Industry
My First Book-Signing: Photos
Saturday was my very first book-signing. Yeah! I was so tickled as so many friends made the effort to come by. Here I am signing a book for my friend Heather Corbin. She was one of the gals in a Bible study two years ago that I dared to risk this dream, too. That group…
Saturday Morning Review: The Lost Sheep by Brandt Dodson
I literally just got done reading this book and had to tell you about it. Those of you who know me, know I don’t usually read PI stories. I may love the Thin Man movies, but PI tales have never been my thing. Brandt Dodson has changed that. The fourth installment in Brandt Dodson’s Colton…
Remaining Humble Through The Journey
Have you ever been planning for something really big and then something bad, maybe just silly stupid, happened just before the big day? This happened to me when I was just getting ready to speak in front of some sales people for my book, Ruby Among Us. Read my story here: If Anything Can Go Wrong…
Ding, Dong the Book is Dead?
From what I can tell so far, The Kindle is the newest high tech rage in reading books that might actually replace the printed book some day. I just started reading about it and several editors are posting on it. It looks like a cool and convenient gadget. Want to read a book by Thomas…
Interview with Dean Koontz
When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages. He has sold 325,000,000 copies, a figure that currently increases by more than 17 million copies per year. Ten of his novels have risen to number one…
Marketing Fiction
Last week this post by Chip MacGregor got me thinking about marketing my fiction and what makes a reader grab a book off the shelf. Is it the book itself or is it the story? According to Allen Arnold, a Senior Vice President and the Publisher of Fiction at Thomas Nelson, Hollywood does a better…
What Is Voice Anyway?
“But what is this mysterious thing, voice? One of my favorite oxymorons is the often-repeated phrase “a writer’s voice.” Just how much sound can a bunch of black marks on a piece of paper make, anyway? I don’t know about you, but the only sounds I make as I’m writing are the tap of the…
When Times Get Tough
I was writing a blog this weekend because I was tagged to participate in a game that Mary DeMuth started. What were you doing 10-20-30 years ago? This got me to thinking (sometimes a dangerous thing) about what I was doing. Ten years ago I was just starting to sell again after an eight-year dry…
Rewriting, Self Doubts, and Insanity!
I’m on a vicious cycle right now, writing and rewriting my first couple of chapters, and I’m driving myself insane! After getting my critiques back from the Genesis contest in the Spring, I went to work, perfecting and cleaning up my writing. Then I got busy writing the synopsis and proposal for the ACFW conference.…
Bringing Evil to Life
If you write suspense, somewhere along the storyline you’re probably going to introduce the bad guy, the evil creep bent on mayhem or bloodshed or carnage of some sort. But these bad dudes pose a challenge for many authors. How bad is bad enough? Or too bad? How do I bring my antagonist to life?…