Unlimited reading? Unlimited listening? SOLD! I always tend to run out of things to read and have to hit my Amazon Kindle store to buy more e-books. I also have the same problem with audio books which I just can't get enough of. I saw something about Kindle Unlimited and had to check it out. With this program, and for a nominal monthly fee, I can read and listen to my little heart's content! It's $9.99 a month and you can cancel at any time (always a plus for me). I realize that it isn't something new to the Amazon community but somehow I just overlooked it. Check it out and let me know what you think of it. Leave a comment below and we will chat! Kindle Unlimited
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It's time to get back to basics. We live in a fast paced world of instant everything. Even our browsers are full of shortcuts and instant access. I can't say much since I have all of these and more. This is true in my office, my truck and my home. The one place that I knew I had to take pause and start from scratch is the kitchen. No, I won't turn this into a homemaking page. Don't worry. It is still books, books and more books. I did, however, combine the two worlds in a cookbook that I compiled using the recipes I tweaked and twisted until it was perfect. In other words, back to basics. Allow me the moment of a free plug of my other blog, The Pink Executive. I share my haphazard wisdom of the home while I write, promote and learn from other authors and readers, alike. I hope you take the time to check it out along with my new recipe book, Homemade Mixes from the Hearth. I hope you enjoy using the recipes as much as I do and please leave a comment below. The Pink Ex...
The title sounds big and beyond capability but it really isn't. Creating a world is second nature to some authors but it still scares the heebie jeebies out of any writer. It is easier for some to just write what (or where) they know by picking a town they have been to or a forest that they have walked through a dozen times, but to create a place that no one has been can freeze us in our tracks. Why is that? I mean, if no one has been there, there should not be anything to live up to like remembering what bus stop is at what park in the middle of Boston. A Bostonian would know. An author who had never been there? Not so much, and would have more pressure to get facts straight. That is but a small problem and I have learned that it isn't a true problem at all. It is called artistic license. The author is the creator of that world and as such can make it however he or she wants. If I want horses, instead of cars, to be the mode of transportation in modern day New York, that is ho...
Is there something that you do during the day that just makes your mind burst with ideas? Is it driving in the car or folding laundry? I get mine at crazy times. I am in the process of organizing my cabinets. I am a week behind on the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge. Last week was organizing cabinets and drawers. I did drawers first day but it kinda dwindled from there. So, this week was supposed to be sorting out food storage and pantry but today I am finishing up the cabinets from last week. Enjoying it, actually. While I was emptying everything under the sun out of what was supposed to have been only a pan cabinet but held everything from a spice rack I forgot I had to two rolls of aluminum foil that I thought I was out of, my mind went to that pantry and how it isn't working for me. I suddenly got inspired to move my pantry and rebuild. Then I thought of my next book and a new way to outline that would take me to the top. I was on a roll. In the mean time, I had totally...
Hello all my fellow writers and readers! It is cloudy outside and no one else is home but me. The good side of that is I am a writing monster when it's like this! No writer's block could withstand a day like today. Yesterday I was talking to someone about writer's block and she she said that her problem wasn't that she had an idea but was stuck. Her problem was that she couldn't figure out what to write at all. She asked me how I found topics to write about. It was a good question. When I am staring at that blank page and know I want to write but nothing is rattling around in my brain, it is kinda sucky. I yell at the pen for not working. I rip out the page and wad it up even though nothing is written on it. I pace. Then I ultimately head to the fridge. That is what happens about 40% of the time. The other 60%? It's as plain as that blank page, I told her. Write what you know, and if you don't know it, look it up till you do. She said that she was screwed th...
You get the best idea. You want it on paper so fast you spill your coffee while getting to the desk. You fire up your writing program and FLASH! There is that white screen and your idea just went out the window... Yea, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Of course, the t-shirt is white and blank like that damned blank screen. Writer's block. They should have a remedy for that by now. Some sort of pill or nasty tasting elixir that instantly heals it and we can write like the literary geniuses that we are! OK, Maybe that's not in our near future, but the problem is real. Crazy as it sounds, we don't always have the inspiration or the want-to to write that million dollar novel or that awe inspiring blog post. Our brains just say, Nope, not doing it today. Try back tomorrow or next week. Better luck next time. <Insert that evil laugh that you swear is coming from everywhere but you know it is coming from that white screen of evil that is currently controlling your l...
We all get these kind of letters from publishers and agents alike. This is my take on if the roles were finally reversed. Dear Esteemed Publishing Corporation, After some deep consideration, I must regretfully inform you that I must reject your rejection letter. Although it was cleverly written and grammatically correct, I could not find myself accepting such content. I do appreciate the fact that you mentioned my novel in your letter, however, and such considerations do carry some weight with me. With that being said, I will give you another chance. I would suggest that your revise your letter and send it in again. Perhaps the second time will be the charm. Sincerely, Lottie M. Hancock
Hi all of you NaNo's and future NaNo's out there! What is NaNoWriMo? Simple simple. It stands for National November Writing Month. It is an incredible way to get your new book or just a conglomerate of short stories written that have plagued the back of your mind, begging you to write them down. You go to http://nanowrimo.org/, sign up (no worries, its freeeee), and set a writing goal for yourself. Normally it is around 50,000 words for the month. Give or take a thou or so. It is totally up to you. Then you write and post up your tally for the day to keep yourself accountable. Reach your goal and YES! You win! What do you win, you ask? Sorry, the prize is not a million bucks (but wouldnt that be so cool?). You win that self gratification that you did this and you have a book, or at least the beginning of one, where you didn't have one before. If you don't reach your goal, you still win. How? You started that darn thing. You have probably put it off forever and now you a...
In a world full of complicated writing advice, here is the art in its finest detail told by a master. “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.” ~Richard Price Clockers
Tap, tap, tap...That tell tale sound of a manual typewriter. We can all recognize it when we hear it, although many of us haven't been around one in years, if ever. It is one of those sounds that bring to mind our days in high school typing classes or, better yet, the images of great writers like Hemingway and Poe trudging for hours, days, years, on a masterpiece of works that we can never put down. Fifty years ago, this was the mainstay of writing a novel. The typewriter. Before that, the invention of the printing press brought the books, however slowly, into our neighborhood bookshelves. The placing of each letter and punctuation carefully chosen so that the writer's ideas can come to us. There was a time when each book had to be ascribed by hand in a painstaking process of repetition. Books were rare in those days. Now, here we are in the twenty-first century. The invention of the computer and multifaceted printing devices has made it possible for us to ...
I am slow but sure with the books I read. I love the variety of genres that one can find these days, but lately an adventurous mystery has caught my attention. Patricia Cornwell is well known for writing the exploits of Kay Scarpetta, an investigative medical examiner in Virginia, very similar to her real life profession. Her attention to detail has everyone grasping onto the pages in each masterpiece that she puts out and this latest one is one I can't put down. Kay Scarpetta investigates one gruesome murder scene after another and never loses the human factor in the victim. The trick is to try to keep her own emotions out of the equation. At her latest murder scene, however, that is difficult to do. Text messages draw her attention away as a clear and present danger to someone dear to her becomes apparent. She is thrown into the shady past and present of her...
Hello, my fellow aspiring writers, poets and playwrights! First I want to thank all of you for the incredible support that you have given me in my writing and blogging. I have been writing most of my life but only recently decided to go pro. Many of you have decided the same thing. It's a rough road but we can take it. We are tough. It is always helpful (at least it is to me) when others with more experience or just some good ideas share what they know with the rest of us, so here I go with my little bit. Here are 10 quick tips on writing that I have found to be really helpful to learn. 1. Write like a demon! Ignore the format of the page, all of the little writing rules and every bit of writing tips you have been forced to swallow and just write! Let the words flow out like a busted fire hydrant. That first draft is the most important, even with its type-o's, grammar snaffoos and plot holes. It is the heart of any writing process and you can't let over thi...
I know, I know, another post about writing? No. This is for all of you readers out there. This includes authors. We love to read blogs, short stories, anthologies, the latest novels, etc., don't we? Some think that this supports the authors plenty, and yes, it does, but there are so many other ways to do this. Have you checked on your favorite author's blog lately? Website? How about doing that and putting the link to it on your social media? You might be surprised at the response. Sometimes I find the best posts quite by accident, but when a friend or family member posts something about Terry Brooks or Heather Graham, it is news to me and I jump at it. When it is someone I haven't heard of, I still get curious and check it out and I know I am not the only one who would do that. Twitter is great for getting out ideas and such but have you added authors to your Twitter lists? I have and have discovered many writers and books I might never have heard of otherwise. This als...