For many people, the life of a writer seems like a dream come true. They imagine a life spent in coffee shops, writing the great American novel. While that may be part of a writer's life, it is certainly not the whole story. A writer's life is full of ups and downs, just like any other life. But, what makes a writer's life unique is the way that they use their experiences, both good and bad, [...]
Several years ago I found my enjoyment of writing for magazines had faded. At that time, most of my writing revolved around my previous career as a small animal veterinarian, but writing about animal health issues had become boring and routine. Fortunately, I stumbled upon an idea that revitalized my love for writing. I invented a writing project, but not just any project. One of my favorite vet-related assignments had been to interview Bill Irwin and [...]
I realize that most people who find their way to this blog are readers, but I suspect an occasional indie author finds their way here as well. So, this little tip is for you. Who knows, I may be starting a series of tips in the spirit of collaboration. So, the question asked on Nick Stephenson's First 10K Readers Facebook page was whether or not one could use MailerLite's email service with Optimize Press landing pages. [...]
The purpose of this blog post is to debrief the relaunch of the FreeForm science fiction thriller series. Let me start with a little background. This project began several months ago during which time I did a lot of prep work including: All new covers for all six books, (Designed by Victor Habbick. Thanks Victor.) New blurbs/book descriptions (written by Maxwell, aka dogpillow. Awesome job Max) A new prequel story entitled Freeform: Crash, Additional editing, and [...]
I love audiobooks. Just about everything I read these days has to have an audiobook format option available or, well, I just don't buy it. That's why I want all my own books made into audiobooks. I'm also interested in trying my hand at narrator my own books, starting with a few short stories. Here are two short samples from my recent Patreon exclusive Fantastic Fable: Ellenore Loses Her Muse. Which do you prefer? Please leave [...]
2015 was an exciting year for being an indie authorpreneur. I made great strides, had a lot of fun, and had more than my share of successes. But just like it takes a village to raise a child, success as an indie author takes more than one person. It also takes the help of other people and resources like the ones listed below. I'm not going to list the obvious ones like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or [...]
If you've not heard about NaNoWriMo...well, what rock have you been living under? I mean, here's what it is. It's National Novel Writing Month where some 300,000 writers go for NaNo gold which is to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. I'm participating for the third year in a row and I just reached the 50K goal with 13 days left working on book two of the Seeds of a New Birth series. [...]
It seems to me that all artists including painters, sculptors, and especially writers have a fascination of how to tap into the creative energy that is often referred to as the Muse. (Actually, there's not one but nine different Muses who are, according to Wikipedia, "the personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and music, are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.") In my most recent investigation in how best to tap into this creative energy, [...]
Like most authors reading a 'bad review' of a book that I've invested hundreds (or thousands) of hours writing can be...well painful, a little like having one's fingernails pulled out one by one. Sure, there are those who say that any review is a 'good review,' and at some level I agree with this...especially when they're not about one of my babies. However, I must admit to roaring with laughter when I read a 1-star review [...]
I could write a really long and involved blog post about this topic or I could let Cynthia Shannon, Author Marketing Coordinator for Goodreads do it instead, and since she knows far more about it than I do at this point, I'll just simply share her great video on the subject. This will also free up a little time so I can implement some of the great suggestions Cynthia makes in the video. Just click on [...]
