Blogiversary Winners & a Bonus Contest!

Tic-tac-toe game with winner and text: It's Not Over Yet... A Bonus Contest!

Are you one of my Blogiversary winners? If not, never fear—there’s a bonus contest!

6th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

Gift box with text "Want to win 'me'? Wait... What?"

It’s that time of year again. My six-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th. And I’m once again amazed by the fact that I’ve been writing this blog for six years. How can something feel like yesterday and forever at the same time?

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Publishing Lessons: We Cannot Do It All

Yellow pad with "To do" at top with text: Don't Try to Do It All

Life happens. No matter our intentions or plans or dedication, things will go wrong, slip from the schedule, or get missed. This doesn’t make us bad or a failure. It makes us human.

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Merry Christmas! A Gift for You…

Christmas ornaments with text: A Gift for You! A New Worksheet

I interrupted my Christmas to-do list to put together a worksheet based on the Essential Elements list I covered in my last post. If you’ve ever wondered if a completed story had good “bones,” hopefully this worksheet will help.

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Release News! Do Your Plans Succeed?

Path through a maze with text: Can You Stick with a Plan?

Yesterday marked the release of my fourth book, Ironclad Devotion, and I think I’m going to collapse now. This release marks the end of my “master plan,” also known as my daisy-chain release schedule. I first came up with that plan about a year ago, and I can’t quite believe it actually worked.

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Criticism & Reviews: How Do You Handle Feedback?

Statue of woman in pain with text: Can You Read Your Reviews?

For many writers, the point of writing is to connect with others through our words. Because of that desire, it’s hard to ignore feedback, and during editing, we don’t want to ignore suggestions. But what about after we publish? Should we read reviews of our published work?

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What’s Your Author Self-Esteem?

Man staring at the ground with text: How to Improve Your Author Self-Esteem

I think it’s safe to say that we often doubt ourselves as authors. If we’re not careful, that self-doubt can affect our business decisions. Sometimes we even reject ourselves to prevent rejection from others.

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Subjectivity and Reader Shaming

A woman with her head in her hands with text: Have You Ever Been "Reader Shamed"?

If we write genre fiction, we might bemoan the lack of respect, but the same lack of respect occurs at the reader level too. Readers of science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, young adult, and romance have also been looked down on. Many outsiders have attempted to make readers ashamed of their reading choices by judging by subjective measures.

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Blogiversary Winners & Writing Flexibility

Sketches of sea shells with text: Writing Flexibility

Some writers can find themselves paralyzed by the thought of needing to get their first draft “right.” That’s crazy-making, however. A draft—a first draft especially—is a tool to help us discover the story we want to tell, the characters we want to meet, and the themes we want to explore. That’s it.

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5th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

It’s that time of year again. My five-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th. And I’m once again amazed by the fact that I’ve been writing this blog for five years. How can something feel like yesterday and forever at the same time?

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