Short Story – Paralyzed – SD

Tuesday morning.

It was warm under a grey sky, yet the air felt crisp. A storm had passed through in the night, lifting a heavy blanket of humidity off the city. The ground was slowly drying in the morning heat and spots of sunlight peeking through the clouds.

I was driving back from my morning class on the north campus – driving because my small two-person dorm room was on the south. As I pulled into the ever-crowded parking lot of my ten-story dorm, dozens of students strolled up and down the sidewalk heading wherever they needed to head. It was impossible to walk the campus without seeing someone who you’ve never seen before in your life, and whom you will probably never see again. I never could decide if that was proof of life’s beauty or its great tragedy; that there are people I could chance encounter every day who I will never know. Continue reading “Short Story – Paralyzed – SD” →

Friday Write-Day: Revisions Beget… NaNoWriMo!

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Another week, another round of pondering. Revisions to The Warden of Everfeld: Memento are coming along. I have about 40 pages to go to complete my first read-through. I’d like to do that by Sunday so I can start gearing up for NaNo 2016. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: Revisions Beget… NaNoWriMo!” →

Marketing Your Novel: Types of Indirect and Content Marketing

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Disclosure: I work for a marketing firm. While I have no formal education in marketing or business and would never claim to be an “expert”, working in online marketing for two companies over the last  four years has taught me a lot. This series will explore the marketing strategies I will use to promote my upcoming novel. Also, I know free stock photos are lame. I’ll get my own legit photo for this series at some point, I promise.

As we move through this series, I’m going to try and tackle each subject in a logical manner, going deeper and deeper into the many topics and subtopics within marketing without jumping around too much. Thus, some of this information may seem repetitive, because we summarized a lot of it in my first post on where to begin with marketing your novel.

Today, we’ll look more closely at indirect marketing, since this type of marketing is more readily available to most writers, through the magic of the internet — and content marketing. Continue reading “Marketing Your Novel: Types of Indirect and Content Marketing” →

Friday Write-Day: Top 5 Favorite Books!

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I was prompted earlier this week to post my top five favorite books of all time by Mr. MLS Weech, a real-live published author and blogger-buddy. So props to you sir, for making me want to write about my favorite books! (His blog is full of insightful pieces on the writing and publishing process – check it out.)

Now then, thinking about my favorite books was surprisingly difficult, because my reading preferences tend to fall into three broad and diverse categories: Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: Top 5 Favorite Books!” →

October Update: Beefing Up after a Much-Needed Hiatus

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Well, a lot has happened in the last 10 days. First of all, Future Wife finally became Present Wife. The wedding was amazing and the honeymoon was awesome. That photo above is a taste of what we experienced (and tasted) in the Big Easy Continue reading “October Update: Beefing Up after a Much-Needed Hiatus” →

Creativity Sessions: Questions to Ask Your Alpha Readers

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I’ve been discussing the revision process for Manuscript: Alpha of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento since completing the first draft way back in July. (That really does feel so much longer ago than two months…)

Since my alpha readers are nearly finished with their reviews, and I am (basically) finished with my own first read-through, I thought I would share the actual questions I typed up for my alpha readers to answer. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Questions to Ask Your Alpha Readers” →