Book Summary “Do you know the difference between cats and frogs?” “Cats have nine lives, but frogs croak every night.” The Funny Kid Toby Baxter is an overweight middle-grader who loves to make people laugh and dreams of a comedy career. Having suffered through the recent death of his father, Read more…
Choosing brand colors was without a doubt the hardest part of creating my brand. I thought it would be easy. Pick two primary colors and done. I was wrong. Do you know how many shades of red there are? More than you can count. I’ve compiled some tools that will Read more…
As authors, we don’t generally see our writing as a business. We write. We hope others read and enjoy. But, if you want to make a successful career of writing, you need to treat it as a business. That includes creating a brand that represents you and your works. This Read more…
In most books, someone dies. Unfortunately, it’s usually obvious who will be the victim. Authors know they need to have some sort of death in their stories, but they may not put a lot of effort into developing that death. It may sound odd, but there is an art to Read more…
I recently finished reading a fabulous book and was left with a mind-blowing question about the writing. How did the author write a plot that ended so badly but left me feeling satisfied? There was no doubt that what could go wrong did go wrong in this book, but I Read more…
Book Summary “I almost think that if my reign had started without bloodshed and terror, they would have been disappointed.” The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, the first book in a fantasy trilogy In The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, Queen Talyien is the product of her harsh society. However, though she is tough Read more…
Agent Amy Brewer from Metamorphosis Literary Agency is my last interview from the writers conference. She represents a wide range of books, from middle grade to book club reads to romance. She is outgoing, fun, and very easy to talk to—even if you’re a nervous author. If you get the Read more…
Holly Atkinson is a freelance editor, and her company is called Evil Eye Editing. She was gracious enough to do a last-minute interview with me at the end of the writing conference, and I am truly grateful. She had some good insight for authors on editing. She is also an Read more…
At the writers conference, I interviewed Ally Robertson, editor with The Wild Rose Press and suspense author. She is a wealth of information since she works on the editing side as well as the writing side. I learned so many tidbits on how to improve my manuscript from just a Read more…
Bestselling author Steven James was gracious enough to take the time to answer a few of my questions—even though he was the keynote speaker at the writers conference and had a ton on his plate. Steven is genuine and funny, and it was such a pleasure to meet him. He Read more…