories.  So I write romance.

And the hero of the above two paragraphs, that workaholic, alpha male who is presently hauling Christmas decorations up from the basement and bellowing my name?

Oh, yes.  I am blessed.  

Finding Inspiration

Sorry this is a late post. I meant to blog several times yesterday but couldn’t come up with a single thing. It’s been one of those weeks.

But working today while so many people are off, I feel inspired. Why is working the day before a holiday so cool? Am I the only one who likes being at work when only the skeleton crews remain? It’s difficult to describe, but somehow I feel special. Like we’re all in this together. It reminds me of being in a school play, going to the school after-hours when the majority of kids are gone, and the school suddenly seems … smaller, doesn’t it?

I’ve been feeling pretty small in the work place lately, and I won’t bore you with the reasons. With the economy the way it is, I’m sure you can fill in the gory details with simple deduction. But today has a different feel to it. This place feels smaller, and for the first time in the last few weeks of hard-hitting depression, I feel like writing again.

How odd to find writing inspiration in such a strange place.

Where are you finding inspiration this holiday week?

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

This is an addendum to Gwen’s November 14th post about the importance of voice in writing. To sum up what Gwen said (forgive me, Gwen, if I don’t get it right!) minor problems in writing can be overcome or excused if the writer has a great voice and style.

To paraphrase Prince Hamlet, the story’s the thing.

I agree that an engaging voice is critical to a writer. Yours can be the most wonderful story in the world, but if you can’t tell it in a way that will draw the reader in, your story remains trapped between the covers of your book, languishes in the dark recesses of a desk drawer or floats lonely and unread in cyber space. As writers, we are storytellers. We want to share our stories with others. I’m sure there are writers out there who write for the sheer joy of putting pen to paper without a care for being published. I am not of them. To me, having a story that remains unread is like an actor performing on stage to an empty theater. Not my idea of fulfilling.

So, we sweat and strive and agonize to achieve that elusive (and, hopefully!) great voice, the perfect conduit that will deliver our precious baby to the reader . . . and then what? Where do we go from there? How do you achieve the right voice for the NEXT story you want to tell, especially if the voice in the book you just finished is a strong one?

That’s where I am right now. I just finished writing a book where the main character’s voice feels natural and organic, so much so that I am having trouble and some real anxiety about how to move on to the next book. Basically, I’m starting from scratch with the whole find-your-voice thing. Arggh! The main character in the next book is NOTHING like the heroine in the previous one, but I have to find her voice!

What tricks do you use to discover a character’s voice, especially if you and your character have little in common? How to imbue them with tricks and quirks and character traits of their own, not to mention that elusive voice, that will draw the reader in, make them appealing, likeable and totally distinguishable from the character you just wrote?

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

Paying your dues

I almost forgot I had a blog post due today (thanks, Carla, for the reminder!). When I checked my iPhone and saw the message, I was at a Ricky Skaggs concert. Now, that may seem odd, but I have to say that I love live music and I'll try anything once (most anything). So, when my parents wanted my hubby and I to go along to this concert that featured bluegrass music, we said sure.

And it was fabulous. Ricky Skaggs has won 14 Grammy Awards. There's a reason for it. Even if you don't care for bluegrass, it's an incredibly complex music to play. And it takes practice. Tons and tons of practice.

Yet this man, and his band Kentucky Thunder, made it look so easy. Their fingers flew on those instruments, making things happen that was just incredible to hear and brought the audience to cheers more than once. Incredible stuff.

We left the theater amazed at how fast their fingers moved, and how smooth the music was. And since I knew I had a blog post to write, I started thinking about practice, hard work, and dedication. (And, in the case of those fingers, muscle memory.)

That's what it takes to play damn good bluegrass, and that's what it takes to write a damn good book. Those men made it look easy, and I think that's what a good writer does too. But it's not easy. The work, the sweat, the blood, the tears -- it's all in there. You don't see it on the stage, but it's there.

So when you're feeling the despair of rewriting a scene or chapter or book for the fifth time, remember that you're working on that muscle memory, that the more you write and revise, the better you'll get. Writing is a muscle and it must be exercised. No words are wasted, even when you're crying and wailing and thinking you suck worse than any writer has ever sucked before (believe me, I feel that at least once in every book!).

Because one day it's going to be you on that stage and you'll be thankful you practiced so hard and long, that your muscles are ready for the experience. You gotta pay your dues to make it look easy. Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder were a beautiful example of that.

So keep writing. Don't give up. Me, I've got revisions to finish. It's the practice I need to make it seem effortless when the reader is reading.

Are you working that muscle memory today?

Exposing Myself

Years ago, when I first heard about people blogging, I confess I didn’t understand the appeal. Why would someone want to write their thoughts for the world to read? And why would I want to read what someone else wrote? I’m sure much of that reaction was because I’m essentially a very private person. I’ve known people who, when you ask their name, you get their life story. That’s not me. There are people who have known me for years that probably couldn’t tell you one personal thing about me.

But I’m making the effort to change. I work with the recovery ministry in the church I attend and last month I gave my testimony. Speaking in front of a group isn’t difficult for me. I am, after all, an ordained minister. (See? You didn’t know that, did you?) But telling “my story”, those unflattering aspects of my life, not to strangers but to people I see week after week was hard.

And then I asked to be added to this blog group. I’m exposing myself.

Why? Because I realized one of my biggest problems in writing was this tendency not to share. I write inspirational romances. The struggle with faith is as important to the story as the romance. And the struggle in my current WIP is something I’ve experienced. It wasn’t pretty. I can either use all the emotions, even the ones I’m not so proud of, and make my heroine’s story “real” or I can withhold myself and let the writing stay flat. This isn’t easy. Nothing worth while is.

I don’t think it matters which genre you write. I think all of us expose ourselves one way or another in our stories. What about you? How do you expose yourself in your writing?

Word Lover

I'm always excited when I learn a new word. It's the height of geekiness, isn't it? I'm also fascinated when I realize I didn't know the correct meaning for a certain word.

Today's word I mistakenly thought meant new was noir. For those like me, didn't know it or have it right, it means "Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings."

Ahhhh!

Maybe I was thinking of the word neo. No. Not of the Matrix. It means "recent or new."

Now after that lesson, why do I believe it's time for little muppets to come dancing out of the shadows?

So You Think You Can Dan...er, Write

I was watching So You Think You Can Dance last night (yes, I can't live without my DVR--I never watch live TV anymore), and something the judges kept saying caught my attention.

The gist was that if the dancers got "into character" and put the appropriate emotion in the performance, they could get away with a few technical errors. But, the opposite was not true. A flawless technical performance lacking emotion or story was not enough to cut it.

I think the same could be applied to writing. Grammatical problems or minor plot issues can be overcome with a great voice and style. It's more about the execution of the story, than its mechanics.

As I was flipping through The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman at BAM today, I was happy to see that he agreed. He basically said that execution was more important than plot for catching an editor's or agent's eye. If they don't get past the execution, they'll never read enough to get the plot anyway.

Not that we can afford to discount grammar or other technical issues--after all, we need to put our best foot forward--but we shouldn't forget that in the end, the story and how we tell it is what will grab the reader.

I guess I'd say, "Always improve your craft, but don't forget your voice."

---

The Daily Squirrel: soap (what's this?)

The scent of gardenias filled the steamy shower as she worked up a lather on the bar of soap. A familiar peace settled over her as her slick hands washed away the sweat and the lingering odor of cigarettes. Some day soon, she'd finish her degree, and she'd never have to work in a smoky bar again.

A New Publishing Wave is Building

This week a lot of excitement has abounded on the various writing loops. Why? HQN has a new baby sister, CARINA PRESS, and she's all E-Qute. At last a major publishing house is jumping into the digital age and giving new authors another way to attain their goal of publication.

According to the website, it's an opportunity to give those authors who don't fit the traditional genres a place for their stories. Wow, that's great!! At first glance, I was itchy to jump in and send off my query. Hey, although this publisher is independent from HQN, it might give me an opportunity to get noticed by the big sister. Lord knows I've been trying to get her attention a long time. I even got a request from my dream category this year and had high hopes.

But I was rejected because my book, while well-written and compelling, didn't fit the line I targeted (and had been encouraged to target). It read like a romantic comedy. Huh? I thought for sure it was pretty darned sexy. And who says we can't laugh on the way to the bedroom? My CPs and writing friends quickly assured me there was a market for my book(s), but a lot of the published sexy romantic funny stories are SINGLE TITLE.  I don't have that many words, so I've queried agencies in the hope that one will take a nibble and, eventually, I hope to land one who could help me find a home for my book(s).

My goals are simple. Keep writing, find an agent who can cut through the forest undergrowth for me, and keep writing.

Then this little temptation came along. And I am tempted. A lot. And a lot of other people, with recent rejections for being not quite a fit are getting pumped up. Why not zip off a query and an MS? What would be the harm? E has been very good to many of my writing friends (you know who you are my darlings!) and I have considered entering that publishing pool with queries before, so why not give Carina Press a whirl? Or any other E publisher with an established record.

However, I stopped myself from taking the plunge. Oh, my toes are curled around the edges of the pool, and my muscles are poised to spring. But nope. I'm reeling back my impulse. The old Christine would not have stopped herself. Trust me. I am usually a very decisive, quick action kinda gal and if I make a mistake, heck, I can fix it.

But this is my career. My dream. I need to evaluate my next move very carefully. I sat on my hands after I read all the news and submission guidelines (well, not really, I worked on my GH entry #2 and made phone calls and roamed the web loops for information) and analyzed the situation (Gwen would be so very proud of me).

First I asked trusted friends who are in E-publishing houses what the experience is like for them. Many positives. A few negatives. That's good to know. If I choose to go this route, it could lead to a nice writing career (hey I am assuming everyone will say yes to my brilliant prose). Second, I asked my CPs and my Chapter mates what they thought about this idea. Third, I waited for the Southern Magic Chapter Prez, Laura Hayden, to weigh in with her wise counsel. Fourth, I chewed on the information. Fifth, I reread the website and the blog posts. Sixth, I slept on it.

After a good night's sleep, I woke up and decided to wait a little longer before diving in. Not that I don't think this might be a great option for me as a writer, but because I want to see where all this is heading. What does RWA say about it? What will the contracts be like? Will this lead to print (unlike other E/digital publishers, print is currently not an option with Carina)? When I read the CARINA PRESS blogs, I loved the idea of finding a home for my book on an e shelf. This is a reputable company with the muscle behind it to power it to success. And there's a good chance that this company might lead to print options at the right time if authors demonstrate a huge marketability.

It's a win-win IF my book is accepted and I utilize all the information they'll teach me to promote my writing. If my book (again, dreaming here but I live in an ongoing delusional world) hits a unique niche and takes off that's a cool thing. Woohoo! The possibilities are endless. But for now this idea is new and I'm not sure if I am ready for all the work of self-promotion.

Again, the simple goal of writing screams for my attention.

I'm tempted. But I don't have business skills (I am not good with grids, ask Carla LOL), and I hate admin work. That's why I am hunting for an agent to represent me. I want to focus on WRITING. Thus, I am sticking to my original course. I can always reevaluate this opportunity later when I have another book completed, learned more about the e-world, sharpened my craft, and I have time to build my marketing network.

I don't know how this particular venture will impact the publishing industry as a whole. I'm not that smart. But I am smart enough to bully my impetuous side down and settle back before I make a big decision that could impact my future writing career.

Any thoughts out there about the latest E-Qutie? E-Pub vs Print Pub? Pros? Cons? Words of Wisdom?

Book Report

If you don't already have it, buy this book. Now.

I know the title's lame. And it's part of a how-to-write series. I don't care. James Scott Bell has written one of the best books for aspiring writers that's out there.

Even though you think you're getting just tips on plot and structure, you're getting so much more. He gives great characterization tips. He gives great "writing life" tips. He gives great storytelling tips. He talks about genres, dialogue, and tension.

Seriously. I would marry this guy if he were single. Well, and if I were single.