For those who might not know, in the United State, Black History Month is celebrated for the entire month of February. The point of dedicating an entire month is so we can bring focus to the works, art, history, and voices of a specific community within our vast and diverse nation. We can learn, grow, Read more
Amazon Past Prime: Why Major Retailers & Publishers are Going it Alone
Is Amazon past prime? I really can’t speak for all business fads, just ones American. Americans do love…business. What do we love more than business? Duh. A great business fad. Hey, we DID invent the forty-hour work week just so we could ignore it *hair flip*. As I mentioned in my December post Penguin SOLD: Read more
Read MoreDon’t Advertise, PADvertise: Catch Readers With Their Pants Down
Book spam is so yesterday. Seems writers are always looking for some new way to advertise their books, which is fine…but some folks have gone more than a little bit cray-cray. I finally fled Twitter, by and large, because it’s next to impossible to locate real hoo-mans among all the automation. My email has pretty Read more
Read MoreNo Sales or Lackluster Sales: It Isn’t the Reader, It’s the Book…Really
Original image courtesy of Juhan Sonin via Flickr Creative commons. No sales or lackluster sales. It isn’t the reader’s fault. It’s the book. Really. This is tough to hear. I know. It’s a writer’s worst nightmare. You researched, you wrote, you finished, and then published your book. You wait for the sales and…. *crickets* This Read more
Read MoreFEAR: Why Humans Crave Stories That Scare Them
Fear is, in all likelihood, the single most complex human emotion. Our fears can keep us up at night, but they can also be the only thing that keeps us alive. They can save us, strangle us, liberate us or even destroy us. Like fire, fear can be intoxicating and even addictive and for sound Read more
Penguin SOLD: Publishing, Change & Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Oh MY!
This past week, Pearson, the owner of Penguin for the last half-century, jettisoned its remaining stake in Penguin Random House—the book publishing joint venture it formed six years ago with Bertelsmann, the German media group. According to an article in MSN Money, End of an era for book publisher Penguin: The company originally owned 47% Read more
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The Witcher (Netflix 2019)
Oh, Holidays! Parties, Gatherings, and all that glitz! Not for me. While I could do some writing, believe you me there’s a backlog of writing I need to get to do, I decided to get through my to-watch list. Hey, I did get to update King Wolf so I wasn’t that inattentive to my writing Read more
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Meet King Wolf
I’m starting a new fic on Wattpad (woohoo #IAmWriting)! It’s actually an idea that has been marinating in the back of my mind, but I left the headspace needed to continue it so it stayed there. Now I feel King Wolf jumping back into life and telling me his lines. I’m definitely pantsing this one, Read more
Writing Voice & Its Importance to Storytelling
Voice. All readers (and literary agents) want to find the next great one, and all writers want to know what the heck it is. If voice were easy to define, then we wouldn’t have dozens of articles, books and classes to demystify the concept. Today, I’ll put in my two cents and see if I Read more
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5 Holiday Challenges Only Writers Will Understand
It’s the holiday season, and this is a tough time for most people. For, writers, it’s peace hell on Earth, largely—though not entirely—due to the whole ‘having to wear pants’ thing. We authors, historically, have been a misunderstood group of people. Burned as witches. No holiday there. Survival rate after a political coup? Close to Read more
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