I’d always scoffed at folks who diligently signed up every November to pound out a new novel. I mean, I was a writer. It wasn’t a hard job, not like piloting a plane or finding a cure for cancer. All I had to do was put my butt in the chair, turn on my laptop,…
Category: Blog
Is the Setting in Your Novel Like Guests Entering Your Home for the Big Dinner?
What is the first captivating “thing” company sees, senses, and touches? Large bulbs of color that hang from your gutters. Important? Those lights help place, or ground readers in your setting. Later, those decorated gutters fall off on the new car of your daughter’s boyfriend. The freshest of wreaths hangs on your door. Will that…
Doing Marketing for Free All by Yourself, Pt. 4 – Indy Edition
We are back for the unofficial part four of Marketing All by Yourself. Now, while everything in this column today will lean towards those independent publisher/author hybrids, authors with traditional contracts will be able to benefit from what I have to say, as well. At the end, I’ve also got some book recommendations, too. So…
Your Writing Home
A friend of mine says he hasn’t written hardly anything since the pandemic hit. He’s always written in coffee shops. Now that he’s stuck at home, the words don’t flow. He says it’s too quiet at home. Or maybe it’s simply that home is not his writing home. My writing home is my office. Which…
“Action, Mark!”
I have a walkie-talkie by the gearshift in my VW Passat. I hear the command: “Roll sound.” And the reply: “Rolling sound.” More whispering—all the directions are being given inside the café a half-block away, where the scene is being filmed. “Roll Camera” in a quiet whisper. Wait, wait … An assistant director stands outside…