Such a Sugar Doll

 Two wonderful bloggers gave me the Sugar Doll Award:

L. Diane Wolfe of Circle of Friends
and
Amy Sonnichsen of The Green Bathtub

Thank you so much. Both of you are sugar dolls.

The rules are to pass on the award and tell ten things about myself. I’ll start with passing it on. Since two people gave me the award, I’m passing it on to two other sugar dolls:

Mason Canyon of Thoughts in Progress
and
Jane Kennedy Sutton of Jane’s Ride

Now, ten things about me:

1. I hate to debate. I may have said this before, but I’ll reiterate… I do not like to argue.

2. I wrote a play for the VOE club in high school then starred in it. I was the rabbit hopping around on stage who was late for a very important interview.

3. In high school, I decorated my car with multi-colored polka dots, big giant eyelashes and lips, and drove it around town. For the life of me, I can’t remember why I did it. But I did.

4. I wrote Romance novelettes in high school. As I wrote each page, a friend would take it and pass it on to others. The endings were always tragic. I have no idea where the pages went after I wrote them. Hmm, there’s a theme developing here. I, apparently, was a weird kid in high school.

5. I sang in the church choir (uh-oh, this was during my high school years), but now could not carry a note if you gave me a basket.

6. In college, I was an assistant to one of my English professors and graded papers for him. Probably the beginning of my editing career.

7. I finished my Master’s, including the thesis, in one year.

8. In my closet, I still have the suede lace-up boots I wore with hot pants in college. Why I still have them, I don’t know since my feet have gotten bigger and no longer fit in the boots.

9. I used to do ceramics, even had my own kiln. Until it short circuited and almost burned the house down. Luckily, it was contained to the garage. I don’t do ceramics anymore.

10. I can’t knit. I tried. Maybe it was because it was during the time when I had a high-stress job, but all my stitches were so tight, I couldn’t get the needles through, no matter what size needles I used or how I tried to shove them through.

Mason and Jane, you can pass this on if you want. It’s up to you. I gave it to you ‘cause you’re definitely Sugar Dolls. 

Book Recommendation: Act of Treason

It’s been a while since I read Vince Flynn. Not that I don’t like his Mitch Rapp series. I really do, but I had read five or six in a row and decided to take a break. In the meantime, my husband kept reading and got three books ahead of me. I kept seeing the stack getting bigger and finally grabbed the next one in line and began.

Vince Flynn, or I should probably say, New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn, knows his stuff and knows how to pace a book so you keep turning pages. I read Act of Treason in about two days. I know Mitch Rapp. I know the other major characters. This time, though, some of those characters were undergoing change, perhaps leaving the series. And, as always, really bad things are happening and Rapp will have to step into the fray and knock some heads together.

Knowing ahead of time that Rapp will have to be the savior isn’t a negative. It is, in fact, what keeps readers coming back. In Act of Treason, Flynn doesn’t let us down. We race along with Rapp, worry for him, cheer for him, and wonder sometimes why he doesn’t tell his handler to find someone else. But that’s the kind of man he is. He does what others won’t. He’s what keeps the country safe. And he doesn’t disappoint his fans.

If you want a thriller with political intrigue and lots of action, I recommend Act of Treason by Vince Flynn.
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FTC Disclaimer: My husband loaned this to me (and it was a loan since he wants it back so he can keep the whole series and loan it to a friend). I believe he bought it with a gift card I got for being a Chair at the Texas Book Festival. I think they got the cards from Barnes & Noble. So I guess if you’re going to track down the original source for this book, it would be one of the head guys at B&N.

Writing Hiccups

I think all writers have hiccups, although I have no scientific proof - those little things we do without even noticing we’re doing them. We can even go back, edit, and still not see those hiccups.

Last Fall, I attended a workshop lead by Russ Hall, a great author and wonderful mentor to up and coming authors. The workshop was called Getting Published. Each participant submitted to him ahead of time a query letter and opening pages of a current manuscript.

At the time I was not actually working on any manuscript except the nonfiction book I was under contract for, so I came up with an idea and whipped out the pages with only days to spare before the deadline, did a quick read-through and sent it in. Turns out Russ not only read all the submissions, he handed them over to his editor to read.

When I had my private session with Russ, he told me his agent really liked the story… until she got to page four. I lost her there. Why? Because I hiccupped.

I quickly scanned page four and saw she was right. I had hiccupped big time.

What was my hiccup? In that one page, I had used the word “she” fourteen times. How had I missed seeing that? I was rushing? Maybe. Probably because that word, until it was pointed out to me, was invisible. As I re-read before submitting, it didn’t register. It was invisible until I began to circle “she” on the page.

When I’m editing, something like this would have caught my attention in someone else’s manuscript. In my work, I knew the words so intimately that I glided on past the problem.

This is why you need to have someone else look at your work - a trusted friend, an editor, a critique partner. If you don’t have any of those, try recording it then listening back.

Have you ever noticed a hiccup in your work?

James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener

Today we have two authors visiting with us. James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener are co-authors of David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man’s Friend.

James Boylston has written articles for The Alamo Journal and The Crockett Chronicle. He’s also the creator and moderator of the Alamo Studies online forum, a web based discussion group devoted to the serious study of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. A songwriter and audio engineer, he has had a life-long interest in the Alamo and David Crockett. You can listen to some of his music on his MySpace page (my favorite on his current playlist is Blueprint for the Blues; second favorite: TROUBLE).

Allen Wiener is also the author of The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide and co-author of Music of the Alamo. He has written for The Washington Post, People, American History, The Alamo Journal, The Crockett Chronicle, Western Clippings, Goldmine and Discoveries.

Their book, David Crockett in Congress has won high praise. I found it quite interesting that they live in different states. Boylston resides in Florida, while Wiener lives in Maryland. They’re here today to talk about co-authoring. If you’ve ever thought about partnering up and writing a book, this is a great post to read.

Welcome James and Allen!

CONSIDERING CO-WRITING

James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener

Since the publication of David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man’s Friend, one of the questions we’re asked most frequently is, “How exactly does co-writing work?”

It’s a fair question, especially given that writing is generally a lonely process, when authors reach down deep inside themselves and transfer their innermost thoughts onto the page.

For a collaboration to be successful, there are a number of factors to consider. First and foremost is TRUST. Each writer must have faith in the other’s abilities, and trust that shared ideas will result in shared benefits. The book is what’s important and egos have to take a back seat. So, getting to know your partner before you plunge into a project is important.

HONESTY: Collaborators must be open with each other about strengths and weaknesses in their writing. The work is bound to suffer if one writer has a thin skin or is reluctant to be blunt with the other for fear of offending. This is related to the issue of trust. Both authors should be confident that, when they hear criticism or suggestions from their partner, they are honest comments intended to strengthen the work. This is as true for the research phase of the work as it is for the writing itself. When the research burden is being shared, each writer has to trust that the other has left no stone unturned. Often, a writer may think of a source that the other has missed, and that has to be communicated. This is one of the strengths of working with a partner, who may think of things you hadn’t considered, or suggest sources that had not occurred to you.

COMPATIBILITY: Two distinctly different writing styles, regardless of how effective each may be, will hurt a final manuscript. The reader should forget the fact that the book has been written by two different hands and be able to focus on the content. The narrative must flow seamlessly, as if a single author had composed it. This can be problematic since writers’ styles tend to be distinctive and each writer tries to convey his thoughts from his mind to the printed page. It is a major advantage if the two writers have similar styles, but when they do not, each must adapt theirs to that of their partner to the extent possible. Depending on how different those styles are, the process can be difficult and is best addressed in the drafting and editing stages. Each writer’s initial and subsequent drafts should be reviewed by their co-author, who should suggest revisions or corrections and send it back to the original author. This back-and-forth process can be repeated several times for a single chapter and, in the process, the styles of each writer may “bleed” into one another. Although complete seamlessness may not be possible, a smoother transition can be accomplished. Of course, the surest way to avoid this problem is to choose a co-author whose writing style already matches your own fairly closely.

BALANCE: In most collaboration, each author will bring certain strengths and weaknesses to the task. They may not be obvious at the start, but should become more clear as the work progresses. One partner may be better at seeing the big picture while the other may be more detail oriented. One may write long first drafts while the other submits shorter, sketchier, first attempts, and these roles often shift as the writing progresses. The sooner the two authors recognize these traits, the sooner they will arrive at the most productive division of labor.

A SENSE OF HUMOR: Writing a book, or even a magazine article, can become stressful. It is certain that unanticipated challenges will crop up, causing delays or frustration. Learning to take on these obstacles with patience and a smile will get you through them with a minimum of aggravation and stress. In fact, this is one of the advantages of having a partner, since these burdens can be shared.

Anyone considering a joint project would do well to keep these things in mind. Checking your compatibility ahead of time can avoid a lot of stress later on. Still, there’s no guarantee that collaboration will work out successfully. Achieving effective teamwork is not always easy, but giving a partnership careful consideration before taking the plunge can make all the difference between the successful completion of a project and one very long headache.

Thank you very much, James and Allen.

You can find out more about the authors and David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man’s Friend at James Boylston’s blog, Jim’s Corner: Miscellaneous Ramblings. In addition, Allen Wiener also has a blog, Allen’s Corner: An Occasional Commentary on Books, Media, Current Events, and the Author’s Own Writings. If you’d like to hear more about their book, you can see the talk they gave at the 2009 Texas Book Festival, which was taped and appeared on CSPAN Book TV.

David Crockett in Congress is available in bookstores everywhere.

Co-Authoring a Book

Tomorrow, we have two wonderful authors coming to Straight From Hel. James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener are co-authors of David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man’s Friend.

Jim Boylston has had a lifelong interest in David Crockett and the Alamo and is the founder and moderator of the Alamo Studies Forum, a web based discussion group dedicated to the serious study of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution.

Allen Wiener is the author of The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide and co-author of Music of the Alamo. In addition, he has written for many publications, including The Washington Post, People, and American History. You can find more information about him at Crockett in Congress, including a link to his blog, Allen's Corner.

Their book has been receiving high praise since its debut. Pulitzer Prize winning author Jon Meacham said: "James R. Boylston and Allen Wiener have done a masterful job of recovering the real David Crockett, a figure of enormous historical significance in the tumultuous and critical Jacksonian age." When the authors appeared at the 2009 Texas Book Festival, CSPAN Book TV was there to tape their talk.

David Crockett in Congress has been called the first book to explain why even the history books have not provided a full and accurate portrait of this American legend. Boylston and Wiener present missing correspondence that sets the record straight on this historical legend. Crockett's letters, speeches, and political circulars were used to define Crockett, as well as here-to-fore unpublished documents, and all the political writings of Crockett, as well as a complete collection of Crockett holographs and portraits.

Boylston and Wiener will be here to talk about co-writing such a research-heavy and intensive book. They have a lot of advice for writers thinking about undertaking a co-author project.

I hope you’ll stop by tomorrow and ask questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today through Thursday, the 25th, I'm over on Stephen Tremp’s blog, Breakthrough Blogs, talking about author websites. I hope you’ll stop by to talk about your website, how you set it up (or had it set up) and what works for you.

Contests and Authors

Stephanie Barko is a Literary Publicist. She works with adult and young adult authors of nonfiction and historical fiction. Some of her clients are 2009 Spur Award Winner John Nesbitt, 2008 Southwest Book Award Winner Paul Cool, Christy & 2008 Willa Award Winner Jane Kirkpatrick, and 2008 Book of the Year Winner Sandra Worth.

She’s here today to talk about entering contests and how they can help an author promote themselves and establish a platform.

Welcome, Stephanie.

Contests as an Author’s Promotional Tool

Overview

Although most people are drawn to contests to win prizes, authors win much more than cash or vacations when they enter writing contests.  The fame and notoriety of winning a national contest surrounds you for years.  A contest sponsor’s embrace of your brand will credential you at a higher level and can lift you into the national or even international spotlight.  Winning a contest can attract prestigious back cover endorsements and even influence reviews.

Indeed, merely entering a contest has its benefits.  Once your work and name are online in a competition, you are noticed and heard.  You see how other writers express themselves and how you are similar or different in your own presentation.
 
One of the best reasons to enter a contest is to evoke creativity.  It is by exploring the unknown that we find our answers, not by having the answers before we explore.  There’s nothing like serving yourself a problem to jar your synapses loose and bend your brain in ways it doesn’t normally move.

Somewhere along this discovery process, you will tend to find fresh ways of describing your writing and promoting your topic to its audience.

Getting Started

If you are subscribed to this feed, you are already receiving notifications of writing contests.  Finding the right contest to enter is a little like deciding which book award to apply for—you want the most publicity on the back end for your considerable effort at the front end.  Here are a few steps to get you started.

1.    Choose a contest backed by reputable sponsors that promise media attention to the winners and runners-up.  Look for multiple opportunities to gain high level exposure and make strong contacts.

2.    Instead of next considering what to submit, read through contest rules and regulations to learn what the sponsors are actually looking for.  The fine print may reveal that a combination of writing and another skill is being sought.  Either dig deep to find a way to deliver both or move on to the next contest.

3.    Create your biographical information in a manner that reveals your personality, highlights your accolades and if possible, flatters the sponsor.  Be expository but not dull.  Find a way to relate to the sponsor’s interests.

4.    Enter the contest as close to the start date as possible.  Sometimes the more time you have in a contest, the more likely you are to win.
This is especially true when the sponsor is looking for anything quantitative, like blog comments, poll numbers, and other metrics.

The hardest part of entering a contest is at the beginning, when you can see or at least imagine your competition. Your mind will tell you how powerful they are, how much more clout they have, and what better skills they possess. What you need to remember, though, is that as long as it is legitimate, a contest is a level playing field. Every contestant has to get through the same exercise on the same software and deliver a composition on the same subject.

In the end, you will find that it's all in your mind whether you win or not. You win if you believe you can. And even if you don't win the contest, the attitude you develop to win it will spill over to the next contest and into your writing and into your attitude about life in general.  You will be a different writer when the contest ends.

Thank you, Stephanie.

One of the reasons I asked Stephanie to post about authors entering contests is because she’s currently a finalist for More Magazine’s Reinvention Story Contest. I found out about her entry when I read her story and voted for her. You can read her story and others online. If you’d like to vote for her, you can read her entry at: https://www.more.com/11079/11489-life-after-semiconductors. Voting ends this Friday, February 26th. Stephanie’s giving a prize to one reader who votes for her, so if you vote, note what number voter you are and send her that number. Her email address is: steffercatATaustin.rr.com - change the “AT” to “@” of course.

You can visit Stephaine at http://www.authorsassistant.com/Barko.htm and view her client list at http://www.theauthorsassistant.blogspot.com

Websites

I’m going to be posting on Stephen Tremp’s blog, Breakthrough Blogs, late tonight through Thursday. I’m talking about websites and I hope you’ll stop by to talk about your website, how you set it up (or had it set up) and what works for you.

I’m not an expert on websites, but have created and maintained mine for years. At one point, I even slashed it from many pages to around 10 or 15. I also created a website for a friend, and I created and maintain the website for a company I’m co-partner in.

Each page on my site has purpose, and I’ll be talking a bit about that idea. I think authors need to have a website, either a standalone like I have, or one connected to your blog. I like the standalone idea so that you can have as many pages as you want or need.

Having a website (and a blog and a Facebook, etc.) is a way of getting your name out to the public. It’s also a way of creating your platform.

So zip over to Stephen Tremp’s blog late today, tomorrow or Thursday and share your thoughts about websites and the kind of pages you have on your own website.

A Circle of Friends

Thank you to Maryann Miller for giving Straight From Hel the Circle of Friends Award. I’m honored and tickled that she chose me for this wonderful award.

There are no rules about telling things about yourself or writing a piece of flash fiction using certain words or starting a chain recipe letter. You simply choose five blogs that you visit and enjoy and pass the award on to them.

Kathy McIntosh of Well Placed Word

Jenn McKay of Face Time

Jemi Fraser of Just Jemi

Susan Gourley/Kelley of Susan Says

B. Miller of B. Miller Fiction

If any of these wonderful bloggers have already received this award, I apologize for the duplication, but know that I chose you because I do enjoy reading your posts and visiting with you.

Paper Books Forever!

Or…maybe not. At least not the way they used to be or even the way they are now. What’s called the Google generation does not have the attachment to paper books the way the older generations do. They live on the Internet, embrace getting all their news, games, music, books, phone calls, and people-to-people connections electronically. When they read, they don’t want just words. They want video, interactive games and audio. It’s what they’ve grown up with.

The Huffington Post noted that Simon & Schuster has launched their first Vook titles. Vooks combine book and video aimed, not at those over twenties, but at pre-teens and teenagers.

Scholastic’s 39 Clues is a major hit already.

Launched in September 2008, the action/adventure series follows siblings Amy and Dan on an action-packed, globe-trotting treasure hunt for the source of their ancestral power

39 Clues is not just a series of books. There’s a website, games, prizes, collectible cards, audiobooks, a Steven Spielberg film deal in the works, and apps for the iPod and iTouch.

How popular is the series?

As reported in Publishers Weekly as of June, the 39 Clues web site had attracted more than 500,000 online game users from 191 countries

Lots of other publishers and authors are racing to jump on the virtual wagon. As The Huffington Post notes:

Most of today's teens are online, and that's where publishing has to go if they want to reach them.

For Avatar Lovers

If you’re one of the millions who loved James Cameron’s movie, Avatar, you’re probably wondering when he’ll come out with the sequel or maybe the prequel. Well, you’re not gonna have to wait too long. Sort of. In a way.

According to The Guardian, Cameron plans to write a novel based on the movie - not a novel of the movie, but a prequel that tells about the previous lives of the characters.

"It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with – like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake's brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that…"

Don’t get too excited. It’s not expected to publish until the end of this year. But…if it’s a success, Cameron may allow other authors to write about the world he created. According to Cameron:

There might be opportunities in publishing to tell some of the backstory, tell some of the earth war stories, what went on in Jake's life before the movie. And we'd have that lead up to the sequel that might take place on Pandora several years after our movie closed.

In my opinion, he’ll have to find writers who can verbally create the world he brought to life on film. When I read one of these books, I want to see in my head the world and characters I saw on film. Nothing less. How about you?

Conquering the Book World

With all the writers James Patterson has working for him, I’m surprised there’s still any kind of job recession going on. The man is a conglomeration. He has the ideas and he hires writers to follow his detailed outlines and write the books, which make him a multi-mega-selling name.

Now he’s branching out to comics. According to USA TODAY, he’s now in partnership with IDW Publishing to create comic books and graphic novels. What will they be? New work? Adaptations of his past novels? Work that branches off from his already published works? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Probably around May you’ll see the first in a five-part comic series based on his YA novel, Witch & Wizard. It’ll be written by Dara Naraghi. Then in June, expect a comic adaptation of The Murder of King Tut - written by Alexander Irvine. Eventually, there will be a new series Patterson is calling Beer Belly and the Fat Boy.

Where will Patterson go next in his march to conquer the book world? Got any ideas for him?

Sharing E-Books

If you’re a reader, you want to pass on books you’ve bought to friends and family. If you’re an author, you want the royalty that comes each time your book is bought, so you’d prefer each person buy your book. If you’re the majority of publishers or the store selling the e-book, you also want each person to buy the book.

Your viewpoint on sharing e-books depends on where you are on the book chain - supplier or consumer. So, it’s no surprise that Apple wants anyone downloading to its new iPad to buy books, but not share with others. To help ensure that, they’ve announced they will wrap their e-books in a digital lock called FairPlay, designed to deter piracy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, FairPlay is “a digital rights management software that once limited how many times digital songs can be copied onto different computers.”

9 to 5 Mac pointed out that, while digital songs are no longer protected by FairPlay, “Apple has been using Fairplay on video for a while now.  It never went away.  And now it will be in Books.”

Reuters reports that “Apple's FairPlay system is used to restrict the number of devices that can access content you purchase; it's usually set to 5 computers, iPods or iPhones, and so on.”

As an author, I’m okay with this. As a realist, I wonder how long before someone cracks the FairPlay software for e-books and puts the key out on the Internet. Hours?  Or minutes?

Book Promotion Ideas

There’s always something new, so here’s the latest book promotion idea. Medallion Press, according to Publishers Weekly, has introduced the “action interview.”

The action interview is an audio download, not of the author discussing his book, but of the author and actors and sound effects. Its aim is to immerse listeners in selected scenes from the plot, right alongside the characters. These action interviews will be available via podcast or through download.

On the Medallion site, they have two of these downloads available so far this month: Emerald Embrace by Shannon Drake and Diary of a Confessions Queen by Kathy Carmichael.

It think the new ideas publishers and authors come up with are so interesting. I love hearing of new efforts to promote books. Do you think hearing scenes from a book “acted out” would entice you to buy the book? Is adding this new “dimension” to book promotion something you might consider trying to do with your own book? 

Strong Female Characters

Today I’m over at the Blood-Red Pencil, answering a question sent in for the series, Ask The Editor. Since editors are looking for strong female characters, the person writing in wanted to know what defines such an elusive character.

Clearly today’s female protagonists are not the same as they were fifty or even twenty years ago. As the cliché says, we’ve come a long way, baby. Women in books carry guns, stand up to danger, and can even land a punch, but that’s not necessarily the “strength” editors are looking for. They also look for strength of convictions, strength of beliefs, commitment and a belief in oneself. Women are rarely portrayed as air-head bimbos anymore. They more closely reflect real life of today’s woman.

So, today, I’m over there answering the question. I’ve given some characteristics, along with an example of an exception. I’d like to hear how you define a strong female character and how you think this concept has changed over the years.

Celebrate Blogger Friends

I received the You Are My Sunshine Award from Laura Eno. The purpose of it is to acknowledge those that have a blog and spend endless hours ensuring that other bloggers get feedback on their blogs by leaving comments, adding themselves as a follower or dropping by just to let you know there are people out there. Thank you, Laura!

I’m supposed to name 5 bloggers to pass this award on to and I will, but there are so many people who stop by Straight From Hel to comment and contribute to the conversation that I happily give it to all of you. Reading your comments, thoughts and advice really is the sunshine of each day.

The five I “officially” pass the You Are My Sunshine Award to are:
1. L. Diane Wolfe
2. Elizabeth Spann Craig
3. Jane Kennedy Sutton
4. Bermudaonion
5. Elspeth Antonelli

These are all fun, informative bloggers. If you’ve already received this award, congratulations! If not, accept it with my thanks for being such great blogger friends.

Put Romance in Your Mystery

If you live in the central Texas area, you’re invited to today’s meeting of the Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime. HoT SinC is hosting a panel of mystery authors and one editor (moi) to talk about the rising trend of putting romance in your mystery book.

The meeting will be today at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Westlake (an inner suburb of Austin) at the southeast corner of Loop 360 and Bee Cave Road, in The Village at Westlake shopping center. This Valentine’s Day topic is called: “Love Them to Death with Romance.” We’ll be talking about mystery writing with a romance angle. The meeting not only is free and open to the public, Starbucks will give you a free cup of coffee (real coffee, not the jazzed up, sugary concoctions).

The panelists will be myself, Russ Hall, Sylvia Dickey Smith, Dave Ciambrone, and moderator Joan Upton Hall.

So come on over and ask these mystery authors about adding romance to your book or any other question.

See you there. (And Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all.)

The Newest Generation

We’ve talked many times about e-books and e-readers. We’ve also talked about how important print books are to those of us over the age of 30. Most of us agree that we don’t want print books to disappear and become museum pieces.

I think they’ll be around a long time. I also think there is no stopping the future. That future includes e-books. It will also include generations who have no ties to print books.

A recent article in the Memphis, Tennessee, The Commercial Appeal shows a picture of a family reading. The five-year-old is reading a video book. The three-year-old is reading, with his father, another such book. These young kids are hearing stories and watching animated characters on their iPods. These kinds of books are called Moving Picture Books.

Created by a Knoxville company, they are not cartoons or text-only "ebooks," but stories, classic and new, read to children in the author's words and illustrated with imaginatively drawn moving figures, music and sound effects.

These Moving Picture Books can be downloaded to a computer, iPhones, iPods, or the iPod Touch. They can be bought as DVDs or memory cards for SmartPhones. For the classroom, they can be displayed on a large, digital smartboard.

The generation that grows primarily up without print books is coming.

Getting Published

Last Saturday I moderated a panel at the Story Circle Network National Conference called Getting Published. Five wonderful - and very knowledgeable - authors answered questions for an hour and a half. If you visit here often, you’ve met those five women when they guest posted on Straight From Hel: Kendra Bonnett, Matilda Butler, Laurie Wagner Buyer, Susan J. Tweit, and Linda Wisniewski.

Today, I’m over on Kendra’s and Matilda’s blog, Women’s Memoirs, doing a wrap-up of some of the questions and answers from the panel. The authors fielded questions from what are the stats on the popularity of memoirs, to how do I find an agent interested in memoir, to what is an author’s platform and how do I build it.

I know Kendra and Matilda would love it if you linked over and asked them any questions you have, not just about memoir, but about writing and publishing in general.

See you there!

Enid Wilson

Enid Wilson is stopping by here today. Enid is the author of In Quest of Theta Magic, Bargain with the Devil and her latest, Really Angelic. She writes sexy and erotic, romance - be it modern, historical, paranormal, or science fiction. She lives in Sydney and works in advertising. The expertise at advertising might be why she’s an expert at guest blogging around the world and promoting her books. She’s here today to share some of her promotion tips with us.

Welcome, Enid!

How to maintain a web presence

Thanks Helen for having me back again. I love visiting Straight from Hel because Helen always provides very useful and interesting tips for new authors and writers, especially for self-published authors like myself.

I’ve three books released from January last year. My last book Bargain with the Devil reached top 50 best-selling historical romances in Amazon USA. It was a Pride and Prejudice retelling so JA’s name helped the sales. But I’m still amazed with the result since I self published it and didn’t manage to get any physical bookshops to stock the book. All the marketing was done online.

Today, I’d like to share my experience in promoting my books on the Internet with you.

1. Join forums

If you write romance, join some romance fan fiction forums and post some of your short stories for free there. If you write mystery, join the mystery ones. You will get readers to notice your work.

I actually did the reverse. I started out as a fan fiction writer before I turned into self-publishing. The forum I frequent, http://meryton.com/aha is a Jane Austen fan fiction site. It has over 5000 members and I post my short stories there. Each story will get around 1500 hits. So I have a circle of fans from there who love my stories and I’m thrilled that they are willing to buy my books.

But be active! Don’t just visit the forums only when you have a book release. Join and visit the forums as often as you can and with a supporting attitude.

2. Create a blog

You can create a blog within minutes by joining Google blog or Wordpress. It’s a bit better than having a website because your daily or weekly update can be fed to your author page on Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari, etc.

Google search engine will rank your blog higher when there is update. From experience, the update on my website didn’t get picked up that easily by Google search than from my blog.

I’m happy that I joined the Blog Book Tour yahoo group last May. Dani, Helen and other buddies provided heaps of tips to improve my blog. Here are a few tricks I learned:

• Post at least two or three times a week. If you can post daily, that’s even better.

• Write short posts; say around 300 to 500 words. It’s about getting noticed on the Internet. If you tend to write long, break it up into several posts.

• Have a focus with your blog. For example, mine is about spicy stories. Or if you choose not to have a focus, show readers you’re a “human”, by writing your likes and dislikes, your hobbies and interests. Readers like to buy books from authors whom they know more personally, not from a publicist or a marketing machine.

• Have photos (make sure you cite the source) and internal links.

• A good heading will get more search (e.g. Mr. Darcy is A Single Man or Colin Firth is A Single Man, are headings I used to talk about Colin Firth’s latest movies).

• Put a site meter there. Make sure it shows you where the referrals come from. For example, I check my referral at http://sitemeter.com every week and note down some of the key words used by readers who searched and reached my blog. They include steamy stories, quotes about love, vibrators (shocking?!), etc. Then I will write more posts about them in future.

• Don’t be discouraged by low traffic or response. As long as you have visitors, even one or two per week, they still help your sales.

• Comment on other blogs as often as you can and make sure you put your blog address as your siggie. I comment on Jane Austen sites very often (because that’s my interest) and I got a lot of people clicking back to my blog from my siggie.

3. Organise a Blog Book Tour

I had no clue what a BBT was before I joined the yahoo group. With my first book, I searched for book reviewer websites and begged for a review. The result was tiring, time consuming and unsuccessful.

But I learned many tricks from the yahoo group:

• It’s easier to get blog hosts to agree to guest posts and giveaways than getting them to review a book, because blog hosts are snowed in with book review requests too.

• Aim high and get blogs with higher traffic, like 100 visitors a day. Writing guest posts take time and you should aim high so that your time is best rewarded. I managed to get 10 high traffic stops on my last book tour. This time with my latest novel Really Angelic, it’s easier to get the BBT organised because I’ve established rapports with the previous 10 hosts (just one hasn’t replied and another on maternity leave). I had time to approach others and secured three more hosts.

• Look for blog hosts outside of your genre. For example, I managed to secure a stop at a high traffic relationship advice blog for Really Angelic BBT.

• Write relevant guest posts for your hosts. It’s about appealing to the readers of your blog hosts, not just about promoting your books. So for Helen, I write about tips useful for writers. For Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterioso, Julie writes psychological mystery so my guest post in her blog is about the psychological relationship of mother and daughter

I can definitely tell you that BBT helps my book sales because sales for Really Angelic only picked up after the BBT started.

4. Join Twitter and Facebook

I’m less eloquent with these two social networking tools but there are still visits from people who visit my Twitter and Facebook pages.

I hope the above information helps your next book promotion. Last time when I had my stop here with Helen, I was overseas. But this time, I’ll glue to the computer and reply to your comments sooner (just allow me time for my beauty sleep as I’m from Australia!)

Please share your experience on promoting your books or yourself online here. I’ll give out a copy of Really Angelic: Pride and Prejudice with a paranormal twist to one of the commenters. Thanks Helen for having me here again. You can visit my blog at http://steamydarcy.blogspot.com

Thank you, Enid!

Super information. The panel I was on this past weekend at the Story Circle Network national conference was called Getting Published and it was the definite consensus of the panel that today writers have to get out on the Internet and promote themselves and their book - and they need to set up their platform before the book is published. Enid has given us all some really valuable tips on how to do that.

Visit the comment section and leave her a note or ask a question. And don’t forget the book giveaway.

Really Angelic - Recommended

Enid Wilson has done it again - retold the story of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. This time the tale is not only sexy but has a bit of a paranormal twist. You can guess that twist by looking at the book cover. This is not the Pride and Prejudice you read in high school or saw on PBS.

Elizabeth tries to not give in to Darcy, but even an angel can only hold out so long, especially when she has responsibilities. All the usual Pride and Prejudice characters are in the Wilson’s book, but Elizabeth and Darcy are so different, they could have been new characters. It was nice that Wilson kept them anchored by other characters familiar from the original.

The story will keep you wondering how it will end. After all, Mr. Darcy has a bit of the devil in him. And Elizabeth has a bit of an angel in her. Is this a match that will last?

If you’re a fan of Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth - and you think it’d be fun to see the story steamified - then come back tomorrow for Enid’s post (and possibly a book giveaway).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FTC Disclaimer: The author sent me the book. I read it. I recommended it. I’m hosting the author tomorrow. She’s giving me nothing for that, except a really interesting post. Which I have no doubt people will enjoy reading. Just like I enjoyed reading her book. If you’re from the FTC and would like to read her book, come back tomorrow.

You Know You’re Old When…

You know you’re old when you read about a book and you think to yourself, what the futhart? (To understand the word “futhark,” go to Susan Kelley’s blog, Susan Says.)

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal, of all places, about a blog that’s now a book. It’s a book with no page numbers. It’s a book of text messages. Texts taken from the over 3 million Lauren and Ben Bator posted on their blog. Texts about “unforgettable nights most would rather not remember.”

They apparently get about 15,000 texts every day. They only put up about 40 to 50 of them. They’ve gone back and deleted some of their own more embarrassing ones. It’s isn’t clear that they’ve done that for others.

I need to think of something really, really stupid…I’m too old, though. Things this stupid just don’t come into my head.

Do you have ideas crazy enough to be a quick book that will probably make big bucks but have no lasting value? Better jump on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[For those of you who read yesterday's post and wanted to know how good of a liar I am (the assignment was to tell 6 outrageous lies about myself and one outrageous truth), the answer is that I reversed it and told 6 truths and one lie. The lie was #5: "I don’t remember the name of my fifth step-father." The others were truths.]

Liar? Or Creative?

Patricia Stoltey gave me the “Lesa’s (Bald Faced Liar) “Creative Writer” Blogger Award. Patricia is the author of The Desert Hedge Murders and The Prairie Grass Murders.

I am honored to receive such an award, but wonder, since accepting this award means I must lie to all of you, does Patricia think I’m a liar or a creative writer? Hmm….

The rules are fairly simple. Recipients must -
1. Thank the person who gave this to you. (√)
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog. (√)
3. Link to the person who nominated you. (√)
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth. (This is the hard one.)
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more are true. (√)
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies. (Gonna do this first.)
7. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate. (√)
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them. (Will do.)

So let’s start by nominating 7 other Creative Writers. (If you’ve already received this award, then I’m not the only one who thinks you might be a great liar, I mean, writer. You can pass it on or not, play the lying game or not. It’s up to you.)
1. Marvin Wilson at The Old Silly
2. Alex J. Cavanaugh at Alex J. Cavanaugh
3. Simon Hay Soul Healer at The Healing Blog (incidentally, I’m nominating Simon because, frankly, I don’t believe he can lie, at all)
4. Maryann Miller at It’s Not All Gravy
5. Conda V. Douglas at Conda’s Creative Center - Tips, Hints & Secrets
6. Terri Tiffany of Terri Tiffany Inspirational Writer
7. Liza of Middle Passages

Now for 6 things about me:
1. I used to teach college level public speaking. One of my students gave his “How-To” speech on How to Do an Autopsy, complete with slides.

2. I’ve been an extra in three movies.

3. I have sat on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea.

4. When I was in high school, I was the President of the VOE (Vocational Office Education) club.

5. I don’t remember the name of my fifth step-father.

6. While in college, I once went home and discovered my mother had moved and forgotten to tell me she was moving or where she went. There was nothing left but the steps that used to lead up to her trailer.

Now, the question is: Did I lie six times? If so, which one is the truth? Or did I lie only once and gave you six truths?

Hearing Voices

When you write a character, you try to get inside their head (yeah, I know I should write his/her, but their is easier). You want to hear their voice as they describe things, as they talk about their life, their feelings, their observations. And of course you want to hear their voice (not yours) when they speak. The voice that will be most prominent in your book is that of your protagonist, usually.

I think most of us know to have the character speak like him or her, rather than us. The words he uses, the slang, the grammar, the inflections, sound like the character. But we sometimes forget that when we’re in his head, hearing his thoughts or seeing what he’s seeing, we also need to be in his voice. This voice of the character, especially if it’s a series character, will become the voice of the book. Not yours. His. Or hers.

Here’s a bit from a character of my own. See if you can hear her voice. In this passage, she never says anything aloud, but I think you can still hear her.

I was supposed to have been a boy. Surprised everyone by arriving with a piece of my package missing. Sometimes God plays tricks on people.

Long ago I decided God was a woman. Only a woman would have such a weird sense of humor. Like giving Miss Aggie, the lady who sold beauty makeup door-to-door, a squashed flat nose and eyebrows that streaked across her forehead in thin slashes. Or the way God put my woods together – ordered, clean, beautiful. Only a woman-God would do that. A man would’ve planted a tire-growing tree or a burping bush.

Then last year, God took baby Celia, even though Mama carried her inside her for so long.

I’d been to funerals before. Grandpa Watson rested in a big, dark brown coffin, snuggled in snow-white satin, his head on a pillow Mama embroidered with a heavenly angel. Mary Belle, whose husband owned Belle of the Ball Dress Shop, had a fancy casket with lots of brass and hundreds of yellow roses.

I’d never seen such a small coffin. White, with baby’s breath and one red rose on top. I added a dandelion I’d picked at the side of the road, ‘cause it’s my favorite. I like to make a wish and blow on it so it scatters to the wind. Celia would have liked those too, if she’d had the chance.

Mama said Celia was so beautiful and precious God decided to keep her in Heaven.

Guess God doesn’t like dirty fingernails and callused feet. That’s okay. Now She can keep a better eye on Celia than She did on me. I’m wiry. I have the woods to hide in.

What about you? Do you give your characters voice even when they’re not speaking aloud?

Organizing Creativity

I am, for the most part, what people would call an organized person. And I do try to be. I have a PDA where I keep my calendar which I synchronize with my laptop. I make lists of things to do. I keep notebooks and files. I have a spiral notebook handy in my purse to jot down things on the run. I maintain a set schedule for things that have to be done, like paying the bills.

But I find that’s not always compatible with the part of my brain that writes. That part wants to be free of restrictions. It wants to brainstorm, jump from one idea to another without any tethers. That part wants to play at night, dance through scenes, visit characters, try out dialogue. It would be happy to take over and run things.

But lately the organized side has taken over, almost shutting down the creative side, especially in the last few days before the Story Circle Network National Conference. Last night – this morning, actually – I woke at 4 a.m. I could have gotten up, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to go back to sleep. I was determined to go back to sleep.

Instead I lay there running through things I might have overlooked in getting ready to moderate the Getting Published panel. An hour and a half later, I was still awake. The only way I could shut down was to make a mental list of everything I needed to remember. Once I had the list, I drifted off.

I remember making the list. Problem is, I now can’t remember the actual items on the list.

An hour and a half of possible sleep wasted, lost. Come Sunday, the creative side gets to rise again. Run things. Run amok. Let’s just hope it remembers to take out the trash and pay the bills.

Do You Outline?

Let's say you have an idea, but can’t figure out how to get started writing. What do you do to jumpstart yourself?

Usually, for me, the first step is researching. If there's any area I'm going to have to know more about, I like to research as much as I can before I get started. I know I'll be doing additional work during the writing of the book, but the more I can get done up front, the less interruption of my flow of thoughts I'll have later.

Don't feel like you're a train stuck on the tracks. While you research, keep a notebook where you can jot down ideas or comments on characters, scenes, plot twists, the book climax, so on. All the time you're working on one aspect of your book, you're thinking about other points. Sometimes I see characters doing things. (Usually this happens just before I fall asleep, which is why I keep a lighted pad and pen by my bed.) Sometimes I hear a particular character's voice. (No, I'm not insane. At least not more than other writers.) Write down the phrases they use or their pattern of speech. If the setting is important to your book, you might begin to see the layout of the town or house or whatever. Go ahead and draw it out or make notes.

By the time you're through with your research and brainstorming, you'll probably have a pretty good idea of where the book is going. At this point, we could probably divide writers into two categories. Those who write extemporaneously and those who do an outline.

If you outline, what kind of outline do you do? An extensive outline, maybe even a formal one with Roman numerals? This happens, this happens, then that occurs, and so on. Or a more casual outliner? No Roman numerals.

For a lot of writers, the more casual approach is the easiest. You start with the 10 to 12 major points of the plot. I'm talking about the big things that turn the story. That's not too hard, right? Just the dozen big scenes essential to the plot.

Then divide those plot points into smaller, necessary scenes. What has to happen before this first big scene? What five or six events occur before this next plot turn? What do I have to set up here in order for there to be a payoff later? By doing this you'll end up with 50 or 80 scenes or events. Your plot will be "fleshed" out. At this point in your preparation, you'll most likely begin to see what the theme of your story is. What the major goal of your protagonist is. You're beginning to really know your story.

Now, set it aside.

Remember, you're not a train. You can leave the tracks. Write your story. Let your characters talk, move, live. Watch your setting expand and flourish. Your outline is a guide. If you feel you've strayed too far from where you thought the story was going, refer back to it. If you realize you haven't a clue what should happen next, dig out the old outline and remind yourself of your original intention.

Or you can keep the outline in clear sight, tacked to the wall beside your computer. Refer to it daily, if you want. Just don't let it stifle your creativity. Sometimes you have to surprise yourself in order to surprise your readers. And sometimes your characters will surprise you.

So ... how do you start a book? Come up with a whiz-bang idea. Do research either on information you don't know, or on your characters or setting or dialect, or whatever you need to know for this book. Do an outline. Write. ‘Course, some writers will tell you they never outline. They write and let the characters take them to the end.

Either way, writing a book is not as easy as non-writers think, is it?

[P.S. This morning I’m at the Story Circle Network Conference doing heart-to-heart coaching. I’ll be back this afternoon to visit blogs and answer comments or questions here.]

Writing the Oral History

I belong to a Bunco group. I’ve been in it about twenty-five years. That’s a long time, but I’m actually one of the “newer” members. The group’s been around much longer. Kids have been born; they’ve grown; and got kids of their own. I think I’m the only non-grandmother or grandmother-to-be in the group.

This is all to say, we have history. Stories. Hi-jinks … and low-jinks. Luckily, we have an historian. She has a notebook.

A blank notebook.

Every time something happens we all yell for the historian to put it in the book. Every time a past escapade comes up in conversation, we call on the historian. Like the time two women, after a long drive across town, arrived at Bunco, careened through the front door, and hit the stairs running, hollering they’d chat after they visited the bathroom. Only to stop mid-way, realizing they didn’t recognize a single face in the house or even the house interior.

Or my own tale of being new to the group. It was, I believe, my first time to host Bunco. Nowadays I’m very relaxed about Bunco. Back then, it was stressful, especially for the first time -- cleaning house, preparing a full dinner for twelve, buying presents. After we gathered, chatted and had drinks, ate dinner, played Bunco, gave out presents, had coffee and dessert, and were sitting around talking, someone asked if I was happy my first Bunco was over. I told her I was so happy, I could dance. And I did. A silly little dance as I sang, “Bunco’s over. Bunco’s over. My Bunco’s over.” Whereupon, everyone stood up and left.

Luckily, we have a historian to record all of these tales. Luckily, she has a good memory. If she could just remember where she put the notebook or to write anything in it.

But that’s okay. Oral history is a time honored way of passing on stories. And we’re a group of women who do love to talk. As writers we often pass on true stories in our books and tales. Sometimes they are recorded as they happened. Sometimes we change things to fit the book or to protect the real people.

Do you put real events in your books? Do you usually change them slightly? Or not?

Meeting Half Way

Okay, everyone out there, if you’ve heard this before, raise your hand:

You need to have a New York agent because they’re the ones who can woo the editors over lunch and drinks.

Looks like everybody’s heard that one.

Now, raise your right leg if you’ve heard:

It doesn’t matter where your agent lives. Nowadays, agents use the Internet, the phone, and even quick flights to NY to meet with editors.

Everybody put your arms and legs down before you fall over.

Now, it’s true that NY agents have the most opportunities to get to know NY editors. It’s also true that agents outside of NY network with editors at the big houses. I know from my days as Executive Director of the Writers’ League of Texas that one thing agents wanted to know when we invited them to the Agents conference was how many editors would be there and who. A big draw for them was getting to talk to editors they either knew or wanted to meet.

So don’t dismiss an agent who lives outside of New York, especially if they attend conferences where they can network or say on their website that they travel to NY often. And don’t forget the telephone. It’s a networking tool, too.

Use Your Senses

If you're writing about a place you've never been or a setting you've never seen at the time of year you're describing, you're really at a disadvantage. You could talk to someone who lives in the area you’re describing, especially if that person is a writer and used to looking at things with a writer's eye. You can do Internet searches for information on the area. You can talk to people in chat rooms. You can look in travel books or even in other fiction books. It can be done, but there's nothing like seeing it for yourself.

That’s because the best way to get it right is to see and feel it yourself - when possible. The puffy clouds lingering among the peaks of the mountains. The white caps of the higher clouds. The light blue that radiates to a darker blue then to an almost purple.

When we describe things in our manuscripts (or our characters do), we tend to focus on what can be seen. This is natural. In a book I read, You: The Owner’s Manual, Drs. Roizen and Oz said, “Roughly 80 percent of what our brains process comes from what we see.” So, of course, we describe what we see (or what our characters see).

But sight is not the only important sense we should keep in mind when writing. We, and characters, not only see, we smell things; we feel pain, stickiness and bumps; we hear sounds, soft, loud, low, high; we taste all kinds of things, good and bad, and some in-between.

And all of these senses can trigger emotions inside. We hear a song and we’re thrown back to our teenage years. We smell bacon cooking and smile as we’re transported to our childhood. A certain unidentifiable flavor causes us to spend an hour or even days trying to remember when we once tasted it before, or it makes us gag and spit it out.

Yes, the majority of description in a book is based on sight. It’s what our brains process most. But don’t ignore the other senses, even if it means you have to go back on some round of editing and add them in.

Finding Voice and Grace

Susan J. Tweit, author of twelve books that “explore the interrelationships that form what Aldo Leopold called the ‘community of the land’” is with us today. Her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers from Audubon and Popular Mechanics to High Country News and the Los Angeles Times - and has been heard on the Martha Stewart Living Radio Network. Her latest book is Walking Nature Home: A Life’s Journey, from University of Texas Press. Susan says her book is about “what nature, Quakerism, and chronic illness taught me about love and life.”

Welcome, Susan!

Difficult Memories: Finding Voice and Grace in the "Hard Stuff"

How do we handle the hard stuff in our life stories? How do we write about the memories that are controversial, painful, or just no fun to remember? We'll practice writing techniques that strengthen our voices and reveal the grace and wisdom to be found even in hard times.

That's the description of "Difficult Memories," the workshop I'll be teaching at Story Circle Network's Stories From the Heart V Conference, in Austin, Texas, February 5 - 7, 2010.

When I proposed the workshop last spring, I was thinking about my process in writing my memoir, Walking Nature Home, and my struggle to find the wisdom in the painful and outright hard parts of my own story. When I wrote the first few drafts of that book, I was still angry and hurt by some of my experiences. Writing out my feelings was therapeutic, but didn't result in particularly good memoir.

In fact, some of the initial drafts are so bad that re-reading them is more than embarrassing. It took me decades--and many rewrites--before I learned to chip away at the narrative to find the gift of gold in the hard stuff, before I found the grace to tell my story in a way that was respectful, honest, and compelling. When I finally did, reading the story was exciting instead of painful. It finally felt right--and I felt good about writing it.

Here's an example of finding voice and grace in the hard stuff, from the first chapter of Walking Nature Home:

That Labor Day weekend, we went backpacking with friends and an early fall snowstorm moved in. All I remember from those three days is a steady rain of wet, white flakes falling silently, muffling forest and lake and rock, pressing down on the roof of our small tent until I felt like I would suffocate. On the long drive out, even the cab of our pickup truck seemed to have shrunk. I looked over at Kent and said,

“I need space. I think we should separate.”

His jaw clenched hard, but he didn’t turn his eyes from the gravel road. “You’ll be dead first.”

I moved out. He attempted suicide. I saw a counselor.

Those four paragraphs paint a vivid picture of the disintegration of my first marriage, conveying the salient points without portraying every gory detail. The last line shows how dramatic paring events down to their essence can be: "I moved out. He attempted suicide. I saw a counselor."

There's obviously a lot more I could have said. That chapter did in fact originally include much more material, all of it vivid and dramatic in its own right.

Over time as I worked on the memoir though, I realized that this particular part of the story had come to "weigh" so much that it disturbed the overall balance. Writing out the intimate details of the disintegration of my first marriage may have helped me come to peace with my decisions, but it distracted from the larger point, a love story on several levels: me learning to love myself, the loving bond I found with my second husband, Richard, and the love of nature, the community of species with whom we share this planet, that sustained me through those years and still does.

As I re-visited the painful story of my first marriage, my ability to tell the story well grew as I grew as a person. I can't say which came first: my ability to understand myself or my ability to write the hard stuff with clarity and grace. But I know that we grew together, that memoir and me.

Now I need every bit of that clarity and grace as my beloved husband, Richard, and I walk hand in hand through the "hard stuff" of his brain cancer. I know my practice in learning to tell the sometimes painful and traumatic stories that make up Walking Nature Home [link] is helping me keep my balance today, both in writing and life. Wrestling with difficult memories not only taught me how to write a story that novelist Sandra Dallas hailed in a recent review as "a moving story... filled with hope and joy," it also taught me how to make a hopeful, joyous life--no matter what comes.

Thank you, Susan!

Susan J. Tweit has taught workshops at colleges, universities, and writing festivals from University of California-Riverside and Miami University of Ohio to Wofford College in South Carolina, as well as online. She also coaches writers, reviews manuscripts for university presses, and contributes to "The Perch," the blog of Audubon magazine, and Story Circle Network's "HerStories" as well as her own blog, “Walking Nature Home.” As busy as she is, she’ll pop in over the day to answer questions you might have for her.