Justin Swapp

Overcoming Writer’s Block

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:20:23 +0000

If you’re a writer, than you have probably experienced dreaded writer’s block in some way. Something inside you saps your will to fill up the blank page. Perhaps you’re scared of what others will think, or maybe you don’t feel like you have any ideas. Either way, if you want to write, you have to learn to get over it.

In his book On Writing, Stephen King said this. “You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair–the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of things you might want to consider, or activities that you might want to do in order to ward off the dreaded writer’s block.

Clear your mind. Relax. Allow yourself to write. Get rid of your inner editor.
Look at pictures of random things/specific things – Pinterest is a good tool in that regard.
Go experience things. It’s hard to write about life if you haven’t experienced it to some degree.
Do something different. Take a different route to work, eat something unusual… Stuff like that.
Write at a different time.
Write when you are fresh, not tired.
Remove all distractions – Internet, for example.
Use paper, not the computer. Alternate.
Keep a journal of ideas.
Have different projects going on at the same time, but at different stages. That way if the creative juices aren’t flowing, for example, you can still get some editing done on another project.
Watch a movie, and analyze when the movie touches you and why. What were the mechanics?
Are you writing something you’re passionate about? If not, change what your writing. Hone in on the things you are passionate about.
Figure out why you’re stuck. What are you fixated on? Resolve it before you try writing again.
Join a writing group. Get someone to talk to about it.
Read a good book.
Word war. Make it a competition. You and a buddy… Sit down at the same time and see who can write more words in one sitting.
Do away with your inner editor.
Take the dog for a walk.
Write something in a different format. If you are writing a novel, try a poem, etc.
Use an idea generator on the internet.
Change the names of your character(s). Names have meaning. Perhaps changing the name will give that character new life in your mind.
Ask what if, and go to town.
Free write.
Write anything: A list, a journal entry…
Pretend you are one of your characters. Write a threatening letter from that character to you, the author. What would he/she say?
Visualize what you are going to write before you sit down to write.
Don’t just sit down to write. Have some idea of what you want to write first. Deny yourself the writing until the ideas come, then you will appreciate the writing opportunity when you give it to yourself.
Use an egg timer, or some other kind of timer. Write non-stop for that time, and then stop when the timer goes off.
Choose a book and copy a paragraph or two. Then, pick up the writing from there (this is like “popping the clutch” from a writing perspective).
Get a group of writer friends together. Each of you start with a pencil and paper, and write one paragraph of a story. Then, pass the papers around, and pick up where the other person left off.
Shower.
Fill out a character profile. Sometimes knowing a strong character will get you writing about him/her.
Roll a set of Rory’s Story Cubes.

Do you have any ideas? What do you do to rid yourself of writer’s block? Let us know in the comments below.

Twitter Hashtags for Writers

admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 22:34:36 +0000

Once the writing is done, all authors want is to find readers who will appreciate and enjoy our work. As such, it’s no surprise that social media becomes a topic of conversation, and a focus for us. Social media sites, like Facebook, and Twitter, boast millions of users gathering together to talk culture, and other things they enjoy. Things get passed around, and can go “viral,” or get a ton of exposure.

In this blog post I am going to talk a little bit about Twitter, a social media site that allows users to make posts, or comments that are 117/118 characters long, depending on the kind of link you may include in the post. That might sound easy, but getting what you want to say out in 117 characters (not words) can be a little more challenging than you might think.

Twitter’s character restriction has resulted in some interesting developments. Not only do users abbreviate what they say, but they also make use of Twitter’s hashtag system. What’s a hashtag? Well, technically its this symbol “#.” It kind of reminds me of hash browns, but you may be more familiar with it as the number sign.

The hashtag is a way that twitter buckets or categorizes topics for indexed curation. Users can create and search for hashtags, and thereby find information and interact with others on topics that interest them, like reading, or writing, for example. The evolution of the ‘tweet’ on twitter, then, is that people will insert hashtags in their posts as if they were normal English. For example, this could easily be a modern tweet – Check out this #free #ebook on #kindle [link to book]

In general, hashtags are used for:

Finding Experts (#AskAgent #Storycraft)
Recommending Products (#BookGiveaway #BestRead)
Identifying Brands (#Nike #eBay)
Connecting with others that have similar interests (#angels #Utahjazz)
Showing Emotions (#Highfive #OhNoHeDidnt)
Chats that have an understood day/time set aside for posts (#scifichat #scribechat)

To save you time in searching for a bunch of relevant hashtags that you can use to find readers to connect with, I’ve collected a list of Twitter hashtags for writers. If you are aware of any that I missed, please let me know in the comments!

Hashtags for Readers

#vss (very short story)
#FictionFridays
#FridayFlash
#FridayReads
#LitChat
#StoryFriday
#BookGiveaway
#MustRead
#TeaserTues
#FreeBook
#FreeDownload
#Kindle
#Nook

Hashtags for Writers

#AskAgent
#WIP
#WritersRoad
#AmWriting
#AmEditing
#Editing
#Author
#Authors
#1K1HR
#Authorlife
#WriterWednesday or #WW
#IAN
#SelfPublishing
#MemoirChat
#BookMarket
#WritingParty
#WriteChat
#WriteGoodNews
#WordCount
#WritersLife
#YALitChat
#LitChat
#MemoirChat
#BookMarket
#ScriptChat
#PoetTues
#ZineChat
#IndieAuthors
#NaNoWriMo
#WANA
#PBLitChat
#StoryStarter
#WordAThon
#Creativity
#1K1H

Hashtags for Inspiration

#WritingPrompt
#StoryStarter
#WordAThon
#Creativity
#WIP

Hashtags or Chats with a Genre Focus

#RomanceWriter
#YALitChat
#SciFiChat
#KidLitChat
#RWA
#ACFW
#MGLit
#SCBWI
#MemoirChat
#RomanceWriter
#SciFiChat
#KidLitChat
#RWA (Romance Writers of America)
#ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers)
#MGLit (Middle Grade Lit)
#SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators)
#MemoirChat
#FlashFic
#Romance
#Horror
#FanFic
#YA
#History
#Biopic

Hashtags for the Publishing Industry

#WritingTip
#WriteTip
#GetPublished
#PromoTip
#SelfPublishing
#Publishing
#AskEditor
#IndiePub
#BookMarketing
TenQueries
#WritingTip
#WriteTip
#GetPublished
#BookMarket
#BookMarketing
#PromoTip
#SelfPublishing
#SelfPub
#Publishing
#AskAgent
#AskAuthor
#EBooks
#IndiePub
#IndiePublishing
#BookMarketing
#PubTip

Alt Codes for Twitter

admin — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:30:14 +0000

Have any of you seen all those fun symbols people will put in their tweets on Twitter? In case you were wondering where those come from and how to do them I’ve compiled a list below. Those are ALT codes. On a PC, if you turn on your Num Lock key and then hold down the ALT button, and then key in the number/code next to the symbol, your computer will produce that symbol. Also, you can copy and paste them from below.

So, in short, to use these Alt Code Characters, here’s what you do when you’re about to make a post on Twitter (tweet),

Hit the Number Lock on your keyboard. This toggles it on. (Because its a toggle, you will want to toggle it off when you’re done.)
Hold down the ALT key.
Key in the number of the alt code you want to get.

Have fun with these, and spice up your tweets ☣ Just don’t go overboard

☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟

[ ℠ ] Service Mark [number: &8480]
[ ℃ ] Celsius [number: &8451;]
[ ℅ ] care of [number: &8453;]
[ ℉ ] Fahrenheit [number: &8457;]
[ № ] numero symbol – number sign [number: &8470;]
[ ℗ ] Sound Recording Copyright [number: &8471;]
[ ℞ ] Prescription Take pharmaceutical symbol [number:&8478;]
[ Ω ] Ohm [number: &8486;]
[ ℧ ] Inverted Ohm [number: &8487;]
[ ☀ ] sunshine – sun [ number: &9728;]
[ ☁ ] cloudy - cloud [ number: &9729;]
[ ☂ ] raining - rain [ number: &9730;]
[ ☃ ] snow - snowman [ number: &9731;]
[ ☄ ] comet [ number: &9732;]
[ ★ ] star solid [ number: &9733;]
[ ☆ ] star outline [ number: &9734;]
[ ☇ ] lightning [ number: &9735;]
[ ☈ ] thunderstorm [ number: &9736;]
[ ☉ ] sun [ number: &9737;]
[ ☊ ] ascending node [ number: &9738;]
[ ☋ ] descending node [ number: &9739;]
[ ☌ ] conjunction [ number: &9740;]
[ ☍ ] opposition [ number: &9741;]
[ ☎ ] phone number - phone service [ number: &9742;]
[ ☏ ] phone symbol outline [ number: &9743;]
[ ☐ ] check box - ballot box [ number: &9744;]
[ ☑ ] ballot box check mark [ number: &9745;]
[ ☒ ] ballot box with X [ number: &9746;]
[ ☓ ] Saltire - St. Andrew's Cross [ number: &9747;]
[ ☚ ] left-pointing index finger [number: &9754;]
[ ☛ ] right-pointing index finger [number: &9755;]
[ ☜ ] left-pointing index finger [number: &9756;]
[ ☝ ] upwards pointing index finger [number: &9757;]
[ ☞ ] right pointing index finger [number: &9758;]
[ ☟ ] downwards pointing index finger [number: &9759;]
[ ☠ ] skull & crossbones [number: &9760;]
[ ☡ ] caution sign [ number: &9761;]
[ ☢ ] radioactive sign [number: &9762;]
[ ☣ ] biohazard sign [number: &9763;]
[ ☤ ] Caduceus or "Kerykeion" [number: &9764;]
[ ☥ ] Ankh [number: &9765;]
[ ☦ ] Eastern Christian Cross [number: &9766;]
[ ☧ ] Chi Rho Cross [number: &9767;]
[ ☨ ] Patriarchal Cross [number: &9768;]
[ ☩ ] Greek Cross [number: &9769;]
[ ☪ ] Crescent Moon & Star [ number: &9770;]
[ ☫ ] Farsi symbol [ number: &9771;]
[ ☬ ] Adi Shakti [ number: &9772;]
[ ☭ ] hammer & sickle [ number: &9773;]
[ ☮ ] peace sign [ number: &9774;]
[ ☯ ] yin & yang [ number: &9775;]
[ ☰ ] trigram Heaven [ number: &9776;]
[ ☱ ] trigram Lake [ number: &9777;]
[ ☲ ] trigram Fire [ number: &9778;]
[ ☳ ] trigram Thunder [ number: &9779;]
[ ☴ ] trigram Wind [ number: &9780;]
[ ☵ ] trigram Water [ number: &9781;]
[ ☶ ] trigram Mountain [ number: &9782;]
[ ☷ ] trigram Heaven [ number: &9783;]
[ ☸ ] Dharma Wheel [number: &9784;]
[ ☹ ] frowning face [number: &9785;]
[ ☺ ] smiley face [number: &9786;]
[ ☻ ] black smiley face [number: &9787;]
[ ☽ ] waxing crescent moon [number: &9789;]
[ ☾ ] waning crescent moon [number: &9790;]
[ ☿ ] Mercury [number: &9791;]
[ ♀ ] Venus - Female symbol [number: &9792;]
[ ♁ ] Earth symbol [number: &9793;]
[ ♂ ] Mars - Male symbol [number: &9794;]
[ ♃ ] Jupiter [number: &9795;]
[ ♄ ] Saturn [number: &9796;]
[ ♅ ] Uranus [number: &9797;]
[ ♆ ] Neptune [number: &9798;]
[ ♇ ] Pluto [number: &9799;]
[ ♈ ] Aries [number: &9800;]
[ ♉ ] Taurus [number: &9801;]
[ ♊ ] Gemini [number: &9802;]
[ ♋ ] Cancer [number: &9803;]
[ ♌ ] Leo [number: &9804;]
[ ♍ ] Virgo [number: &9805;]
[ ♎ ] Libra [number: &9806;]
[ ♏ ] Scorpio [number: &9807;]
[ ♐ ] Sagittarius [number: &9808;]
[ ♑ ] Capricorn [number: &9809;]
[ ♒ ] Aquarius [number: &9810;]
[ ♓ ] Pisces [number: &9811;]
[ ♔ ] White King [number: &9812;]
[ ♕ ] White Queen [number: &9813;]
[ ♖ ] White Rook [number: &9814;]
[ ♗ ] White Bishop [number: &9815;]
[ ♘ ] White Knight [number: &9816;]
[ ♙ ] White Pawn [number: &9817;]
[ ♚ ] Black King [number: &9818;]
[ ♛ ] Black Queen [number: &9819;]
[ ♜ ] Black Rook [number: &9820;]
[ ♝ ] Black Bishop [number: &9821;]
[ ♞ ] Black Knight [number: &9822;]
[ ♟ ] Black Pawn [number: &9823;]
[ ♠ ] black spade suit [name: ♠] [number: &9824;]
[ ♡ ] red heart suit [number: &9825;]
[ ♢ ] red diamond suit [number: &9826;]
[ ♣ ] black club suit = shamrock [name: ♣] [number:&9827;]
[ ♤ ] red spade suit [number: &9828;]
[ ♥ ] black heart suit = valentine [name: ♥] [number:&9829;]
[ ♦ ] black diamond suit [name: ♦] [number: &9830;]
[ ♧ ] red club suit [number: &9831;]
[ ♨ ] hot springs [number: &9832;]
[ ♩ ] musical quarter note [number: &9833;]
[ ♪ ] musical eighth note [number: &9834;]
[ ♫ ] musical single bar note [number: &9835;]
[ ♬ ] musical double bar note [number: &9836;]
[ ♭ ] flat note [number: &9837;]
[ ♮ ] natural note [number: &9838;]
[ ♯ ] sharp note [number: &9839;]
[ ✁ ] cut above [number: &9985;]
[ ✂ ] cut here [number: &9986;]
[ ✃ ] cut below [number: &9987;]
[ ✄ ] scissors [number: &9988;]
[ ✆ ] public pay phone [number: &9990;]
[ ✇ ] film reel - tape spool [number: &9991;]
[ ✈ ] airport jet airplane [number: &9992;]
[ ✉ ] envelope mail email [number: &9993;]
[ ✌ ] victory sign [number: &9996;]
[ ✍ ] signature - sign here [number: &9997;]
[ ✎ ] pencil diagonal down [number: &9998;]
[ ✏ ] pencil [number: &9999;]
[ ✐ ] pencil diagonal up [number: &1000;]
[ ✓ ] check mark [number: &10003;]
[ ✔ ] heavy check mark [number: &10004;]
[ ✕ ] multiplication sign X [number: &100005;]
[ ✖ ] heavy multiplication sign X [number: &10006;]
[ ✗ ] ballot X [number: &10007;]
[ ✘ ] heavy ballot X [number: &10008;]
[ ✝ ] Latin Roman Cross [number: &10013;]
[ ✞ ] Latin Cross 3D shadow [number: &10014;]
[ ✟ ] Latin Cross outline [number: &10015;]
[ ✠ ] Maltese Cross [number: &10016;]
[ ✡ ] Star of David [number: &10017;]
[ ❛ ] quotation mark single turned comma [number:&10075;]
[ ❜ ] quotation mark single comma [number: &10076;]
[ ❝ ] quotation mark double turned comma [number:&10077;]
[ ❞ ] quotation mark double comma [number: &10078;]

Rethinking Thinking

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:00:41 +0000

Today I wanted to relate this TED video, Rethinking Thinking, to writing. As writers, we manipulate our readers. It sounds harsh, and maybe even evil, but it’s true. We mislead, give partial information, put a red herring in your path, and leverage any device or technique we can to control the readers thoughts and to achieve the desired outcome or effect.

So, what does that have to do with this video? Well, this video outlines how humans think, and how we make assumptions based on our preferences and our experiences. Here is a list of the thought process stages that we go through as we experience life.

Raw data and observation
Filter
Assign meaning
Make assumptions
Develop conclusions based on our assumptions (add emotion)
Adjust our beliefs about the world around us
Take action

As writers, how can we leverage this information in our stories? I believe comedians use this to set up jokes, and we use them to set up our readers to deliver a payoff. I was going to give an analogy, but there is a really good one in the video. Leave your comments below and share your insight into how you can use this to manipulate your reader

The Anti-Hero

admin — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:09 +0000

One of these days I’m going to write a story with an anti-hero. The notion of a protagonist that blurs the line between the traditional hero and villain is a curious to me, and from an author’s perspective, should be fun to write. At a minimum, its less common in books, although they do exist, of course.

Here’s another neat TED video I found on anti-heros. Notice the awesome use of Tron as an example. What about you? Have you ever written an anti-hero? Tell me about it in the comments below.

The Hero’s Journey Video

admin — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:44:18 +0000

When you start out in something you’re serious about you look for patterns or models that have been established to help you understand it better. When I first started writing, or rather, studying the craft of writing, I came across The Hero’s Journey.[/templ_dropcaps]

The Hero’s Journey is a model that Joseph Campbell established in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In short, the book maintains that over the ages, and across cultures, humans have a set core of beliefs concerning our heros that constantly manifests itself in our story telling traditions. The hero has a pattern, or a type that is seen all over the world. Mr. Campbell went on to consolidate these common occurrences (in their various forms), and created a model called The Hero’s Journey.

I found a fun video on TED that depicts The Hero’s Journey and included it below. Also, I’ve included a diagram that outlines the various stages of The Hero’s Journey. Have you used this in your writing, or are you planning to? If so, let me know about it in the comments!

The Magic Shop Book Cover Revealed

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:05:57 +0000

Well, today is one of the highlights of my life. Not only have I written a novel that my beta readers seem to enjoy (still not sure how that happened), but I have been blessed to work with an absolutely fantastic artist in Arthur Wang (see www.ArthurWangArt.com,) on the book cover.

When I started the search for an artist, I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. There were lots of folks out there that offered the typical looking e-book cover, but that wasn’t what I wanted, not for my baby. I needed a powerful MG/YA cover that would make the potential reader want to open the book and get to know my characters, and their story.

I know a bunch of people on www.deviantart.com to be excellent artists, so I decided to start poking around there. Once I figured out where artists posted for commission requests, I spent days going through different portfolios and assessing the various artists’ styles.

There was something in Arthur’s art… He captured something in the face of his characters that really spoke to me. I knew that I needed to capture a sense of wonder on the cover, and I just had a feeling that Arthur was the right choice for me.

I was right. Oh, so right.

As I tought of an interesting way to chronicle this process, I realized that I could use the update pictures that Arthur sent me throughout the process to create an animated GIF. I thought this would be a way to bring the book cover to life, and in an abbreviated way, you could travel on the same journey that Arthur and I did together.

In a way, this process is not dissimilar to writing the novel itself. He sent me an initial rough draft, something to give me the basic shapes and ideas he had for the cover. Then you can see he focused in on the central most important part — Marcus’ (the main character’s) face, and let the painting grow organically from there. Arthur did a great job of capturing that sense of wonder as Marcus looks down on a key focus of the book – the magical Phoenix skull. He later added the ambiance of the shrieking forest, the magical wisps around the skull, and moved the flaming birds and burning branches around in the background. And then there was the hand-made typography…

The results were fantastic.

I suppose the greatest compliment I could pay to Arthur is this – seeing his art, his book cover, made me want to back and edit my book again so that my art would be as awesome as his.

Thanks Arthur!

If any other authors are looking for a great experience, and an exceptional result, check out Arthur’s website.

ArthurWangArt.com

Here is the non-animated version:

The Next Big Thing – The Magic Shop

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:04:47 +0000

Chanté McCoy recently tagged me in The Next Big Thing blog hop. This is essentially a game authors play to create a network of blog posts that their readers can visit to learn about their existing writing, and future projects.

In this particular blog hop, I’ll answers ten questions about my work, and then I’ll tags a few authors at the bottom of my post to do the same thing the following week, and so on and so on. By hopping from one blog to the next, hopefully you’ll discover other writers or books that may end up being the next big thing.

I’m grateful that Chanté McCoy tagged me on her blog as this should be fun. The cosmos first threw Chanté and me together when we started working on The Crimson Pact anthology a few years ago. The editor suggested that the authors interview each other as a way to promote our individual writing, as well as the anthology itself. Chanté and I wasted no time getting on the phone and working through the interview process. I found her to be delightful, and very helpful. I was also amazed at all the projects she was working on, and I honestly wondered how she found the time for it all. She made me want to write more.

Since then, I have actually become a fan of Chanté’s writing. She has some of the most unique ideas for stories that I have read. I wish I could create the same kind of ambiance she does via her lush descriptions (Right now she’s working on a zombie book called, Scabbies, for example. Kinda sums it all up, doesn’t it?). Everything is so palpable.

Here’s my interview:

What is the title (working title) of your book?

The Magic Shop.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This is actually an interesting point, and something that I never would have imagined happening to me. My idea came from a brief moment in an episode of Fringe (the Fox series ended last night – sniff sniff). The planets must have aligned, because I was stuck on what I wanted to write, and I had decided to watch a sci-fi show and look for ideas that I could put a fantasy twist on. It all started when one of those shape shifters asked for “the back room.”

What genre does your book fall under?

Middle Grade / Young Adult Fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Asa Butterfield (Main Character – Marcus Fith), Dakota Fanning (sister – Ellie Fith). Asa has an interesting quality to his acting that I think would lend nicely to Marcus. Dakota has shown she can play all kinds of characters to great effect. She would make a wonderful Ellie, Marcus’s powerful and mysterious sister.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When Marcus and Ellie Fith are asked to tend the family Magic Shop, they are thrown into a world they never knew existed; Not only is the family business a front, but Marcus learns that he has been marked as a dead man since birth.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? What do you think?

I’m actually pretty conflicted on this topic. Almost any writer would love to be represented by an agency, get huge advances, and sell a lot of books. The publishing world is changing though, and there are many trade-offs to publishing the traditional route. The hardest trade-off to deal with is time. Who knows how long it would be before someone actually considered publishing the work. Then, it could be months or, more likely, years before someone actually puts it out there in print. That’s a long time. Also, the writer losings control of a lot when he goes the traditional route (book cover decisions, what he keeps in the story etc). That said, I’d still like to be represented, so for now, I’ll say agency (fingers crossed).

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About three years – whenever I wasn’t working. I’d try to get up early and write when everyone was sleeping. Then, it was off to a fairly stressful full-time job. One of my goals is how to figure out how to do all of this writing business a whole lot faster.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

That’s hard for me, because no matter what the answer is, it always sounds so presumptuous. Its a book about magic, and family ties, and the secrets and lies that families keep. There are lots of twists in the book, good and evil magic, and several dark parts too… Its a wild ride with fantastic creatures and situations. So, I’d compare it to a book like that.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I have a need to be creative, and I’ve always loved writing, I think. The notion to write my own book occurred to me when I started reading the Harry Potter series to my children – I remembered I loved to tell stories. The bad thing was, I had just started an MBA program, and so I had quite a workload. But, the urge was there, and I couldn’t help myself. I just sacrificed sleep, I guess. It seemed like such a romantic thing to do — chase a dream. I thought maybe, just maybe I could produce the effect in a child that the books I read to my son did in him.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Couple of anecdotes. One of my teenage alpha readers read the manuscript the first time (without the ending even really being complete), and then went on to read it again several times over. An adult alpha reader (co-worker of mine), got about half way through the book one morning before she realized she was late for work. Those kind of stories make a writer’s day, and are fun to tell.

Chanté McCoy

At this point you can probably tell I have all kinds of admiration for Chanté. She has great talent, and it really comes through in everything I’ve read of hers. Her ideas are super fresh, and you can tell from the start that she has honed her craft. I highly recommend you visit her site, and check out some of her writing. You can always come back to this post and drop me a thank you comment later

Donald J. Bingle

Donald is another fabulous author I met through The Crimson Pact anthology. He is a prolific writer, and cranks out stories more frequently than I eat burgers (I’ll spare you the oversized jpg). His writing covers a crazy range of fantastic topics and formats from short stories to novels. His writing is highly regarded, and you’ll definitely want to pay him a visit online.

Darnell Dickerson

Darnell Dickerson is an up and coming writer that I first met on Facebook. He has a couple of nice short story pieces up on amazon right now that have already begun to take off. Pay him a visit and let him know what you think.

Paul Genesse

Paul was my first editor, and in the short time I worked with him, I feel like I learned a lot. He’s a work horse, and demands excellence. That said, he showed a lot of patience with me, and I will always be grateful for that. He has written an awesome set of fantasy novels called the Iron Dragon series. Furthermore, he’s just finished another novel, Medusa’s Daughter, which promises to be every bit as awesome as everything else he’s written. Check him out online.

New Book Cover for Cigars for Sawyer

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:47:33 +0000

I recently heard about www.fiverr.com and thought I would experiment with some of the services offered for my books and stories. So, I started with my most recent work to hit the kindle library – Cigars for Sawyer. Check out the graphic that came back. What do you think?

I picked the “gig” from user add_life, and here is a link to her profile on Fiverr. I think it turned out pretty cool. The colors are futuristic (tron?) and the font smacks of sci-fi. I’ll keep experimenting, and will probably try add_life again.

My Editor’s Review of The Magic Shop

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 04:21:42 +0000

Claudette Cruz, the editor for my upcoming middle grade fantasy novel, “The Magic Shop,” just posted a nice little review on the book. From an author’s perspective, she was great to work with. She took her work seriously, and gave me some fun ideas that helped me improve the book.

Check out the review here. You can also check out the other reviews she has posted of the other books she has edited.