Writers and Authors

Cover Reveal: StrangeLove by T.L. Bradford

2022-02-04T09:16:00.005+01:00

Cover Reveal

StrangeLove by T.L. Bradford

Title: StrangeLove

Author: T.L. Bradford

ABOUT:

Archer

The year began great for me.

Became the starting quarterback for an NFL team – check.

Secured a multi-million-dollar contract – check.

Moved to LA and lived the glamorous life – check.

What could possibly cause me any issues?

Oh yeah, one more thing. I’m gay.

I was outed a couple of years ago to my former team and my family, but it hasn’t been made public knowledge yet. Well, that is, until now. I’ll be known as the first LGBTQ+ active player in the league’s history. And if I stick to the conditions of my contract, it won’t be a problem. The thing is, I’m not really a guy known for playing by the rules.

Most people think of my personality as the three B’s: bold, brash, and blunt. My mouth has gotten me into more predicaments than I can count. Even my best friends have told me I’m stubborn as a mule and have the delicacy of a bull in a china shop. This presents a big problem for me because I have my eyes set on winning over the guy who stole my heart years ago, only he doesn’t know it yet.

Getting his attention is going to be challenging. It’s a good thing I’m tenacious.

Unfortunately, it’s not great timing and could get me into a whole mess of trouble.

Why does falling for a guy need to be anyone’s business but mine?

Kai

The past couple of years were a whirlwind of activity. My career took off after my guest shot appearance in Americana. I appeared in a few indie features and finally got a shot at my first major motion picture release. The work came as a great distraction from my personal life, which took a further nosedive after I found out the guy I was falling for had already fallen for someone else.

Why should I be surprised? He was another in a string of failed relationship attempts. I swore I wouldn’t get involved with anyone else, choosing to stay focused on my career instead. That is, until the force of nature known as Archer McMillan came storming into my life.

To be the pursued instead of the pursuer was not in the cards. To top it off, he’s everything I’m not. Yet, there’s something to be said for a guy who can make you laugh when it’s the last thing you want to be doing. I’ll admit he’s got a playful and determined spirit. Archer also has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known. Not the mention the cute way he… Hold on. What am I doing? We cannot be a thing. Nope. Not gonna happen. Ever. Right?

Follow Kai and Archer as they cross the lines as friends, partners-in-crime, and confidants, to discover a love beyond boundaries that needs no definition.

(StrangeLove is a funny, heartwarming, slow-burn love story. It contains a cast of fully developed characters that encounter romance, laughter, and life lessons. It contains adult language, mature themes, and is best enjoyed by those over the age of 18. It can be read as a standalone; however, if you would like to know the backstories of some characters, check out the prior books in the series.)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60291958-strangelove

Cover Reveal

AUTHOR BIO:

T.L. always hated math, so it was a good thing she had a way with words. Since she was a shy and quirky kid; words were her best friends. She would imagine entire worlds in her head and talk to herself endlessly. Her mother wondered if she was speaking with ghosts for a while.

Her older sister was a voracious reader of trashy romance novels and would pass them down to her after she had finished them. T.L. was the only 10-year-old kid sitting in class reading “The Stud” by Jackie Collins during reading time. Oddly enough, she never got called out on it.

As she grew older, her tastes evolved, but one thing held fast; her undying attachment to love stories. One day out of the blue, she decided to write the love stories she always wanted to read instead of searching for her story. Since then, writing has been a dream fulfilled for her and she could not be happier.

She enjoys writing about love, regardless of gender and is a proud supporter of the LGBTQ community.

T.L. calls the Pacific Northwest her home and enjoys the quiet rural life of her little oceanside home with her playful/crazy husband and their giant dog Noah.

Author links:

https://tlbradford.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19366370.T_L_Bradford
https://twitter.com/tbradfordauthor
https://www.instagram.com/tlbradfordauthor/
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/tl-bradford?list=about

Cover Reveal: Butterfly Sisters by Jenny Hale

2022-01-27T07:30:00.002+01:00

Cover Reveal

Butterfly Sisters by Jenny Hale

Title: Butterfly Sisters

Author: Jenny Hale

ABOUT:

“When emerging from its cocoon, a butterfly needs the struggle to push the fluid from its body into its wings. So essentially, without the struggle, it never flies.”

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Beach House comes a story about family bonds, second chances, and finding out who we really are. Butterfly Sisters is the perfect escape for fans of Susan Wiggs, RaeAnne Thayne, and Susan Mallery.

About to land her biggest deal yet, Leigh Henderson is on her game. She’s prepared for this, and nothing can get in her way. Except Rebecca Mayer, who’d sashayed in a few weeks ago with a former client list that would fill the entire hallway to Leigh’s office if she laid it out end to end. When her boss unexpectedly offers the deal to Rebecca and tells Leigh he’s letting her go, Leigh finds herself without a job.

But that’s the least of her worries.

Her mother has some news that will change everything. She’s asked Leigh and her sister Meredith to meet her at the family cabin on Old Hickory Lake. Not only has Leigh been unable to pin her sister down in years, but going back to the cabin would mean dealing with the loss of her beloved grandmother and also chance running into her old flame Colton Harris, the one love she’s never been able to completely let go of.

Will confronting her grief, speaking to her estranged sister, and being forced to face the love she’d left behind help Leigh to learn who she really is?

A heartwarming story that will have you laughing, crying, and rushing to those you hold dear. If you loved the Christmas movies based on Jenny’s books and are looking for more feel-good, small-town romance, look no further!

Cover Reveal

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60212478-butterfly-sisters

Pre-order:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3g1ia1T

AUTHOR BIO:

Jenny Hale is a USA Today, Amazon, and international bestselling author of romantic contemporary fiction. Her books have sold worldwide, have been translated into multiple languages, and adapted for television. Her novels Coming Home for Christmas and Movie Guide Epiphany Award winner Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses are Hallmark Channel original movies.

She was included in Oprah Magazine’s “19 Dreamy Summer Romances to Whisk You Away” and Southern Living’s “30 Christmas Novels to Start Reading Now.” Her stories are chock-full of feel-good romance and overflowing with warm settings, great friends, and family. Jenny is at work on her next novel, delighted to be bringing even more heartwarming stories to her readers.

When she isn’t writing, or heading up her romantic fiction imprint Harpeth Road, she can be found running around her hometown of Nashville with her husband, two boys, and their labradoodle, taking pictures—her favorite pastime.

Author links:

https://www.itsjennyhale.com/

https://www.facebook.com/jennyhaleauthor/

https://www.instagram.com/jhaleauthor/

https://twitter.com/jhaleauthor

https://www.pinterest.ca/jhaleauthor/_saved/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7201437.Jenny_Hale

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jenny-hale

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xY4E_pNRwzu_S3IHrvwiQ

Endless Pre-writes

2022-01-10T07:30:00.002+01:00

Endless Pre-writes

Effective Prewriting Techniques

Guest Post By Howard Michael Gould

Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Authors seem locked in an eternal (even tiresome) debate between “pantsers” and “plotters.” I can’t gainsay the former, but I’ve never met another writer who’s quite as extremely the latter as myself. So I thought I’d share how I got that way, and detail my process.

It began long before I became a novelist. I started as a playwright (college, then off-off-Broadway), then worked successfully in TV audience sitcoms for a decade. Then I wrote another play, which Mike Nichols wanted to direct, which got the attention of the movie side of the business. But the more successful I got, and more importantly, the better I got at my craft—specifically, the more I knew about what a good script actually was—the harder it got for me to actually write. I’d intimidated myself into paralysis. It was hell.

I came to think of it as page fright.

I still have it. And I still think of all I’m about to describe as a workaround. But it’s an effective one.

When I start a new project, whether it’s a movie rewrite or my own novel from scratch, I start by opening a Word document, and just talking to myself, doing all my thinking is on paper (well, pixels).

At some point—and if it’s a novel, this may be weeks in—I have an idea of some things I know. So I’ll list them. But what’s more glaring and scary, of course, is how very much I don’t know. So I’ll make a list of questions. Where’s the action? Which characters from the last book are in this one? Do we need another dead body somewhere? Usually they’re pretty general at this point.

When that document becomes too cumbersome, I’ll open a second—called “Notes2”—and start again by taking stock of what I have, and what I don’t. A new set of questions, becoming more granular. How does Waldo know his client is lying? How many suspects are there? How does he figure out who the killer is?

For the fourth Waldo novel (in progress), I had four of these documents, totalling 150 single-spaced pages… before I even started outlining.

Once I’ve answered every question I can think of, I start putting everything on index cards. When I started in TV, we used real index cards on a cork board. (For the last 25 years I’ve been addicted to software called Writer’s Blocks. If they ever go out of business, I’ll have to retire.) I use different colors for different storylines, and put absolutely anything that I think might go into the book onto a card. For the Waldo in progress, there were around 350 of them.

The next step is putting those cards in order, a daunting task. Here the screenwriting background helps. Mainstream movies traditionally have major story turns at the ¼, ½, and ¾ points. I think of my Waldo books as sort of overstuffed screen stories, and put the major turns of each storyline at about those marks, so the cards naturally group roughly into more manageable quarters. I order each of those quadrants, then further divide each into chapters.

That done, I use the “manuscript” function in Writer’s Blocks to turn it all into text, and import it into a new Word document, which I’ll expand into my outline.

To do that, I flesh out each chapter from the list of index card thumbnail notes into a detailed telling. I write in unabashedly clunky prose, in present tense—vestigial from my screenwriting years—and throw in everything I can think of, and grind on anything that might slow me down later. If I’ll need to do some research, this is the time. If I know I’m going to need to refer to a previous Waldo book, I’ll note the exact spot here. The idea is to do every bit of work that I can, before the scary parts starts.

This phase alone can take me months. It usually yields about 70 single-spaced pages, or 30,000 words, toward a novel which will run 70,000 to 75,000.

When I get through that… at last, it’s time to brave the blank page. But with a hell of a head start.

One famous writer-director I collaborated with laughed when I told him about my process. He said, “You’re tricking yourself into writing while you’re telling yourself you’re not writing.”

Maybe he’s right. But at this point, it’s the only way I know how to get through it.

Howard Michael Gould graduated from Amherst College and spent five years working on Madison Avenue, winning three Clios and numerous other awards.

In television, he was executive producer and head writer of CYBILL when it won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, and held the same positions on THE JEFF FOXWORTHY SHOW and INSTANT MOM. Other TV credits include FM and HOME IMPROVEMENT.

He wrote and directed the feature film THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY LEFAY, starring Tim Allen, Elisha Cuthbert, Andie MacDowell and Jenna Elfman. Other feature credits include MR. 3000 and SHREK THE THIRD.

His play DIVA premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and La Jolla Playhouse, and was subsequently published by Samuel French and performed around the country.

He is the author of three mystery novels featuring the minimalist detective Charlie Waldo: LAST LOOKS (2018) and BELOW THE LINE (2019), both nominated for Shamus Awards by the Private Eye Writers of America, and PAY OR PLAY (2021). The feature film version of LAST LOOKS, starring Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson and directed by Tim Kirkby, will premiere February, 2022; Gould also wrote the screenplay.

Catch Up With Howard Michael Gould:
HowardMichaelGould.com
Goodreads
BookBub
Instagram - @howardmichaelgould
Twitter - @HowardMGould
Facebook - @HowardMGould

Plotting or Plodding? Pro Tips for Sharper Writing

2021-12-13T07:00:00.001+01:00

Plotting or Plodding?

Pro Tips for Sharper Writing

Guest post by John Nardizzi

We've all heard expert advice from writers and teachers on sharpening our writing. Here are some of the top tips I've learned from fellow writers and editors.

Opening Mood

G. Miki Hayden's primer Writing the Mystery points to the opening of John Grisham's The Firm as a tour de force in setting a sinister tone: “The very start of the book exudes largeness. The new hireling attorney achieves an opulent lifestyle, almost without effort, but something ominous lurks beneath the surface.” The current state of the publishing industry seems to reflect this sentiment, which is unfortunate, given some of the best novels do a slow burn before exploding. Even if you don't leap into external action, the mood and tone of some internal conflict in a character can make your opening sing.

Character Drives the Plot

Readers want to engage with the book emotionally. That means characters crashing together in dramatic and unexpected ways that raise the themes of what it means to be human.

Few books deliver that more powerfully than Delia Owens’ mystery novel When the Crawdads Sing. The narrator Kya is a young girl who comes from a family eking out a living in a marsh near the North Carolina coast, "squeezed together like penned rabbits… in a rough-cut shack, its screened porch staring big-eyed from under the oaks". Her alcoholic father abuses her mother, who one day gathers her life's treasures in an old blue suitcase and walks away in her fake alligator skin shoes. Kya knows something major is happening: “Her throat tight, she whispered, "But Ma's carrying' that blue case like she's goin' somewhere big." The action is simple—a woman walking down a dirt road. But the sense of character Owens created in a few deft strokes rivets you to the page.

A Visual Chapter Layout

My last book, The Burden of Innocence, felt a little unbalanced as I edited a draft. So I took a tip from the writer Tom Davidson, and got a bunch of index cards, one for each chapter. I then wrote a basic 3 to 10 word summation on each index card of what happened in each chapter: “PI meets a witness near the harbor” or “Detective gets attacked in Chelsea”, “Detective eats dinner again with a witness.” Then I laid out the cards in chronological order (in a block) on the floor.

This visual exercise made this clear that I packed too many heavy action scenes in one section. I took photos to record the current layout. I then rearranged the cards a bit to redistribute the action and make the plot evolve more smoothly. And I rearranged them a few more times. Yes, you can do this with just an outline, but laying out every scene like a filmmaker (and we live in the age of video) was more helpful in plotting than anything I had done.

Vary Sentence Length

In the beginning of my career as an investigator, I wrote long sentences, a habit from law school; law review articles and case law tend to favor this style. Not a promising trait for a fiction writer (unless your last name is Faulkner). One of by best editors tore my early drafts to shreds, telling me the writing had potential, but only if I simplified my approach. She pointed out that, as the plot changed, I could use varying sentence length in different ways: to accelerate the reader along in action scenes, or slow them down if the mood was one of careful scheming or a quiet talk. Think of a tense situation in life. How is your sense of sight and sound affected? The way you structure language can heighten or undercut the rhythm of a particular scene.

Poetry Versus Plain Writing

T.S. Eliot once wrote, “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” He advocated the use of sharp, hard images that bypassed the conscious mind to make the reader feel things, or understand certain instinctive truths.

Contrast that advice with crime fiction Elmore Leonard, who wrote a humorous (yet serious) piece about his rules of writing: “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip… If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

Of course, we all strive to write that unforgettable line, to find Eliot image, something that communicates deeply. But know that you're probably going to fail. Eliot's images can be effective, but only if used sparingly; otherwise, the writing appears bloated— “the part that readers tend to skip,” as Leonard says. Finding that balance between working your own unique voice and just getting the darn book done is the constant struggle of writing.

Bio

John Nardizzi is an award-winning writer and investigator. His crime novels have won praise for crackling dialogue and pithy observations of detective work. He speaks and writes about investigations in numerous settings, including World Association of Detectives, Lawyers Weekly, Pursuit Magazine and PI Magazine.

His work on innocence cases led to the exoneration Gary Cifizzari and James Watson (he was awarded the Arc of Justice for the Watson case in 2021), as well as million dollar settlements for clients Dennis Maher and the estate of Kenneth Waters, whose story was featured in the film Conviction. Prior to his PI career, he failed to hold any restaurant job for longer than a week. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Author links:

http://www.johnnardizzi.com

https://twitter.com/AuthorPI

Book Spotlight: Devil's Deal by Tessa Hastjarjanto

2021-12-11T17:52:00.004+01:00

Book Spotlight

Devil's Deal by Tessa Hastjarjanto

Book Synopsis

When two angels break their deal with the Devil, he comes for the one they’re trying to protect.

16-year-old Eleonora Santos works through the summer break so she can visit her family in Italy when she graduates. With the new school year around the corner, her focus is back on homework and enjoying life with her tight group of friends. But on their first day back, she finds them fawning over two new guys in their class—Ben and Danny.

Not a day goes by before Nora’s life is turned upside down. Her best friend now hates her, and the boys seem eager to get to know her. Despite their charming efforts, she’d rather have her best friend, not a boyfriend.

When Nora discovers Ben and Danny are not who they claim to be, and their nefarious deal goes wrong, Nora is caught in the middle.

To fix their mistakes, she must face the Devil and betray herself—or pay with her life.

Devil's Deal is a YA romance novel with a paranormal twist set in the Dutch fictional city Lakeside. The Infernal Contracts trilogy is perfect for fans of the Twilight Saga, The Vampire Diaries, and Fallen.

Author Bio

Tessa Hastjarjanto is a Dutch/Indonesian writer from the Netherlands. She writes speculative fiction, and blogs at narratess.com about books, fountain pens, and writing.

From a young age, she imitated popular stories and games in creating her own worlds. This love eventually led to a master’s degree in media and game studies at the University of Utrecht. However a mundane desk job was enough to inspire her to follow her creative passion. The first fanfics were written in lunch breaks and soon original fiction followed.

With the support of her husband, she now focuses on her writing career while battling chronic pain. Swiss white shepherd, Shiro, acts as a therapy dog to keep her healthy and reduce stress through extensive cuddle sessions.

Buy Links

Amazon affiliate link

Author Links

http://www.tessahastjarjanto.com

https://twitter.com/Endalia

https://www.facebook.com/tessahastjarjanto/

https://www.instagram.com/tessa.hastjarjanto/

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/tessa-hastjarjanto

https://www.amazon.com/Tessa-Hastjarjanto/e/B07Q8RK3FH

Writing Strategies For Beginners

2021-12-06T07:00:00.006+01:00

Writing Strategies For Beginners

Tips for Beginning Novelists

Guest Post By Robert Douglass

Purchase Links: Amazon

I wrote the first draft of my novel and had a fine story for a cozy mystery. However, it was flat. I thought my characters would be so compelling, but they didn’t have much depth. As I worked to correct the problem, I found a few books on writing (Truby, Bird, Cron – listed below) and found a vast array of principles and concepts that made sense to me after spending so much time writing the manuscript.

John Truby – The Anatomy of Story
Matt Bird – The Secrets of Story
Lisa Cron – Story Genius

This new knowledge showed me areas that were lacking but also showed me how to frame things correctly and avoid the problems. It made sense to me and I was excited, and rightfully so, and I began to edit and re-write the manuscript and tell a better story.

The overall structure of the story began to shape up which allowed me to fine tune the plot with the best sequence of events. I referenced the books now and then to make sure I was following the concepts I thought would work best for the story. I liked where the story was going and worked through the scenes and noted how I could add details about the surroundings, sequence of events, characters, etc.

As I considered the scenes I got back to the original intent as I was now able to see how the characters would really act in the situation – like telling the boss his idea is great but slumping in the desk chair after he left the office to show the new throbbing headache. The characters began to form in a much deeper way and it became apparent how to show the inner struggles of the characters and their real life emotions and attitudes.

Was this the cure all for the entire story? No, my editor still had recommendations to form a fuller story, but it was essential learning and a way to get the manuscript to the next level. And the recommendations from the editor made sense as I had the ability to understand ideas with fresh thinking as I had found ways of writing that worked for me.

Robert has an AAS in Microsoft Networking Technology from Glendale Community College and is a Microsoft Certified Professional.

He likes reading, writing, and exploring natural wonders. His favorite pastime is telling tall stories around the campfire.

Catch Up With Robert Douglass:
RTDouglass.com
Twitter – @RTDouglassLit
Facebook – @RTDouglassAuthor

Lessons Of A Self-published Author

2021-12-03T07:00:00.002+01:00

Lessons Of A Self-published Author

Valuable Lessons Learned From Writing & Publishing A Book

Guest Post By PJ Peterson

Lessons I have learned since I self-published my first book.

1. Professional editing is a must. I didn’t discover developmental editing until my second novel, which I started writing the month after I self-published Blind Fish Don’t Talk. I don’t recall how it happened, but I stumbled onto Reedsy.com and hired a talented editor. She politely but firmly pointed out the holes in my story and gave me excellent suggestions for writing a stronger one.

2. Copyediting is best done by someone with the proper skills, even if you made straight As in English in college. As I write, I occasionally refer to The Chicago Manual of Style but my copyeditor still makes a slew of corrections. I overuse those single quotation marks and can never remember when to italicize, or not, internal thoughts and unspoken dialogue, for example.

3. A strong cover appropriate to the genre helps your novel stand out against the competition. My artist friend and I proudly created a cover using CreateSpace’s design feature for my first book. Once I knew better, I had a genre-specific cover created professionally. I’m envious of my talented author friends who create their own beautiful covers using Canva or Photoshop.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

4. Pushing the “publish” button on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing site is not a marketing plan. I like to think I create pretty good stories, but that doesn’t mean book sales unless my book gets in front of the eyes of thousands and thousands of potential readers. In the three years since I pushed that magic button the first time, I have learned about companies that help with promoting my books, started using advertising in various venues, signed up for a book blog tour, and created a webpage, though not in that order.

5. Keywords are vital for queuing up your book to the readers who are more likely to buy it. Publisher’s Rocket (by Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.com) is one of those valuable aids that will help you identify those few magic words that draw in your audience.

6. Having a professional website is essential. There are dozens of options and opportunities online for creating one yourself, or you can hire a pro. Learn about building a subscriber list and link your website to your books, whether on Amazon.com, Goodreads, or other sites.

7. Potential readers read reviews of books. Consider using a company such as BookSirens, Reedsy.com, Goodreads, and others for a professional review. Search Reviewer Directories, such as The Book Blogger List, for potential reviewers—some free, some for a fee.

8. Learning to use advertising wisely and efficiently is worth investigating. “Build it and they will come” doesn’t work in the competitive world of book selling. There are millions of titles sitting next to your books competing for the same readers. Advertising doesn’t make your book better but does make it more visible which hopefully leads to more sales.

9. Write more books! I hadn’t planned to write a series but it was easier to write a second story (and a third, fourth, and now a fifth) using my protagonist than to create a new one. And I like my heroine and her sidekick, as do many of my readers.

10. Remember to enjoy the process of creating your story. If it entertains you, it most likely will entertain a future reader.

Writing is fun for me even if I don’t enjoy all the other parts of the publishing process. I can’t not write.

And that’s the bottom line.

PJ is a retired internist who enjoyed the diagnostic part of practicing medicine as well as creating long-lasting relationships with her patients. As a child she wanted to be a doctor so she could “help people.” She now volunteers at the local Free Medical Clinic to satisfy that need to help.

She loved to read from a young age and read all the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books she could find. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she wrote anything longer than short stories for English classes and term papers in others. Writing mysteries only makes sense given her early exposure to that genre. Sprinkling in a little medical mystique makes it all the more fun.

Catch Up With PJ Peterson:
www.PJPetersonAuthor.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @mizdrpj1
Facebook – PJ Peterson

Book Spotlight: Land of the Sun, Land Without Light by David Michael Litwack

2021-11-22T17:06:00.005+01:00

Book Spotlight

Land of the Sun, Land Without Light by David Michael Litwack

Book Synopsis

Aaron Hamblin is named executor of his older brother, Harrison’s (Harry’s), estate; and, in organizing Harry’s possessions, Aaron finds a kind of manuscript with sometimes jumbled notes describing Harry’s adventures overseas—and that Harry may have been an unwitting accomplice to misdirection and its outcome.

Harry Hamblin, a Peace Corps teacher in the Sahel, just on the edge of the Sahara, finds himself embroiled in a maelstrom in part of his own making. He has agreed to be “eyes and ears for an unnamed American agency.

He befriends the leader of a rebellion and, as a result, becomes the target of a National Militia Colonel. Both the rebel and Colonel use him to carry sometimes misleading messages to the opposition. He portrays himself as “…the perfect go-between. The perfect traitor. To both sides." Harry tries to massage these messages and engineer a truce, but, given the eventual futility of his best efforts, he learns he must take the only way out. Or should he?

Land of the Sun is to a great extent a bildungsroman by a narrator who writes in a humorous and self-deprecating style. Much of the drama (and humor) derives from intercultural differences and misunderstandings as well post colonial confusion. The cultural information is true and accurate. To a degree, But more importantly, I believe that I have used the power of imagination and knowledge to inform, entertain, and hopefully captivate the reader--to create this unusual and sometimes even unbelievable story.

Author Bio

DAVID MICHAEL,Michael David (as Mother would have it—his parents couldn’t make up their minds) grew up on the Kansas/Missouri state-line. The tension deriving from his ambiguous naming and breeding location might explain the eclectic mix of folk, international, and country selections that he offers. He’s a wanna-be songwriter noted for, among others, Rock ‘n Roll Nation, El Wahid, and Leavin’ Sara Lee…or soon will be. In the meantime he writes kids’ books; he writes espionage novels; he writes technical stuff; and he romantically proffers his love only to Donna Lu.

Buy Links

Amazon affiliate link

Author Links

DAVY LITWACK'S LOCKER

David M Litwack | David M Litwack - Author, Songwriter, Tradewriter

Cover Reveal: What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong

2021-11-16T07:00:00.002+01:00

Cover Reveal

What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong

Title: What They Don't Know

Author: Susan Furlong

ABOUT:

Unrelenting psychological suspense with a wicked twist …

Mona Ellison is living a dream life. A successful husband, loving son, beautiful home, an amazing group of friends … you could say that everything is perfect.

Until it isn’t.

When her son becomes entangled with the wrong crowd, ditches college plans, and runs away from home for a life of partying, Mona is upset, but boys will be boys, right? He’ll be back as soon as his money runs dry. At least that’s what she tells her friends.

Only she suspects something different.

Then the police knock on Mona’s door. A young girl has turned up dead, and her missing son is the prime suspect.

Determined to reunite with her son and prove his innocence, Mona embarks on a search that puts her on a twisty trail of social media clues and a rollercoaster ride of lies and betrayal until she lands on a truth that changes her perception of everything. Now, the only thing Mona knows is that she can’t trust anyone … not even herself.

Cover Reveal

AUTHOR BIO:

Susan Furlong is the author of several mysteries including the acclaimed Bone Gap Travellers series, and SHATTERED JUSTICE, a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year. She also contributes, under a penname, to the New York Times bestselling Novel Idea series. Her eleventh novel, THE PERFECT FAMILY, will release in May 2022. She resides in Illinois with her husband and children.

Author links:
www.SusanFurlong.com
Goodreads
BookBub
Instagram - @susanfurlong
Twitter - @Furlong_Sue
Facebook - @SusanFurlongAuthor

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Cover Reveal: Heinous by Yolanda Olson

2021-10-28T07:30:00.001+02:00

Cover Reveal

Heinous by Yolanda Olson

Title: Heinous

Author: Yolanda Olson

Release Date: February 15th 2022

Genre: Adult

ABOUT:

Someone once said that if you talk about the devil, he’s bound to appear.

Most would keep silent, hoping that they’d never be found by such a monster, but I prayed for his touch every night.

I knew the devil when I was a child and fell in love with him the first time he taught me that I wasn’t as damaged as I was led to believe that I was.

He cared for me, helped me learn how to smile, and see the world in a different way even though he didn’t realize that he had done so.

But they feared him; hated him.

So seventeen years ago, they ripped him away from me.

What they didn’t know was that he had already created a monster in his very image.

I thought I’d never see him again—I finally resigned myself to that. But then he came back, just like he promised he always would through that smile of his.

We’re together again.

And now, no one will be able to keep us apart ever again.

Cover Reveal

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55714784-heinous

Pre-order:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3misUNl

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heinous-yolanda-olson/1140117748;jsessionid=5D29BD98092EFD29566233E5F658735F.prodny_store01-atgap07?ean=2940165431760

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1583753651

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/heinous-1

AUTHOR BIO:

Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.

Author links:

https://www.yolandaolson.com/

https://www.facebook.com/yolandasendlesswords/

https://www.instagram.com/ihateyolandaolson/

https://www.pinterest.ca/yolanda_olson/_created/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ikillthingsinbooks?

https://twitter.com/SymphonyYolanda

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6941335.Yolanda_Olson

Cover Reveal: Beast by Cambria Hebert

2021-10-21T18:36:00.002+02:00

Cover Reveal

Beast by Cambria Hebert

Title: BEAST (House of Misfits #4)

Author: Cambria Hebert

Release Date: November 12, 2021

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Modern Retelling (Beauty and the Beast)

ABOUT:

A tale as old as time…

A charismatic man cannot see beyond his own

brilliant reflection, never learning that true beauty lies within.

His selfish behavior draws the ire of a witch with enchantment on her wicked tongue.

A fiery curse is unleashed, engulfing the self-centered man’s entire existence.

When at last the flames are extinguished,

he gazes upon his reflection to discover he is no longer breathtakingly handsome

but condemned with scorched flesh and twisted scars.

He is no longer a man at all… but a beast.

While the ferocious beast rages, alienating everyone far and wide,

a woman whose beauty is far more than skin-deep

dwells in a world much simpler than his.

The beauty’s quiet life is disrupted when she is ambushed, threatened,

and boldly steps in the path of her father’s debt.

However, it’s not the thugs on her tail or the roaring beast

testing her patience that threatens to be this sassy beauty’s downfall.

It’s the way her heart flutters whenever he is near.

But some curses just can’t be broken, and really…

How can she truly ever love a beast?

*Beast is book 4 in the House of Misfits series but it could be read as a standalone. There are mentions of the previous books & plots and the characters from the first three books do make appearances in Beast.

Cover Reveal

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59414223-beast

AUTHOR BIO:

Cambria Hebert is an award winning, bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair.

Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house).

Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many paranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: The Hashtag Series, Text, Torch, and Tattoo.

Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.

You can find out more about Cambria and her titles by visiting her website: http://www.cambriahebert.com.

Email: cambriahebert@rocketmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cambriahebertbooks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cambriahebert

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cambriahebert/

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/cambriahebert/pins/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5298677.Cambria_Hebert

TikTok for Authors: Using TikTok to Promote Your Book

2021-10-21T18:12:00.002+02:00

TikTok for Authors

Using TikTok to Promote Your Book

Guest Post By Helen Power

Should you make an author TikTok?

Everyone knows that being an author is not just about writing a book and sending it off to the presses. Authors are also expected to self-promote and market their books before and after the pubdate. Social media is the bane or the beauty of the author’s existence. You either love it, or you hate it. You may adore some platforms, and despise others. I myself am on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and they each have their ups and downs. A little over a month ago, I started posting to TikTok after a friend’s incessant nagging got to me, and I surprisingly love it.

TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, and it seems like everyone and their grandma is checking out the app. There is something for everyone. #BookTok (TikTok for book lovers) is booming. Readers share their favourite books with one another, giving recommendations depending on genre, subject matter, and mood. Authors share their writing journeys with each other on #AuthorTok. But TikTok is also a fabulous place for authors to connect, not just with other authors (which is prominent on Twitter), but with potential readers.

I’d been lurking on TikTok (I had an account, but I never posted) for a few months before finally taking the plunge and making my first post. And now I’m never looking back.

But why should you try out TikTok?

Self-marketing is allowed and encouraged. This is a major benefit of this platform. Unlike Facebook, which suppresses page posts in order to force small businesses to pay for ads, TikTok’s algorithm is far less limiting. Videos on TikTok accrue more views over time, unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, where older posts rarely get seen. I have a couple of popular videos I posted weeks ago that are still getting views and likes.

On TikTok, not knowing what you’re doing is a good thing. Aside from the rule that shorter videos tend to be more popular, there really are no rules to TikTok. It’s not like Instagram where your pictures have to be perfect, and the slightly unbalanced placement of a single flower beside your book cover could cost you likes.

With TikTok, imperfection is encouraged. It inspires the silly, and a video with a make-up-less reader wearing a sweatshirt covered in cat hair, ranting about their favourite fantasy book can garner thousands of views and likes.

You can connect with different generations. I knew going onto TikTok that this is the platform of choice for Gen Z. Even knowing this, I was surprised by how many younger book lovers I’ve come across. These are potential readers and fans that I wouldn’t reach if I’d stuck to promoting just through Twitter and Instagram. Even more so, I was surprised by the diversity in age groups represented on this platform. It’s not just for young people, but there are many older authors and readers there too.

What if you’re shy about showing your face? I’m not going to take this the wrong way, but my most popular videos don’t even have me in them. If you’re not comfortable showing your face, there are ways to share and come across as authentic without requiring a close up of your pores. If you try lurking on TikTok first, you’ll see the variety of types of videos that come up, particularly in the #BookTok world. Plus, there are tons of filters that you can use should you decide to give your face a debut.

But I’m not tech savvy enough to edit a video! It’s not at all necessary to be able to edit videos. Honestly, you could just point and click and record a video and upload it. If you want to try something fancier, particularly using sounds or effects that are trending on the app so that your post will get more views, there are plenty of tutorials online. But that’s not necessary in the beginning, and I would suggest just trying out the app first to get used to it.

How should I start? Do what I did. Start off as a lurker. Make an account, write a brief bio so no one assumes you’re a serial killer, and familiarize yourself with the app. Find and follow accounts that you like. I’ve had hundreds of booklovers with zero videos of their own follow and engage with me, and it’s understood that not everyone feels comfortable posting videos.

Remember: Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok embraces authenticity. An imperfect video where you have wild hair and fumble over your words is not going to get you shunned. I encourage you to give TikTok a shot. If it’s not for you, then at least you’ll know. But given time, the benefits of TikTok may surprise you.

Helen Power is obsessed with ghosts. She spends her free time watching paranormal investigation TV shows, hanging out in cemeteries, and telling anyone who’ll listen about her paranormal experiences. She is a librarian living in Saskatoon, Canada, and has several short story publications, including ones in Suspense Magazine and Dark Helix Press’s Canada 150 anthology, “Futuristic Canada”. The Ghosts of Thorwald Place is her first novel.

Catch Up With the Author:
HelenPower.ca

Goodreads

BookBub - @helen_power

Instagram - @powerlibrarian

Twitter - @helenpowerbooks

Facebook - @helenpowerauthor

Tour Participants:

Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!

Join In:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Helen Power & CamCat Books. There will be Five (6) winners for this tour. Each of the winners will each receive 1 print ARC edition of The Ghosts of Thorwald Place by Helen Power (US, Canada, and UK shipping addresses Only). The giveaway begins on October 1 and ends on November 2, 2021. Void where prohibited.

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Book Spotlight : Terror Quest by Maxwell Silver

2021-10-11T07:00:00.008+02:00

Book Spotlight

Terror Quest by Maxwell Silver

Book Synopsis

Terror Quest is the story of how two people, people no more powerful than you or I, combine to help bring down a repressive government which came to power through hacked election software. Until they can manage that feat, the people of the great state of Ohio are enduring a religious regime as strict as that imposed by the Taliban. As much as the men suffer, life for the women is ten times harder.

Author Bio

Maxwell silver is the pen name of a technical writer with more than a dozen books and articles on an array of topics, including: military history, classical history, and networking. He has worked as a college professor and technical trainer. He also collects first editions and rare books and is a member of the Lawrence of Arabia Society.

Buy Links

Amazon affiliate link

Book Locker

Author Links

https://terror-quest.blogspot.com/2021/09/welcome.html

… IN PRAISE OF TERROR QUEST

“Maxwell has written a compelling futuristic story filled with surprises, twists, and turns based on the real possibilities of a dystopian United States of America. The people are controlled by an Islamic form of government, much like Europe is becoming.”

— Henry H. G. Mungle, Chief Warrant Officer US Army (Ret.), Silver Star, Purple Heart, Retired CIA Special Agent and Polygraph Examiner.

25 Writing Quotes to Help You Beat Writers Block

2021-09-09T07:30:00.001+02:00

25 Writing Quotes to Help You Beat Writers Block

Writing Quotes when You Need to Write but Can’t

We've all been there. Those days when you sit down to write but end up just staring at a blank screen. Writers block can happen to even the best writers.

You're in luck though. Here's a collection of writing quotes to help get you writing!

Quotes to motivate your writing

1. Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.- Cory Doctorow

2. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page. -Jodi Picoult

3. If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.- Margaret Atwood

4. Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little- Holly Gerth

5. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.- Stephen King

6. Don’t be paralyzed by the idea that you’re writing a book; just write.- Isabelle Allende

7. You fail only if you stop writing.- Ray Bradbury

8. The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.- Terry Pratchett

9. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.- Ernest Hemingway

10. Every first draft is perfect because all a first draft has to do is exist. – Jane Smiley

11. When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.- Mark Twain

12. Don’t just plan to write- write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style. – PD James

13. If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter. -Dan Poynter

14. I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. -Shannon Hale

15. And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. – Sylvia Plath

16. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good. -William Faulkner

17. The only people who think writing is easy are people who don’t write. Writing is a difficult, courageous act. Bravery is required, as well as a great deal of slogging along. A lot of our work is work. – Gillian Roberts

18. Do what I did: Pretend you want to do something else and write on the sly until you’re free to do whatever you want!– JK Rowling

19. You have to write the book that you want to write. You have to be prepared to do your own thing and not bow to the critics, not listen to the policeman in your head saying you shouldn’t do this or that. -Bernardine Evaristo

20. The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it. -Ernest Hemingway

21. Don’t look back until you’ve written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work. – Will Self

22. Keep writing. Even if you think it’s terrible, keep writing; you will only get better with practice. And learn to finish the things you begin because the ending is the hardest part. -Lucy Saxon

23. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. -Joss Whedon

24. You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. - Madeleine L'Engle

25. Write loads, read voraciously go out and live. Things will emerge in the spaces in between and you might be surprised by what does. - Irenosen Okojie

You might also like: Writing Quotes

Book Spotlight: How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom by Mary LaForge

2021-09-01T07:30:00.005+02:00

Book Spotlight

How I Escaped From Bloody Hell X-ploring Freedom by Mary LaForge

Book Synopsis

How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom is a postmodern mashup of metaphysical insights and a Nikola Tesla paradigm, stirred up together with a pinch of scripture. This book explains how the author weaved her spiritual lifepath. Without teaching or preaching, she encourages self-discovery through journaling. Winner of the 2021 Literary Titan Silver Book Award.

Great for thoughtful, non-scholarly readers over 14 who are open to a bit of cosmic consciousness. Readers have said this book opened their stuck creative flow, and also provided a different perspective about understanding God and the universe. This book is an expansive passenger-seat ride for you, rather than any how-to activities.

"Fascinating! -- Literary Titan

Author Bio

Mary LaForge is an award-winning author, and blogger of metaphysical philosophies. LaForge's writings aim to calm the fears of overthinkers by connecting the real with the less real. She is grateful to live in a very quiet place that gives her much loved creative time.

Buy Links

Pick up your copy of How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom directly from the publisher's website at https://booklocker.com/11512. How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom is also available from your local bookstore and fine online book retailers everywhere.

Author Links

https://thinkk.blog

Twitter @mary_laf_author

Spotify (short blog post podcasts)

Mary LaForge

2021 Literary Titan Silver Book Award

**FREE EXCERPT** of How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom

https://booklocker.com/11512 **

Website: https://thinkk.blog

Email: thinkk.blog@protonmail.com

When Criticism Doesn’t Cut It…Or Does It?

2021-08-23T06:00:00.003+02:00

When Criticism Doesn’t Cut It…Or Does It?

Guest post by D.A. Reed

In regard to writing, I vividly remember one month that was particularly hard for me.

There is a fine line that writers walk. The adage that we need to write for ourselves is very true—our works are, first and foremost, for ourselves. A purging of our souls, if you will. However, what do you do when your editors look at you and want massive rewrites on the story you have just spent hours on, bled over, and lost sleep over?

When do we take the advice and (constructive) criticism and when do we say—"This is my story, and this is how it will stay?" It's hard to hear someone tear apart your "baby." Here is my advice:

1. Find someone you trust to read your work. Someone who will analyze your work for good storytelling (if you are a fiction writer), not on the basis of whether or not they like the story. Something may not be an editor's cup of tea, so to speak, but they can still tell if it is good storytelling or not and be objective.

2. If more than one person is coming back saying the same thing—having the same constructive comments—then listen. As hard as it may be, listen. If multiple people are saying the same thing, there is a reason.

3. If there is only one person who has made a criticism and you aren't sure about it, make the decision to either take their advice to heart or discard it. You have that right. It is your story, not theirs.

4. My rule of thumb: If the constructive criticism changes the core of what you are trying to do, if it changes the story you are trying to tell, it is probably okay to disregard the comment and move on.

Recently, I had the hardest review yet from my editors. It left me in tears, ready to shelve the story and never look back. I licked my wounds for three days. Then I decided I wasn't going to take the easy way out.

I sat down and did the most massive rewrites I have ever done on a novel before. But—I sifted through the criticism given and changed what I believed would make it a stronger story. There were comments given that would have changed the entire tone of the story and what I was trying to convey—those I gently set aside in order keep the story mine and no one else's.

A dear friend told me something recently that I cling to as I continue pursuing this thing I love called writing: Not everyone will like your story—and that's okay.

It's really okay. Not everyone likes the same foods, the same movies, and not everyone likes the same books. And that's okay. Not everyone will like what you have written, but likewise, you will not like everything you read. We all have different tastes and things we enjoy. So, if someone comes up to you and says, "I didn't like it," smile and say, "That's okay."

That line we walk is very fine, but it is ours to master and mold.

D.A. Reed (Deborah Reed) writes young adult novels—from page-turning thrillers to stories based on challenges children and adults face every day.

Her stories have garnered the attention of readers and fellow authors alike. Since 2016, author Johnathan Rand has invited her to be a writing instructor at his Author Quest writing camp for young writers. She was also asked to present at several writer and educator conferences including the North of 45 Retreat for Writers, Delta Kappa Gamma Women’s Educator Conference, regional district libraries, and writing workshops in several local school classrooms. Deborah’s international travels include leading creative writing workshops to children—most notably at the Sharjah International Book Fair in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

D.A. Reed’s books have received acclaim, notably: Nothin’ But Gutters And Pocket Change from the Best Indie Book Awards (BIBA) in the category of Young Adult Drama; and Dare Accepted from the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in the category of Young Adult Fiction.

Deborah lives with her husband and family in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Composing, Revising, Finding the way to the Finish Line

2021-08-20T06:00:00.002+02:00

Composing, Revising, Finding the way to the Finish Line

Guest post by Frank Thoms

Thirty-three years ago, June 1987, a few days after I’d resigned from twenty-five years of teaching, I sat before the keyboard of my Mac in an upstairs corner room in a farmhouse overlooking New Hampshire fields, the home of Mayme and Lafayette Noda, two Quakers who invited me to live with them, which I did for a year and a half. In that time I transcribed nearly one hundred hours of clandestine cassette tapes from my first three ventures to Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet Union––and I began to draft a manuscript.

When I joined a tour group for my first two-week tour of Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev in October two years earlier, slipping behind the Iron Curtain became the fulfillment of a dream. The dream had first appeared in fourth grade, later in lectures on Russian history at college, and then when teaching eighth grade in the 60s, 70s, and 80s where I returned to Marx, the Russians, and Soviet Communism; each decade a different focus. Once behind the Iron Curtain, it did not feel a big deal to be on the other side. I observed historic sites, people, busses, cars, metros, shops. And I penetrated areas verboten to tourists. I had lunch in a flat with a family, dinner with black marketers in a private restaurant, and visited a school not on the tour. I was having my first taste behind the Iron Curtain. I yearned to come back!

Four years later after further trips to the former Soviet Union, two to Russia and two to Kazakhstan, I revised the manuscript many times only to put it aside after Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day, 1991. Who would believe what I’ve written, I said to myself, as pundits were predicting the end of Communism would bring democracy to Russia. I never believed it. Three years later when I returned to the new Russia in 1994, I saw a Soviet Union redux.

Fast forward to 2016 and the Russian interference with US elections. I resurrected my manuscript, but only one-third of it I had printed out; the information on my floppy disks had faded. But I was no longer the young but seasoned teacher-writer who had been eager to thrust himself into the fray surrounding Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika. I wanted to focus on the Russian people I met, to promote empathy and understanding about them.

I reread the remnants of what I had written, but the writing was discursive, awkward, and highly descriptive. I needed to begin from the beginning. I combed my files, letters, papers, memorabilia, and photographs, searching to recover memories of that remarkable time. Returning to the manuscript, I struggled to find a title that would guide me and my readers. My first one over thirty years ago had been Encounters with Soviet People, which reflected my desire to write a book about the Russians coping with Gorbachev’s new Communism. It was to be about my observations and understandings about the people and their culture; I would take a back seat. I tried another title, A Sense of Belonging: An American Teacher in Soviet Schools, which would center around on what I learned as a teacher of English to Soviet students where I had spent most of my time.

Now more than thirty years later, I searched for a more poignant title. I tried first, Russians as People: Voices from the Last Days of the Soviet Union. Then, An American Teacher’s Odyssey in Gorbachev’s Russia. Both supported my desire for the book to focus on the Russians. I did not want it to be a memoir, which for me at the time seemed to be books often about people who experienced trauma, often in their childhood.

I kept writing and rewriting, composing and revising––I could not sit in front of my Mac and write a first draft. I allowed my writing to tell me where to go. Ideas would arrive, sometimes in the early morning that set me on a new path. I drafted, redrafted, rewrote, self-edited…countless times searching for a meaningful account of my understanding of Russians.

But the book seemed distant. My working titles were not pointing me in a good direction. I searched for more creative ones. A Teacher in the Rye: An American in Gorbachev’s Russia, which was based on a US reporter’s quote about me when I was teaching in Leningrad; it was then I began to include myself in my encounters. Later I came up with Inside the Matryoshka: Seeking the Russians; the matryoshka, Russian nesting dolls, put me on the path to incorporate this metaphor both for knowing the Russians and for knowing myself.

The writing progressed. Still something was missing. A little history may help here. When I had first arrived in the Soviet Union in October 1985 with a tour group, we were to be guided by Intourist, the official Soviet travel agency. We would be placed on a bus to behold what our guide directed us to. Except I intended to see what I would not be invited to see. I wanted to find “real Russians.” Twenty minutes off the plane in Leningrad, a young, attractive Russian mother with wild curls and two small children stepped in front of me. I was meeting my first Russian before I met Nina, our Intourist guide! By the time this mother and I departed, I had a scrap of paper with her telephone number. Two days later, I took a metro on my own and found her flat. It was not the only time I got off the bus.

When deep into rewriting, I had an epiphany: From my first moments in the Soviet Union I had been seeking to see behind what I came to understand was a “red veil”: my concept of the face of Communism that the Soviet Union projected onto its citizens, foreign visitors, and to the world at large. Intourist placed tour groups in international hotels, where Soviets were not allowed; conveyed them in special busses to historic sites. In my first trip, we went to to Moscow’s Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and Lenin’s Mausoleum; Leningrad’s Hermitage, Winter Palace, and Peter & Paul Fortress; and Kiev’s St. Sofia’s Cathedral and St. Michael’s Golden Dome Monastery. Our guide also provided a private tour to an Orthodox church. And Nina made sure that we went to beryozka shops to spend dollars. And red omnipresent, everywhere, everywhere!

Having determined my title, Behind the Red Veil: An American inside Gorbachev’s Russia, put me on the path to the book I completed. The red veil metaphor provides a theme that reappears throughout. Along with it, the matryoshka metaphor that enabled me to probe into inner layers of Russian life and thought––and into inner layers of my own matryoshka. Soon the book was ready for an agent, then an editor, who would take the writing to a more readable level and be ready for a publisher. Behind the Red Veil: An American inside Gorbachev’s Russia is the narrative of this American in his search to know himself as he sought to know the lives of Russians in the last days of Soviet society. He hopes readers will be eager to stay beside him throughout.

After forty years as a teacher and twelve as a consultant and keynote speaker, Frank Thoms became a writer, publishing four books on teaching and one on his experiences as an American in Soviet Russia. He is on the faculty of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival and serves as its Ambassador-at-Large.

What Everyone Ought to Know About Writing a Book Review

2021-08-19T16:39:00.004+02:00

What Everyone Ought to Know About Writing a Book Review

Guest post by Shakila Mumtaz

Writing a book review is an imperative mastery that every writer and the author should have. They should know how to organize their words in order to write a killer review to attract readers. A book review tells the readers about the whole book in a short time. Therefore, it must be catchy, concise, and bespoke.

There are three main sections to be considered when writing an attractive book review. (1) Summary of the book (2) Assessment of the book content (3) Recommends the content according to the current needs of society. Each of these sections has been discussed below.

Summary of the book:

It is the most important part of a review because it briefly describes the information and the message of the entire book. It also helps to compare the idea and knowledge from other books. There are the following steps to write a powerful summary.

Read the book:

An author or writer must have the basic info about the book’s genre or field. The more you know about the book, the better you can summarize. That's why it is crucial to read with passion and determination. While you are reading, note down the important points that need to be included in the summary. Those will help you a lot to write in a well-organized and professional way.

Introduce the story:

After reading, introduce the book to your target audience because they have no idea about the book content. The introduction should include the title, author name, and time/year. It is also worthwhile to add the objective and the reason for which the book was being written.

Summarize the book:

Now your reader has some idea about the book, so, give all the details about the main events of the book. It does not mean that you explain every point, but keep it general in your own words. You should also avoid redundancy and repetitiveness. You can add brief quotes as examples. Avoid the use of long quotations and long statements, because these do not attract the readers’ mind and attention, and the book under review will lose the spotlight.

Proofreading and Editing:

This is the final step of almost every writing project. It will allow you to correct all grammar or spelling mistakes that will make your writing inaccurate. By following this step, you can polish your writing skills in order to boost your career as a creative and professional writer.

Assessment of the book content:

It is the second step of the review. It should be in paragraphs that deal with each aspect of your arguments, such as how these are right or wrong, what are the pros and cons of the book, how that book will help you to enhance your understanding. It is also necessary to add merits and demerits of the book. It is imperative to highlight all the main points and context of the book so that a reader can get a basic understanding of the book. All the details should not be lengthy because it is a review. It is not essential to include arguments chronologically. You can add these according to your choice. It should be simple and to the point. Tell the readers about the overall opinion about the book.

Recommend the content according to the current needs of society:

Every society and community have their own preferences and requirements for their survival and growth. They all have different cultures, traditions, and values. So, the content should be according to those preferences and circumstances. You need to know who would be attracted towards your book or its content. For example, a fashion book will get fame from fashion icons and fashion industry designers, and a scientific book will get limelight from professors, researchers, scientists, etc. Therefore, it is worthwhile to recommend the book to its right audience.

Shakila Mumtaz has been a certified “Creative Writer” by Digiskills and a “Professional Writer” by Saylor Academy. She is a “Resume writer” on Fiverr.com. She has completed Mphil Genetics from UVAS, Pakistan. For her, writing is a passion, not a profession. She likes to express her thoughts and ideas through her writing skills. Have a look at her Fiverr account and LinkedIn profile to know more about her. https://lnkd.in/gwBeZ2K, https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakilamumtaz64/.

Ways for Writers to be More Ergonomic

2019-12-17T07:30:00.001+01:00

Guest post by Melissa Chan, creator of Literary Book Gifts.

Ways for Writers to be More Ergonomic

Writing is a skill that mostly takes place in your mind. When I write, it’s more important to think about the ideas than the actual method of getting the words onto the paper. But however much you design, plan, and sketch out your ideas, these days you will eventually need to type them up on a computer.

I’ll give you just a few ways that I try too be more ergonomic while I write everyday. Hopefully it will give you some ideas to make your own writing a little easier so you can focus on the most important thing, writing better for longer hours.

Monitor vs. laptop

Laptops are great for on-the-go. Coffee shops, meetings, and out-of-office coordination are all places and times for laptops. But when it really gets time to concentrate and work you will want to be looking at getting a monitor. If you look at the way you or other people sit with a laptop you can tell it doesn’t bode well for their neck, arms, and back. I know I’ve thought I would just send a couple of quick emails on my laptop and ended up surfing the web for an hour until my neck was sore.

Monitors might look like big electronic purchases, but in general they are not that expensive. A monitor such as this one will do just fine. Computers are so advanced these days that some monitors that look like nothing more than the screen actually have entire computers in them. These tend to cost a lot more and are not what is needed if you are just looking for a good cost-benefit ratio in terms of ergonomics alone. Most monitors will allow you to hook up and directly display the contents of your laptop on the bigger screen. This way you get both the benefits of a monitor and a laptop in one.

Ergonomic set up

Ergonomics extend far beyond getting a monitor. I’ve seen people exhibit very poor posture despite having a good monitor. The desk, chair, mouse and keyboard should all be taken into account when setting up your work station for long hours of writing. The desk tends to cost the most, so if it is a reasonable height and doesn’t move around too much when you type it is probably fine and doesn’t need to be replaced.

However, people vary a lot in height and stature. Investing in a good adjustable computer chair can make a big difference. Be on the lookout for one that has the general look an appearance of this one. All computer chairs tend to have adjustable height, some even have adjustable back and arms.

Make sure that your mouse and keyboard are also good as well. I find that keyboards tend to vary based on personal preference but for mouses I always like going for lightweight options. I’ve tried wireless mouses before in the past but because they have batteries they tend to be much heavier than ones with wires that you plug directly into the computer. This is ultimately for the best more me because I find them to be cheaper, less maintenance, and they avoid connectivity issues. This mouse is a great inexpensive and lightweight option.

I hope that these tips to make your set up more ergonomic have given you a few ideas. Do you try to be more ergonomic while you write? Let me know below in the comments.

Melissa Chan is the creator of Literary Book Gifts (https://literarybookgifts.com), gift shop for book lovers. She spends long hours designing and writing and tries to be as ergonomic as possible.

The Meandering Path from Numbers to Words

2019-12-16T11:44:00.001+01:00

Guest post by Alan Orloff, author of I Know Where You Sleep.

The Meandering Path from Numbers to Words

https://amzn.to/2PpyjBB

Some little kids, from the time they could hold a pencil in their hands, wrote stories. About dragons and fairies and cowboys and firefighters and astronauts. Great tales of adventure featuring heroes conquering villains in wildly imaginative ways.

Not me. I didn’t like to write. Too much work.

When I was in high school, I hated English class (much to the chagrin of my father, an ex-English teacher!). I didn’t read all the classic novels by the classic writers, mostly because I was never patient enough to try to understand all that old-timey English and run-on sentences (Faulkner, anyone?). Instead, I opted for the Cliffs Notes version, which I usually crammed into my brain the night before the exams (shh! Don’t tell my mother!). I couldn’t get through Melville or Joyce, but I loved Asimov and Heinlein, King and Koontz. I was a happy camper, as long as I could choose what I wanted to read (and didn’t have to analyze it in any fashion).

And while I liked reading, I was always a numbers guy at heart. So in college, I majored in engineering and never had to take a creative writing course. Or read any fiction, either, for that matter. After graduation, the extent of my writing consisted of the occasional grocery list (not much of a plot, no characterization). I didn’t like engineering very much, so I went on to business school, where I wrote a lot of papers and reports and case studies, all dry as dust, full of clichés, buzzwords, and jargon intended to confuse even the most dedicated readers.

No writing of fiction.

But a couple of decades later, something happened. I wish I could tell you what that something was, but I honestly don’t know. The upshot? I decided to try my hand at writing fiction! (Much to the surprise of my wife.)

It sounds like my convoluted transformative journey would make a good story. I wonder who I could get to write it?

Here are some things to consider if you’re considering making that leap to writing fiction:

Start slowly: Dip your feet into the water before taking the plunge. For me, that consisted of a “proof of concept” exercise. I wrote a number of short stories to see if I liked writing. I did, and I kept at it! Whatever you do, don’t quit your day job! (Not yet, anyway!)

Increase your knowledge: Read books on writing, take classes, participate in workshops to learn more about your (new) craft. I started by taking an Adult Ed class on creative writing. The instructor said that the story I wrote for class didn’t stink, and I interpreted that as encouragement. I took more and more workshops until—eventually—I was able to teach workshops at the same writer’s center where I was a student!

Get feedback: Try to find and/or develop some trusted readers. Getting feedback on your work keeps you from spinning your wheels and getting discouraged.

Get plugged into the local writing community: Networking with other writers proved invaluable for me. In addition to learning about potential markets for my writing, I got a lot of support; writing is a lonely endeavor and it’s nice to be able to commiserate—and celebrate—with others on the same journey.

Alan Orloff’s work has won the ITW Thriller Award and Derringer Award and been a finalist for the Agatha Award. His ninth novel, I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP will be released in February from Down & Out Books. www.alanorloff.com

Low-Pay Writing

2019-12-02T07:00:00.000+01:00

Guest post by James A. Haught, author of Blasphemy For Thinking People.

Low-Pay Writing

Amazon

Moliere said: “Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it. Then you do it for a few friends. And finally you do it for money.”

Unfortunately, many of today’s writers can’t attain the level of a self-supporting hooker, because markets and communications have evolved into strange new territory.

A colossal Niagara of writing occurs in this astounding new Cyber Age. The Internet now has two billion websites, and 500 million of them are blogs written on every conceivable topic. Each day, millions of words flow.

But few of the authors earn a livable sum for their work. Most do it just for the joy of offering their ideas to the world, while relying on other income.

As a retired newspaper editor, I’m a weekly blogger on three sites. The Good Men Project and Canadian Atheist pay me nothing for reprinting my previously published essays. Daylight Atheism at Patheos pays me two dollars per thousand readers of new or recycled skeptic tirades.

To mark Haught’s 65 years in news biz, Gazette artists created this rendition.

At D.A., I average near two thousand readers per posting. So far, I’ve gotten two checks, one for $158, the other for $98. I’m delighted with my hooker pay.

Right now, around 300 of my essays are in cyberspace at CounterPunch, Free Inquiry, Church & State, Secular Web, PeaceVoice, etc. After I’m gone (I’m 87 now), I hope they remain online, giving me a bit of immortality.

Bottom line: I’m quite happy to write seven days a week for almost no pay, just for kicks. I can afford to do it, because I live on a fat newspaper pension and fat Social Security.

However, for younger writers trying to earn a living, the story is much bleaker. An Authors Guild survey of 5,000 full-time and part-time writers found that their average 2017 earnings fell to a pathetic $6,080, far below the poverty line.

Apparently there are so many write-for-nothing authors like me that the market doesn’t need to shell out big money to get quality prose.

Looking back through history, there were plenty of writers who went hungry. Edgar Allan Poe reportedly earned only a few hundred dollars from his immortal work. But others cashed in.

When I was young, plenty of paying markets existed. In its heyday, Penthouse paid me $4,000 and $3,000 for a couple of pieces. But paper publications barely survive today, wrecked mostly because readers switched to cyberland, where nobody needs to pay for subscriptions – and advertising followed the readers.

Haught, right, with acquaintances. White House photo, 1994

Many voices lament the collapse of writer pay. Authors Guild President James Gleick said:

“When you impoverish a nation’s authors, you impoverish its readers.”

Vice President Richard Russo added:

“There was a time in America, not so very long ago, that dedicated, talented fiction and nonfiction writers who put in the time and learned the craft could make a living doing what they did best, while contributing enormously to American knowledge, culture and the arts. That is no longer the case for most authors.”

Guild member T.J. Stiles said:

“Poverty is a form of censorship…. Limiting writing to the financially independent and the sinecured punishes authors based on their lack of wealth and income.”

Well, I don’t know any cure for the pay decline. Society and technology evolve constantly. Changes often inflict harm on people who previously were secure.

All I know is that the Internet teems with unpaid and low-paid authors, and compulsive writers like me are neck-deep in the new reality.

James A. Haught

James A. Haught was born on Feb. 20, 1932, in a small West Virginia farm town that had no electricity or paved streets. He graduated from a rural high school with 13 students in the senior class. He came to Charleston , worked as a delivery boy, then became a teen-age apprentice printer at the Charleston Daily Mail in 1951. Developing a yen to be a reporter, he volunteered to work without pay in the Daily Mail newsroom on his days off to learn the trade. This arrangement continued several months, until The Charleston Gazette offered a full-time news job in 1953. He has been at the Gazette ever since - except for a few months in 1959 when he was press aide to Sen. Robert Byrd.

During his six decades in newspaper life, he has been police reporter, religion columnist, feature writer and night city editor - then he was investigative reporter for 13 years, and his work led to several corruption convictions. In 1983 he was named associate editor, and in 1992 he became editor. In 2015, as The Gazette combined with the Daily Mail, he assumed the title of editor emeritus, but still writes personal columns.

Haught has won two dozen national newswriting awards, and is author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. About 60 of his columns have been distributed by national syndicates. He also is a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine, is a weekly blogger at Daylight Atheism, and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason. He is listed in Who’s Who in America , Who’s Who in the World, Contemporary Authors and 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century. He has four children, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

His books include Holy Horrors (1990), Science in a Nanosecond (1990), “Holy Hatred” (1995), 2,000 Years of Disbelief (1996), Honest Doubt (2007), Amazon Moon (2007), Fascinating West Virginia (2008), Fading Faith (2010), Religion is Dying (2014), Hurrah for Liberals (2016), Blasphemy for Thinking People (2019, plus a 1992 art book featuring lovers depicted by master artists, to refute both bluenose censors and crude pornographers.

For years, he enjoyed hiking with Kanawha Trail Club, participating in a philosophy group, and taking grandchildren swimming off his old sailboat. He is a longtime member of Charleston ’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

Creative Tips for the Left-Brainer

2019-11-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

This guest post is by Carl Vonderau, who is sharing his Creative Tips for the Left-Brainer.

Creative Tips for the Left-Brainer

Do people call you analytical and you know it’s not a compliment? When I reveal that I had a career in banking, I often see several words flash in a person’s eyes: boring, unimaginative, stodgy. Then I tell them I wrote a thriller about a banker who is the son of a serial killer. Is that surprise or fear on their faces? Most of us can be both creative and analytical. I move back and forth from one style of thought to the other, but they both—thankfully—intrude on one another.

Here are a few issues and tips. Because I’m a left-brainer, I’ve numbered them and used bullet points.

1. You need more time to let your creative juices rise to the surface.

• Actually, the opposite can be true. Leonard Bernstein said, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” The trick is to get your internal editor out of the way by forcing your mind to hurry. Some people set up a timer and type like mad for a half hour or less. I write the first draft by hand, which makes me feel as if I’m trying to catch up to the story.

2. Should you solve a problem, find a problem for a solution, or look for a never-before-considered concept?

• Most of us believe we should begin with a problem and move toward the answer. But I know thriller writers who write the ending first then start from the beginning. Bank executives knew that their systems could perform most client operations without people. So what was the problem that solved? Working parents needed to bank after five o’clock.

• Sometimes creativity is just combining two or more ideas that haven’t been put together before. Apple Computer became the largest stock in the world by packaging existing technology into a unique computer and phone. Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.”

Amazon

3. How do you get outside of that stodgy, linear self?

• Change your routine. Start the day by reversing the way you eat breakfast.

• Take an idea and remove an essential part. New possibilities will bubble up. Removing a recording mechanism created the Walkman.

• Think of your product as part of a story in someone’s life. How does it pivot them from disappointment to victory? Then figure out why and who else could be in that story.

• Give your mind a break and wash the dishes. A mindless task provides a slight space in which the idea you’re working on can resonate.

• Stop typing and ask, What if? What would happen if you changed an assumption? How about changing a conclusion? Then what if…

4. When do you let the critics go after you?

• When nurturing an idea, avoid premature evaluation (Hmm). Don’t talk to anyone at first. Your idea will be an easy target because it’s not thought out. Worst of all, you might cede your revolutionary concept to someone else’s more stodgy one.

• Get your idea down in a paragraph. Discuss it with one open-minded, not critical person. Some scientists believe that the most powerful discussion arises in pairs. Think: Watson and Crick.

•Build it out. Then whittle and pare it down. Some of your brilliant insights just don’t belong. Mark Twin is credited with saying, “If I had more time, I would have made it shorter.”

• Go to that critical, nitpicking group you’ve avoided. Prepare to be humble. This is where you learn the places where your genius has missed the barn. Try to thank them.

• Embrace your failures. Get used to starting over. Paul Taylor revolutionized dance. At one performance a reviewer said, “Three girls, one named Twyla Tharp, appeared at Albert Hall last evening and threatened to do the same tonight.” Ouch!

Issue 6. How about the problems that just won’t cooperate?

• Don’t fight them. Toni Morrison says that if you surrender to the wind you can ride it.

• Take a sideways approach and ask how the failure of a product or idea tells you about its strengths.

• Sleep on it. Even daydreaming works. It did for Einstein!

• Put your groundbreaking idea away for a week (or a month). Then: OMG, the solution is so obvious.

• Laugh. Go hang out with colleagues. Watch a sitcom. Listen to a politician. Laughing opens the mind to other connections.

• Get help from someone. Maybe that totally uninformed person who just joined the company, the one who has no choice but to consider the basics of what you’re proposing. The problem just might be more fundamental than you realized.

• Keep grinding. If you have the feeling you’re close but just can’t quite grasp it, continue struggling. Maybe work on it in a different venue.

• Follow the advice of the Simpsons. “You’ve tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.” All right, you’re not like Homer, are you? Angela Lee Duckworth found something in all great achievers: grit. It allows you stay in a painful place while working hard to improve, again and again.

Issue 8. Executive Summary (We’re left-brainers so we have to have this.).

You’re not hopelessly uncreative, despite what your spouse tells you. In fact, you’re that rare combination of creative and analytical abilities.

Carl Vonderau grew up in Cleveland in a religious family that believed that God could heal all illness. He left that behind him when he went to college at Stanford and studied economics. Somehow, after dabbling in classical guitar, he ended up in banking. Carl lived and worked in Latin America, Canada, and North Africa, and conducted business in Spanish, French and Portuguese. He also secretly wrote crime novels. Now, a full-time author, he also helps non profit organizations. He and his wife reside in San Diego, where their two sons live close by. Check out more about him and his upcoming thriller, Murderabilia, at http://carlvonderau.com/.

Five Things that Make me Want to Read a Query

2019-11-18T07:30:00.000+01:00

Guest post by Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb

Five Things that Make me Want to Read a Query

One: The Hook

Having a strong sales pitch for a book can go a long way. We sometimes call this the elevator pitch. I like to work with authors that know how to speak about their book in a concise and interesting way. This is everyone's first impression of a book, so the hook should go right upfront in a query letter in order to draw the reader’s attention in. I like to think of it as the thesis line for a query letter. In a snapshot we should get a sense of what the book is about in movie tagline fashion. Here are a couple of examples of good hooks:

A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge, and, ultimately, redemption.

They say she’s a murderess. She claims she’s innocent. But Lucy has been known to tell lies…

Two: Comparative/Competitive Titles

Sometimes it is easier to say that a book is “this meets that” than it is to go into a longer description. That’s where the comp title process can be helpful. Dreaming up a good comparative or competitive title can help place a manuscript in the minds of literary agents and book editors trying to figure out where a book might go on their list, or where it might go in a bookstore. This is also helpful to a publisher when they are trying to figure out how much to offer for a book. Publishers will run what is called a profit and loss statement or a “P&L” and the magic numbers they will plug into that sheet are usually the numbers on books they feel are similar. We as author and agent would much rather be the ones to give books with stronger numbers to publishers as comparisons! Bookstores will also eventually ask the book publisher for comps they feel are similar, so a writer that has a few comp titles assembled will be miles ahead in the book publishing process.

Three: The Book

Of course we need to know more about the book and what makes it exciting! I speak more about the urgency of a book's story in this interview. A couple of paragraphs should be devoted to some of the exciting plot details of a manuscript and perhaps speak to some of the development of the characters. Demonstrating some of the plot will be more important to commercial fiction, whereas literary fiction tends to be more concerned with character development. Careful not to spoil too much here the description! This is more so about enticing readers into wanting to know more and taking this opportunity to showcase one's writing abilities. It is helpful to model these paragraphs off of the descriptive copy used on the back of book covers and book product pages. That will lend a comfortable feel for how this information is presented, especially since a lot of strong query letters go on to become jacket copy on published books! That is why writing a knockout query letter is so important.

Four: Author Bio

In the last paragraph of the query letter we should see the author bio, along with some more ancillary information such as relevant writing experience and writing credentials. Writing experience can mean many different things. Sometimes this is a matter of having been published in literary magazines or literary journals. Other times this can mean publications online or in papers. Writing credentials can include things such as an MFA, PhD or even attendance at a prestigious writing workshop such as the Yale Writers Workshop, Iowa Writers Workshop, or Breadloaf. A writer should tell us a bit more about themselves too. Info such as how they came or writing, what has influenced them and perhaps where they live and what they do in their day-to-day. After all of that info it might be good to include a link to an author website or author social media pages.

Five: Personalize the Address

If an author wants to get the attention of a literary agent, we cannot forget this important point. When opening a letter, it is nice to see that a writer took their time to do their research to know who the literary agent is and what they are about. For how awkward would it be to send a query for a children's picture book to a literary agent that specializes in romance/women's fiction? This is a way to make the query letter attention-grabbing, since this is a writer's chance to make their letter unique to the receiver. For instance, a writer might consider visiting my Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages to learn more about me and the types of books I have been working on and they can mention something they learned in the opening of the letter. It shows that the writer took some time, care and attention to detail.

Surprise: Bonus Content!

In addition to the five points above, this item is something of a special surprise. A very lucky writer might approach the query letter with some pre-publication blurbs or endorsements in-hand. Having a quote from a bestselling or award-winning author can go a long way. Literary agents love to receive queries with blurbs since that helps make the query more attractive to book publishers. Some authors are only willing to provide endorsements after a manuscript finds a publisher, but others might make an exception. Some authors might provide a blurb based on a sample of the manuscript too. Keep in mind that it is about quality over quantity when receiving such endorsements.

Mark Gottlieb

Mark Gottlieb is a prominent literary agent working at book publishing’s leading literary agency Trident Media Group in New York City. He has ranked highly among literary agents across the industry for overall number of deals and other individual categories. While at Trident Media Group, Mark Gottlieb has represented New York Times bestselling authors as well as major award-winning authors. He has optioned and sold numerous books to production companies and studios for film and TV adaptation. Mark Gottlieb greatly enjoys working with authors to help manage and grow their careers with the resources available at Trident Media Group. In addition to having worked at the company’s Foreign Rights Department, he also ran the company’s Audiobook Department. Utilizing his drive and intuition for discovering talented writers, he is currently expanding his client list of authors. As a literary agent he looks forward to bringing authors to the largest possible audience.

How To Get The Most Out Of A Book Fair

2019-11-11T07:00:00.000+01:00

Guest post by Dan Brotzel, co-author of Kitten on a Fatberg.

How to get the most out of a book fair

Amazon

Book fairs can be daunting – especially the big, international ones like London and Frankfurt. They are meeting points for thousands of publishing professionals – agents, publishers, booksellers, distributors, licensers and buyers and sellers of rights – and a lot of what they do can seem somewhat remote and arcane to the average author. Having said that, in the twenty odd years that I’ve been going to book fairs, I’ve noticed they’ve become a lot more author-friendly. These days, they can be great places for authors to keep abreast of publishing trends, as well as to meet other authors and network. Here are a few tips on what to do when attending your next book fair.

Come prepared

The last thing you want is to turn up at the fair and wander around aimlessly for hours trying to work out (a) where you are, and (b) who to talk to. Before you arrive, take the time to study the fair’s website. Decide which conferences and seminars are relevant to you and find out where and when are they happening. It’s a good idea to book ahead for the popular ones. Also look at who is exhibiting. The book fair app will contain a map of the hall so you can familiarise yourself with the layout and locate the stands of any publishers of interest. The London Book Fair (LBF) now has an author club, with its own newsletter, discounts for author events at the fair, and a chance to get your book into the hands of agents and publishers.

Listen and learn

Book fairs often host fascinating talks by authors in which they talk about their journey to publishing success, be it through conventional means (getting an agent and then a publisher) or by self-publishing. There are seminars in which industry experts offer authors advice on how to get their work published, as well as panel discussions about trends in the publishing industry. A recent innovation at LBF is ‘The Write Stuff’, a Dragon’s Den-style event in which authors pitch their books to a panel of literary agents in front of an audience, bidding to win a follow-up meeting with an agent.

Take advantage

Book fairs are great places to meet publishers, editors and agents, so don’t be shy about going up to them and introducing yourself. Remember though that most of the people on the stands are rights sellers meeting with other publishers, so they won’t have a lot of time for authors. Occasionally you may be lucky and meet an editor on a stand, but this is unusual. The best time to meet publishing professionals is by booking an agent one-to-one meeting (available at LBF) or at networking drinks after the fair has closed.

Enjoy

Finally, remember that book fairs aren’t all about hard work. They are also great places to socialise and share your successes and woes with fellow authors. Don’t wear yourself out by trying to do too much. Plan ahead and try to be disciplined about what you do and see. At the same time, always expect the unexpected: book fairs are brilliant places for serendipitous meetings, usually in the coffee queues. One final tip: book fairs take place in enormous exhibition halls and entail an awful lot of walking, so wear comfortable shoes!

Dan Brotzel

Dan Brotzel (@brotzel_fiction) and Alex Woolf are co-authors of a collection of a new comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). To pre-order Kitten on a Fatberg for a 10% discount, quote KITTEN10

Alex Woolf

Interview with Welcome W. Wilson, Sr.

2018-12-18T07:30:00.000+01:00

Interview with Welcome W. Wilson, Sr. author of Always Welcome

What genre do you write and why?

Auto-biography

Why do you think readers are going to enjoy your book?

The annexes, chapters about the Great Depression, World War II and US Presidents I have known

How long did it take you to write your book?

Six months.

Who designed the cover?

The publisher, using a photo my daughter took.

Where can a reader purchase your book?

Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Do you believe in writers block?

No.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Get started

Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

I wanted my version of history told after all my contemporaries were gone.

What are you currently reading?

Only non-fiction. Eisenhower’s Bluff

What books or authors have most influenced your life?

Robert Service, Cremation of Sam McGee.

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Plotting or Plodding? Pro Tips for Sharper Writing

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Writing Strategies For Beginners

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Lessons Of A Self-published Author

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Valuable Lessons Learned From Writing & Publishing A Book

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Book Spotlight: Land of the Sun, Land Without Light by David Michael Litwack

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Cover Reveal: What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong

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TikTok for Authors: Using TikTok to Promote Your Book

TikTok for Authors

Using TikTok to Promote Your Book

Guest Post By Helen Power

Should you make an author TikTok?

Catch Up With the Author:HelenPower.ca Goodreads BookBub - @helen_power Instagram - @powerlibrarian Twitter - @helenpowerbooks Facebook - @helenpowerauthor

Tour Participants:

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Book Spotlight : Terror Quest by Maxwell Silver

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25 Writing Quotes to Help You Beat Writers Block

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Book Spotlight: How I Escaped From Bloody Hell: X-ploring Freedom by Mary LaForge

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Author Links

When Criticism Doesn’t Cut It…Or Does It?

Catch Up With Howard Michael Gould:
HowardMichaelGould.com
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Instagram - @howardmichaelgould
Twitter - @HowardMGould
Facebook - @HowardMGould

Catch Up With Robert Douglass:
RTDouglass.com
Twitter – @RTDouglassLit
Facebook – @RTDouglassAuthor

Catch Up With PJ Peterson:
www.PJPetersonAuthor.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @mizdrpj1
Facebook – PJ Peterson

Catch Up With the Author:
HelenPower.ca

Goodreads

BookBub - @helen_power

Instagram - @powerlibrarian

Twitter - @helenpowerbooks

Facebook - @helenpowerauthor