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Five Lessons from a Book Tour Newbie — Guest: Suzanne Johnson

Picture of Suzanne Johnson

I’m in Anaheim, California this week for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference, but I have another great guest here today. Suzanne Johnson just had her debut release a few months ago, and she’s been on fire with her stories. Her Royal Street debut came complete with a book tour. A book […]

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July 26, 2012

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The Hard Work of Writing: Do You Embrace It?

Woman hugging a tree bigger than she can get her arms around

When you first started writing, did you realize how much work it would take? Or were you like most of us, thinking that you’d written your share of emails, essays, or Christmas letters and that writing a whole story wouldn’t be—couldn’t be—that much harder? But at some point—maybe it’s when […]

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July 3, 2012

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Are You in This for the Long Haul?

Man climbing up a hill

It’s tempting to put all our effort into a big debut or breakout book.  It’s natural to want our work to make a big splash and gain attention.  We might think that if we break out, we’ll have it made. But there’s a dark side to that approach, especially if […]

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May 29, 2012

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Random Act of Kindness Blitz and a Giveaway!

Graphic for Random Act of Kindness

Did you see all the posts and tweets yesterday about the Random Acts of Kindness Blitz? (#RAOKBlitz on Twitter)  Two very generous authors, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, of The Bookshelf Muse blog wanted to kick off the release of their book, The Emotion Thesaurus, in a unique way. Just […]

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May 15, 2012

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How Do You Handle Disappointments?

Depressed girl

Over a thousand writers stared at their phones yesterday, willing them to ring.  Only around 150 of them received the call they were waiting for.  Yesterday the Romance Writers of America (RWA) announced the Golden Heart and RITA finalists. One of the largest writing organizations in the world released the names […]

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March 27, 2012

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Is Taking the Hard Road a “Waste”?

Pair of dice

My post about the ethics of fan fiction went viral this week, spreading beyond even the Twilight fandom.  From a post on mediabistro/GalleyCat to mentions at Dear Author, Jezebel, The Paris Review, and AbsoluteWrite, people have been discussing ethics in regards to writing and the publishing industry. I don’t bring that […]

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March 15, 2012

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How To Avoid the Publishing Kool-Aid

Glass of pink liquid (kool-aid)

This isn’t going to be one of those “let’s bash traditional publishing/self-publishing” posts.  There are still too many of those opinions on both sides, and I don’t want any part of that. Two people I respect blogged recently about publishing and kool-aid.  Agent Janet Reid posted about the ten things authors […]

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October 4, 2011

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Have You Given Yourself Permission?

Green traffic signal light

I had a really bad day of writing on Tuesday.  My muse was off in his own little world.  I was frustrated about getting further behind on…well, everything.  And the words I did write felt like crap. (I know, I know.  It’s my own fault my muse was distracted, because in my […]

September 8, 2011

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Do You Write for Yourself or Your Readers?

Empty seats in a stadium

Many writers, especially new ones, talk about how they write for themselves.  When we first start out, we might not know if we’ll even be able to finish the project, so it makes sense that we’re writing for ourselves. We want to get this story out of our head.  We want to […]

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August 25, 2011

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What Wrong Turns Have You Made?

Danger, wrong way, turn back warning sign

Kristen Lamb asked an interesting question on her blog last week, Are We Born to Create?  Her posts often make me think and inspire my own posts here.  (Her unofficial muse skill is one of the reasons I’ve dubbed her “awesome-dipped-in-glitter” (TM).  *smile*) More specifically, she wondered if creative people […]

August 9, 2011

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