What follows are two of the more important writing exercises I have ever learned or taught. I hope you will take advantage of them. First, an exercise to get you started actually writing. 1. On a sheet of paper, write down three character names. They can be full names or first names or last names or nicknames. Whatever comes to mind is fine. But nothing else, just names. Do that now. Don’t think about it, just … Read more
All of the following hooks are from published short stories or novels. The first thirty-some are mine. The others are from a few professional writer friends. My sincere thanks to the writers who allowed me to use excerpts (hooks) from their works. Each of them have many more stories and novels than those I have listed here. I hope you will find their works and purchase them. Some are calm hooks, those that set a quiet … Read more
Note: If you’re interested in Irish food, clothing and other unique items, visit Celtic Clothing. This past Christmas season I ordered two sets of Guiness pint pub glasses. When the order arrived, there was only one set. When I emailed them, they apologized, explained that their supplier had failed, and then refunded the full price of my original order, almost $50. They insisted I keep the first set of pub glasses as a gift and apologized … Read more
Hi Folks, I’m about to try something I’ve never tried before. One of my goals this year is to write at least six nonfiction books on writing or publishing. To help me achieve that goal, I’m going to publish them right here first, on this blog, one chapter at a time and free of charge. I will announce each book here when I start it. Then, each time I finish a chapter of the book, I’ll … Read more
Hi Folks, I’m sending this out a little early because, darn it, it’s the Christmas season and I wanna give you a few presents. I’ll slip in an appropriate post on the 21st just to keep the routine of every ten days going. That’s when this one would have gone if I’d left it to its own devices. First, Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season. Also, I … Read more
Hi Folks, Just a brief mid-cycle post for an announcement. If you find this post of value, please consider pinning it or otherwise sharing it with your friends. As I’m endeavoring recently to build a new publisher website for myself and my personas, I decided to slash the prices on all of my Audio Courses on Writing. Every course now costs $5 per session. So if there are only two sessions in the course, that course … Read more
Hi Folks, Man things change quickly in this new world of publishing. On the first of this month, so just over two weeks ago, I devoted an entire blog post to telling you why I was no longer going to publish and distribute my books through Smashwords. And then this morning, I uploaded and published ten new titles to Smashwords. It seems Smashwords recently signed a contract with Gardner’s, a massive book distribution agent in Great … Read more
Hi Folks, Note: Many beginning writers still believe they can publish a novel and make a living. Nope. Not even through traditional publishing. One of the best quotes I’ve ever seen on the topic is from Dean Wesley Smith: “Here is the thinking if you expect to make a living from one book. Put $2,500 in the bank and then wonder why you are not living off the payment from the interest.” Think about that. Okay, … Read more
The Day Ray Bradbury’s birthday. Ray Bradbury is the guy who knew at 12 years old what it took me 62 years to learn. Glad I didn’t wait until I was 63. Blessings, Mr. Bradbury. And thank you so much. Rolled out at 3 this morning. Checked email, got my coffee and had to go run off a bunch of coyotes. Ugh. No walk again today. Just writing again today. Listen, if you’re publishing your own … Read more
Well, maybe not suicide, but at least a really severe professional mangling. Hey Folks, I’ve recently become aware there are still some writers out there who have made a conscious decision not to publish their work through Smashwords. Frankly, I suspect that’s due in part to the Smashwords Style Guide being so stinkin’ convoluted that it’s difficult to read, much less understand. That’s okay. I agree. In fact, I agree so much that after I finally … Read more