Category: How To and Tips
5 Tips to Turn Ordinary Interactions into Book Sales
In the course of a day, even introverted writers (which I must admit, I’m not) have the opportunity to turn everyday interactions into book buzz. This week alone, I was talking to the Macy’s clerk and as she hung the cute new dress I was buying, I mentioned that I had a book coming out […]
Writing an Authentic YA Voice
We all remember what it feels like to be a teenager, right? A tumultuous time filled with angst and first love and new friends and burgeoning independence. Whether we had positive or negative experiences in our high school years, they tend to stick with us. I speak for myself when I say that I remember […]
Can You Think Like A Publisher?
When you’re an author-publisher, or self-published author, you face nearly all the choices a traditional publisher faces, but in a much more intimate, more personally-invested, more personally-at-risk way. This is a wonderful in some ways, and not so good in others. For about seventeen years in my callow youth I worked in publishing as an […]
Useful Tips For Writers
I’ve been an avid reader since my early obsession with Nancy Drew, but I never considered writing a novel until my late thirties when I was struggling to cope with the tragic death of my older brother. He was never diagnosed, but I believe Neal was self-medicating to cope with symptoms of bipolar disorder. Despite […]
Seven Ways to Take Yourself Seriously as a Writer
I have been writing since elementary school – well, primary school because I’m Australian – but I’ve only recently started considering myself to be “a writer.” There were a handful of things I began doing to take myself seriously, and you know what? They actually work. Remembering them – in no particular order – has […]
Tackling Contemporary Social Issues in Fiction
In addition to page-turning entertainment, my novels take on ripped-from-the-headlines women’s issues. My first novel, Wolf: A Jessica James Mystery, deals with the timely issue of party rape on campus, while the second, Coyote takes on the human trafficking on Indian Reservations that comes along with hydraulic fracturing (Fracking). And the third, F.O.X. features […]
A Tale of Two Trilogies
One evening in 2009 a writing trigger was pulled in my mind; I sat in front of my computer and poured out a story of high adventure set in the present in an alternative new Rome, but with a twist. It included a hunky hero, but the story was driven by a young woman who transformed from a prickly […]
Writing the Novel that Sells
As an author, it’s the question that keeps you awake at night. Is there a magic formula? Is there a fool-proof way to know your novel has the chops to catch an editor’s attention? Yes. I believe there is. In the next few minutes, I’m going to lay out the information that you need. With […]
Getting Your Book Into A Bookshop
I speak as a bookshop owner. Someone who loves books. Most of us that run bookshops do, so please bear in mind that if you want us to stock your book we theoretically, will lend a receptive ear. But here are a few tips to help make the whole submission process a bit easier. Running […]
Walk a Mile In Your Characters’ Shoes
“Write what you know.” Apparently, it was Mark Twain who gave this famous bit of advice, with which, to be honest, I don’t always agree. As a writer of historical fiction set hundreds and thousands of years past, it’s impossible to truly know what happened in those times. I don’t really know if all the […]
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