Thsnks for all of the support I received yesterday concerning my son. You'll never know how much it means to me. Writers are the BEST bunch of folks I know for supporting each other. Just to know that you are thinking of us and praying for him, it makes me feel so good. I told him about it and he is beyond words. No words can say, how he feels about the wonderful messages y'all sent!:)

When you write, and we do. You must think OUT of the box and realize there are a host of other things to be done, after you sign the contract. One of those things is a little thing called marketing. There are all types of marketing. But what type of marketing does an author do? Should we prepubbed authors have to think about this? Many authors think that they don't have to do anything. They are under the belief that they did all the work writing the book. The publisher should take care of this. You can't just hand everything over to the publisher. This is a business. You must do everything possible to ensure that your book has every chance to be successful.

Your book is important to you. It's not AS important to your publisher as it is to you. Authors have been talking about building your brand. That is your public character. The identity you want the public to see in you. One of the great ways to do this is to blog. YAY. I'm doing this. Blogging gets people interested in you and in your book. It's the best way to state your brand.

You csn make or have made marketing materials that are inexpensive, think Vista print. Bookmarks are great for all writers. Business cards are another great tool. Get some made up and hand them out to everyone. Book store owners, Librarians, everyone you come in contact with.

Your mailing list. We all need to work on this. And we need to work on it now. Add your kids teachers, doctors and everyone in between. Then when your book comes out, voila, you have a lot of people to tell. More sales(hopefully) and not a lot of work. Doesn't take a lot of time to jot down a name and email or snail mail address. Of course the most important thing is to get the thing finished, Yikes, June is almost here. My goal is to be done by the end of June.

These are things we all need to be thinking of. Thanks for reading. Anyone else have anything to add? :)

I realize my blogging and commenting on your blogs has been a complete and total washout this week. Apologies passed out all around. Cookies too. Dark fudge and chunky chocolate chip. Mmmm. As you know my son is having tests done on his central nervous system with at least one more, probably many more scheduled. Please remember him, I will totally be in your debt! Now on to other things. I have been so absent minded lately, I can't remember if I announced the winner of my contest. Jessica Kennedy congratulations. Stay tuned, I'll be having another contest soon.

I know some of you are members of SCBWI and receive the Bulletin. The May/June issue has this Fantastic article in it called, Shut Up and Deal. It is written by David Goldschmidt. To summarize it is a Fantastic large scale revision technique. Why can't I ever think of this stuff? After your draft on your novel is completed, you step back and take a look at your work. Focus on flow,logic, continuity, relevance, and importance by chunking up your manuscript. A chunk is a group of chapters, a single chapter, a group of scenes, a single scene. Whatever you decide you want to go with. I'm doing single chapter. Look at these chunks as vital pieces of your story. Answer questions like,"What next?" "Why is it important?" Then you write one sentence that sums up the chunk. And it has to be a normal sentence. No run-ons, or semicolons are allowed. You write the sentence on an index card. Lay each card out and read them aloud. You will notice stuff you didn't notice before. Put a big red X on the cards where the sentence you read seems it doesn't belong in your story. You know that it has to come out. If it doesn't move your story, out it goes. I know it's hard to cut those lovely words you wrote, but it must be done. I always think every word I write is just so wonderful. But really, I hit the backspace key and then they are gone. The cards with the x are in the pile to be thrown out, for good. Read each card over and over, you can rewrite the sentences, too. By doing this, you notice the junk and you keep the story. The story you want to tell.

This is working for yours truly. Try it and see what you think. Anyone else have any great revision tricks, you'd like to share? Thanks for reading. :)

Let's go green!

Found a great link and some wonderful green ideas for book launches. Which we all know we're going to have, right? VH Melville, the author of Ecotastic, the Fabulously Free Green Guide has some great ideas on going green at your book launches and book signings. Like giving away packets of seeds as door prizes. I'm a believer in trying to do as much as we can to help our planet. It's the only one we have. Unless we find a way to live on Mars or something. We need to take it seriously. And this gives us some great ways to do it. Why can't I ever think of this stuff? I really love the idea of the story garden for those of us writing for children. Great stuff and you can read about it here.

And my son is just about ready to get my web site up. I have seen it and it looks GREAT! Can't wait for y'all to tell me what you think about it. Have a great Memorial day grilling out. It's raining here, AGAIN. :)

I just wanted to give a BIG round of applause and congratulate my blogging buddy, Tess Hilmo for snagging an agent. WOOHOO, way to go! Her writing spoke for itself and now she will get what she deserves. PUBLICATION. Great going Tess. Hope, I'm following close behind you girl! Celebrate! :0)

How do you critique?

What kind of critiques do you give? Do you give the same kind of critiques that you expect from others? Are you too general in your advice? Too vague? Do you use a fair amount of tact? Courtesy? Do you do a quick read-through and then dole out advice like it was candy on Halloween? Or do you seriously read the words entrusted to you? When someone gives me their prized manuscript to read, I try to point out as much good about it as I can. I sandwich my advice. Top layer-good stuff, middle layer-things they might need to look at and consider changing, bottom layer-good stuff again. I've found that if you use this sandwich method, it makes the writer feel better. They can see the things they might need to change clearly, because you put that in the middle, between the good stuff and it's easier to swallow.

I've had all kinds of critiques. Envious, too general,and plain mean, I just want to hurt you critiques. I've had some really great crits, too. I'm critiquing this morning, and that is why I thought of this post. The mean critiques that I've had, I threw them out. Never to think of them again. But let's face it, they hurt. One almost made me quit writing. It said something like; you couldn't write your way out of a paper bag. UGH, that was tough. But I grew as a writer that day. I judged that my story was better than that person knew, and I felt sorry for her, not me! The sandwich method is a great way to critique.

I learned about this from someone. I can't remember who. If you read this, feel free to speak up and I'll put your name with a link on this post.:) Anyone have other great ideas for critiquing out there? :)

Why am I writing?

I write because I live. If someone put me in a place where there were no computers, no pens, no pencils, I wonder if I could live like that. It's a hunger. If I couldn't write, where would I put all of these characters in my head? I'm talking about all of this, because I read somewhere that a writer claimed he wrote to make money and that was that. Say what? I know plenty of writers and that's not why they write. Oh sure, that's a plus, but if I never get published, I'll still write. The hard work, the endless hours, the passion we writers feel, of course we want rewarded. To see our work in print. To touch a book that we wrote. Ahh, it must be bliss. I must remember to ask P.J. how it feels.

Getting published would give me validation. It's something I want, something I need. Not too many people can say they've written a novel. Or any kind of book. This means that we are doing something rare. The rejections can't even stop us. Because we know one day we'll be sitting high atop the mountain. With the published authors. But even if it doesn't happen to me (which I know it will) I will still write. I write because I live. What say you ? :)

Writing contest

I want to thank everyone for all of their support, prayers, and good thoughts for my son, me, and the family. We still don't know too much and there are a lot more trips scheduled in the next month. But you'll never know how good it made me feel to read all of the comments of love and support. Thanks so much. You guys are the BEST! :)

TRI Studio LLC invites you to submit your flash fiction story to their current writing contest, "Old Mold New Milieu," in The Fiction Flyer, their free ezine for writers. There are modest cash prizes, but you likely will survive without the ten dollars. More interesting, winning stories will be published in The Fiction Flyer, which has a subscriber list of about 1,000 at present. Okay, you can survive without the exposure, too, but wouldn't it be nice? And your story only needs to be 1,000 words or less. You can write that much before lunch! AND you get to showcase a couple characters in your own books or stories, which of course begs readers to investigate further, which is why links to winners' books and stories will be included. Details for the contest are here:
flash fiction contest

They have some interesting judges, too. Kevin Collier, who as you know is a well-known and mutli-published author and artist of youth fiction, and his wife, Kristen Collier, a talented author of critically acclaimed Christian literature, and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, promotional guru and multi-award winning author of numerous novels, books of poetry, and the best-selling how-to Frugal Book series on book promotion.

They will also give you a subscription to The Fiction Flyer, which is a quarterly ezine packed with up-to-date articles, information, and stories by and for writers. And yes, they love growing their subscription list!

Hop on over and check it out!