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After Two Years, We Almost Have Lift Off
What is the process you go through to publish a novel? I'm sharing mine. Warning: there are a lot of steps.
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Lots of News & Updates to Share :-)
Hello, my friends. I hope you are all well. I know it’s been a while, and I apologize for that. I also apologize that my podcasts have stalled. They will be back, but the semester has gotten the better of me. Three more weeks, and we can close the books on the Spring 2022 semester! I know the students are happy. Because I’ve been absent for so long, I have a lot of cool news to share with you today! First, I was honored to receive the Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award at the Eastern Communication Association Annual Convention! It was such an honor to represent Stevenson University, and I was…
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What I Didn’t Say About Life as an Author
Last night, I was honored to have been asked to do a book talk at my local library in Severna Park. I gave a little background on my writing, shared my books, and talked about what it’s like to be an indie author. I said a lot. I answered questions. I was positive. But there was much that I didn’t say…and I feel obligated to share it here. Full disclosure. Complete honesty. So, here it goes. What I didn’t say was… I didn’t say how hard it is to wake up every day and be consumed by what you can do to sell one book. Just one. I didn’t say…
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It’s Been A Helluva Week & A Little Milestone Is In The Books
The life of a writer: Wake up. Think about your writing. Edit your writing. Worry your novel isn’t good enough. Edit some more. Worry some more. Write more and delete more and rewrite the damn thing. Pretend like you don’t actually talk to your characters like a lunatic. Drink a lot of coffee and curse a lot of curses. Write. Edit. Write. Edit. Publish. Celebrate. Collapse. In all seriousness, I do want to collapse. And I’m just starting to think about the “celebrate” part, but I’m not quite there yet. Next week on campus, on Tuesday evening, we will officially LAUNCH my new novel, LITTLE MILESTONES, in conjunction with National…
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The Postcard & Other Short Stories Earns Finalist Award in 13th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
Finalist | Short Stories | 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards YOU GUYS!!!! Am I allowed to be a little excited for a moment? I was thrilled to learn on Friday that The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry received recognition as a FINALIST in the 13th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards! This is the fourth time my books have placed in this contest, and on behalf of all indie authors out there, I want to thank organizations such as NIEA for hosting contests where our writing can be reviewed and showcased. Indie authors are tireless little bunnies out here writing and publishing our own stories, and I couldn’t be…
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An Updated Trailer for Beneath the Mimosa Tree
As I’ve worked hard over the last month to unify the look of the covers of my previously published novels, I decided to tackle another form of unification, and that’s creating trailers that are a little better than the old ones I produced years ago and have a similar feel. With a little more insight into video production from some of my students, I decided to give my trailers another go. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve researched other writers’ trailers, and there were things I liked and wanted to incorporate into my own. After reading Start with Why by Simon Sinek, I’ve had to reevaluate everything I do…
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Book Marketing & An Infographic
One of the things we independent authors have to continually do is market ourselves, our books, and what we are working on presently. THIS IS THE HARDEST PART OF THIS PROCESS — TRUST ME. I am no pro at it, believe me, but I strive each day to work on it and learn something new. Therefore, this morning I told myself I would design a marketing piece—take a new tactic—and that piece is the infographic below that showcases each of my fiction novels with a brief description of what they are about. I’m posting it below for feedback and to hear from other indie authors about what you do. What…
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Book Giveaway – Enter to Win!
* In the world of independent authors and publishing, Amazon gives us the opportunity to give away copies of our books… So let’s do it. If you’re wondering what the heck Inn Significant is about and whether you may want to read it, let me share some recent reviews about the book (below you will see the summary about the novel). In the novel, you’ll be transported to Oxford, Maryland (click here to see an lovely overview of the town form Only in Your State); one of my readers wrote to me and said, “Brilliant. Beautiful. A work of literary art. The vivid imagery of Oxford, as you did with…
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The Letter in the Desk | An Excerpt | Friday Fiction
* * * Unfortunately, this week I am too busy to write a new Friday Fiction post. However, I thought I would share a post I discuss with my students in class. I wrote this short piece called “The Letter in the Desk” when I was working on my MFA. The prompt, again from Brian Kiteley, is from The 4 A.M. Breakthrough, which asks writers to “work with a character you’re very familiar with—someone from a novel you’ve abandoned, a series of stories, or at least a story you’ve worked hard on but have not finished. The character is waiting for someone she knows very well in something like…
