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Making Friends at a Writers Conference
Conference time is exciting for everyone, especially those who are looking forward to meeting people they’ve only met over the Internet and reconnecting with old friends. For certain, strengthening relationships is one of the best benefits of any conference. But what about the person who’s new, who hasn’t had a chance to make lots of friends yet? What about the shy person who …
How to Engage Your Reader: Guaranteed!
I have been a fiction fan for a lot of years—basically, as long as I’ve been reading. But lately, the books I’m drawn to are more memoirs and what I’d call creative nonfiction. Nonfiction message in a creative, unexpected format. As I’ve read these books, I’ve been asking myself why I’m drawn to them. No, more than that… Why I’m drawn into them. Lately I picked up another memoir, …
It’s Not Who You Know
From the third season of the 90’s sitcom Seinfeld, this classic interchange: Car Rental Agent: I’m sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment. Jerry: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation? Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars. Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation. Agent: I know …
ICRS 2014 – Observations
A couple weeks ago the industry gathered in Atlanta for the annual booksellers convention (I.C.R.S. – International Christian Retail Show). This was my 33rd consecutive event and have enjoyed every one. If I may I’ll mention a few of the meetings we attended and then make a few observations. 1) Tamela Hancock Murray and Dan Balow attended as well. We tried to do our meetings with …
Fun Fridays – July 4th, 2014
Enjoy your celebration today with family and friends! Happy Birthday USA! Below is a picture of the world’s largest single fireworks shell before it is fired into the sky. It is four feet in diameter and weighs over 900 lbs. It is fired 2,700 feet into the air before exploding (that is a half a mile!). When it explodes it cover 2,400 feet of space (a bloom diameter). Here is one of …
Yes I Said That, But…
In light of the fact that many of us are getting ready to go to conferences, or have just been to conferences, I thought I’d spend the next couple of blog posts on conferences. Today I’d like to talk about what you hear, what you think you hear, and applying what you hear. I love talking to writers and I love it even more when all of my appointment slots are filled at a conference. …
Fun with First Lines in a Novel
A writers’ group I’m involved in often plays a game where we share the first line of our work-in-progress. I’m always so intrigued and impressed with what these talented writers share. So let’s do the same here. Whether your work is fiction or nonfiction, go ahead and share your first line! And please, ONLY the first line. It’s a great way to see if it’s effective. I’ll start: First line of my …
Bestselling Books in 1974
Starting today, and every six months, we are going to take a ride in the “way-back” machine (with special acknowledgment to Mr. Peabody and Sherman), traveling back in time to grab a snapshot of what books were selling on a particular date and year. To get an idea where publishing is today, it’s good to get an idea where we have been. Forty years ago this week, half-way through 1974 here were the …
Pardon Our Dust
We have been working for the last month on an updated look to our entire website, including the blog. It is great to see all it up and running this past weekend. Kudos to the team at AuthorMedia for their hard work! A number of features have been added or upgraded. The site is now completely mobile-friendly across all devices. This is not as easy as it sounds because there are thousands of screen …