I honestly didn’t realize how fast this would take when LJ Smith mentioned the possibility on her website.  I’ve said before that The Vampire Diaries aren’t my favorite books by her, but the CW is cashing in on the post-Twilight craze and you can’t look a gift favorite-author-TV-show in the mouth.

Well, okay, maybe you can.

(more…)

In the Christian community, opinions on cursing range from watchdog to apathetic.  This will be an apologetics post targeted to the watchdogs.

In the writing community, opinions on curse words are subjective.  The big question for writers: Does the word work?  Words themselves are tools to express ideas and have no moral tint beyond what humans give them.  The greatest writing sin is, in fact, forcing a word into a place it doesn’t belong.  The word itself does not matter.  The flow matters.  The art matters.

The Bible tells believers to be careful about what we let come out of our mouths, that our words reflect our hearts.  I’ve struggled over the appropriateness of using cursing in my writing.  I don’t curse in day to day life — it’s not how I was brought up.  So my hangup is: if I write it, am I actually saying it?

(more…)

You know the kind of dream after you graduate high school or college where you have to go back to school because you forgot some important requirement and didn’t actually graduate?  This is one of those but a lot more spiffy.

(more…)

I can’t tell you how horrified I was when I learned authors go to bookstores and sign books for people.

Which means talking to strangers.

O.O

I always assumed being a writer meant you got to hole up at home and never see other human beings unless you so chose.  As an introvert, this suited me very well.

So, since I found out, I’ve been educating myself on the practice to help allay my fears, picking up ideas and ways to make it a lot less intimidating.

I have to say, the thing that bolstered my confidence most was a simple visit to our local Barnes and Noble where Alex and I saw an author with a reasonably long line yelling at the bookstore staff for not having enough of his books in stock.

Why did that encourage me?

Because at the end of the day I won’t be that guy.  Nervous, sure.  Incompetent, maybe.

But never an overbearing jerk.

Related Articles

• How to Have a Successful Book Signing by MaryJanice Davidson — All of her tips are meant to soothe the nervous first-timer.  She’s concerned with presenting a friendly, professional face and leaving the people she talks to with a good impression. I love her story at the end about Tracy Bell meeting Ms. Woodiwiss.
• Book Signing Tips by Larry James –  Better for the aggressive self-marketer.  His tips are concerned with making the biggest splash possible.
• Book Signing Tips by Nick Pollotta — Sci Fi writer, 35 books published.  Sensible, honest tips.
• Book Signing Tips from a Writer’s Edge by Georganna Hancock — I particularly like the part about what to write inside the book.  I was never sure about that.  ^_^;

My brother has given me permission to use his address as the return for my SASEs, since we’re moving to his area in the next few months and I don’t want to have to deal with rerouted mail getting to me weeks late.  Still, I’m going to start with email queries and then graduate to mail so I can delay the inevitable “Oh, you got a reply today” over the phone for as long as possible.

Other than that, I get to pack our entire apartment, take care of my mom when she has surgery, and finish putting my final edits into Frostbite – I wrote the edits on paper but didn’t apply them to the typed version, so that’s what I’ve been working on all day.

I’m a little terrified at the idea of a synopsis.  I expect to wait until one is requested to whip it up, since apparently lengths differ.  I just can’t make myself do it ahead of time and that’s not a good enough reason to delay querying.

Nor is moving.

Though I really like procrastinating.   >_>  It’s easy to find reasons to delay querying, and it’s scary that I might miss an important letter because of this move.

Ah well.  I’m not getting any younger, so I should just suck it up.