Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

Issue 12a, July 2014

Hello Again, Fellow Writers:

If you feel like you’re having a flashback when you read the title of this quarter’s blog - you are! It’s one of the major lines used by Commander Quincy Taggert (a.k.a Jason Nesmith) in the 1999 movie Galaxy Quest.  Jason Nesmith, played by Tim Allen, is an actor who learns the meaning of, “Never give up, never surrender,” when he is suddenly confronted with real life aliens, call Thermians. The Thermians believe that the cancelled television series, Galaxy Quest, is an historical document. These naive aliens need the help of Nesmith’s character, Commander Taggert, in order to deal with a dangerous enemy. The actor thinks this is just another part in a homemade movie at first, but he soon learns that it’s all too real. Instead of running and hiding, he talks his co-stars into taking the challenge and facing a brutal enemy who is a skilled warrior. They rise from their humdrum lives of unemployed actors to conquering the enemy, saving the Thermians from annihilation. The actors end up with a continuing series of Galaxy Quest when they return to Earth.

This is a fun movie within a movie, which spoofs the original Star Trek series and its’ fans, plus teaches us a lesson for writing and for life. If you haven’t seen this movie, watch it for fun. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, watch it again. Fiction, even silly, spoof science fiction, can help us through the trials of real life so we, too, never give up. As you all know, I’ve been challenged with my own quests over this last year. I’ve been knocked down, kicked around, bloodied and bruised since I lost my job in July 2013. But, thank God, I’ve never surrendered to the depression and self-pity that can so easily conquer us!

I took another beating in June when I found a job, a really good-paying job, then lost it before it started when physical challenges and an unexpected illness prevented me from completing the training. I was aggravated and depressed for a while. But focusing on my real goal, writing, has given me the strength to continue even after the unemployment in July, losing more than two years of research and writing in May and then losing another job in June. However, with a little faith and focus on our goal, we can overcome each obstacle just like the heroes of Galaxy Quest. We will eventually win the prize. If I can do it, you can do it, too!

Reading Makes Us Better Writers

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to read well-written novels and stories in our genre of choice. For one thing, it makes us better writers and gives us ideas to experiment with in our own writing. For another thing, it lets us know our competition better and gives us the opportunity to compare our work to theirs. We need to know whether we’re reaching or exceeding the writing quality of other writers in our genre. I recently finished reading the first novel in the Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer and I am seriously impressed by the way he captivates the readers’ attention with detailed descriptions without sacrificing a fast-moving plot. Whether your favorite genre is science fiction or mystery, you will enjoy how this novel unravels one mystery to reveal another. You can read my review of this book at Must Read, Must See Books and Movies, but for now I want to talk about Vandermeer’s writing style.

First of all, Annihilation is written in the first-person, limited point of view, yet this doesn’t limit Vandermeer’s scope of the strange occurrences or history of Area X. Also, none of the characters are named; we only know them only by their occupation. Our narrator is ‘the biologist’ and it is her journal which carries us through the unorthodox requirements which the Southern Reach, a top secret organization, has placed on this twelfth expedition into a ‘contaminated’ coastal region. Vandermeer captures an entire story through the observations of the biologist and the snippets she reveals about her personal life. He uses her attention to detail which creates a rich environment that pulls the reader into the strange landscape of Area X and it is this attention to detail that captivates me the most. It challenges me to step up the detail in my own writing, so let me challenge you, too.

Writing Challenge #12: Mimic the Best 2

We haven’t done this type of writing exercise for a while, so let’s try mimicking Vandermeer now. I thought we’d try mimicry again, this time using a small piece of Annihilation. Remember that mimicry is when we copy the format of the writing (verb for verb, adjective for adjective, noun for noun), but using our own words and our own story line. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I selected a paragraph from the first chapter to practice mimicry:

Far worse, though, was a low, powerful moaning at dusk. The wind off the sea and the odd interior stillness dulled our ability to gauge direction, so that the sound seemed to infiltrate the black water that soaked the cypress trees. This water was so dark we could see our faces in it and it never stirred, set like glass, reflecting the beards of gray moss that smothered the cypress trees. It you looked out through these areas, toward the ocean, all you saw was the black water, the gray of the cypress trunks and the constant, motionless rain of moss flowing down. All you heard was the low moaning. The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.

If you’re already a member of our writers’ group, Contributors’ Corner, log into you member account at Skeptical Reader, Members Only to see my attempt at this challenge. If you’re not a member, you can join at Skeptical Reader as well.

Now you try it, submit your paragraph in the body of an email to rhodesfitzwilliam@gmail.com. I’ll be uploading our experimental writing through July 20^th. Your paragraph will be entered as a separate blog entry on the Members Only secure page so other members can comment on it.

Remember you must join Contributors' Corner in order to access the Members Only page. Once a member you can share your work and receive comments and suggestions from other writers. You can join at the For Writers page on Skeptical Reader. It’s well worth the $5 a month fee to join.

Members, be sure to log into our writing group to see this month’s Contributors' Corner. We’ll talk about the possibilities for working your piece into a larger one and discuss the publication possibilities. Plus members will be given an additional writing challenge.

Remember, we are in this field to get published so our whispers can be heard.

Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all your heart!

A Time to Say Hello and a Time to Say Farewell

Issue #19 March 2016

Farewell, My Friends and Followers

As you know, we are always focusing on our goals and the actions we must take to achieve them. Evaluating whether or not those actions are relevant to helping us achieve those goals is of great importance. So once the goals are set, the actions selected, then evaluate, we must tweak those actions. Sometimes the activities we’re doing are helping to push us toward our goals, so we keep those activities. Other times our activities have become a distraction from the main goal. There are also times when circumstances in our life have changed and made the once profitable activities impractical. In that case, we need to drop the activity in order to focus better on achieving the main goal.

Well, circumstances in my life have changed. Serious family health issues are demanding more of my time and energy…almost all of it, in fact. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working toward my goal. It does mean I must evaluate which activities I’m doing are most effective in helping me as much to achieve the goal of becoming a well-known author.

I have found myself working on too many projects which consume a great deal of time and energy…distracting me from the goal of writing. While I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and ideas in The Goal-Focused Writer, it has not yielded the following I had hoped for. So this is my farewell to whatever friends and followers read this blog and again to encourage you to continue evaluating your activities as per my example. Below is my final published example of tweaking my own goals. I hope this helps you to tweak yours as well. For those of you who prefer a visual representation, see the attached PDF.

Original Goals for 2016

Activities That Go

1.     Write four (4) blogs for The Goal-Focused Writer

Write blogs for publication (remember that the writing must be done the month before the publication date): January, April, July, October

Writing this blog helped me stay focused on my goals, but since it never gained any kind of following or increased audience, the blog didn’t promote me as a writer. THIS ACTIVITY STOPS.

2.     Develop and push Goal-Focused Writers’ group, writing eights (8) blogs, alternating months with The Goal-Focused Writer

Write a private members-only blog for other writers in conjunction with The Goal-Focused Writer blog (offering free PDF book for joining) and publish: February, March, May, June, August, September, November, and December.

Since this activity is directly related to the above blog, I will not pursue my own writing group online, but possibly pursue building one locally. THIS ACTIVITY STOPS.

3.     Create book cover myself for each of the four parts of LWN

Created cover for Part 1 in December; create covers for Part 2, 3 and 4 before one month trial of Photoshop ends

Just because you CAN do a thing, doesn’t mean you SHOULD do a thing. Creating my own book covers takes massive amounts of time and an expensive creative program that I’m not ready to invest in. It is a distraction from my real goal, which is to write and publish. SO IT GOES!

Activities That Stay

1.     Write six (6) reviews for The Dystopian Reviewer

Read a book every other month, then review the review for publication; offer free PDF of Sci-Fi Analysis for followers: February, April, June, August, October, and December.

This is an excellent activity, since it helps me improve my own writing and lets me know what authors, styles and approaches work well. The blog has a small following which seems to be growing, therefore promoting my name as a writer. This activity stays.

2.     Submit six (6) stories/essays to magazine

Write/edit on new story every other month for publication: February, April, June, August, October, and December.

This is an activity directly related to my major goal, but it’s one I’ve neglected while pursuing the less-focused activities above, which did not help me reach my goal. THIS ACTIVITY STAYS.

3.     Write 8,000 per month on new novel (or 2,000 words per week).

This is an absolute MUST DO in order to achieve my goals. SO THIS ACTIVITY STAYS.

4.     Rewrite and improve synopsis

This activity is a MUST for finding agents and publishers.

5.     Rewrite and improve cover letter

This activity is a MUST for finding agents and publishers.

6.     Send out to six (6) agents every two months

This activity is a MUST for finding agents and publishers. 

As you can see, it is imperative that your activities…those things you choose to devote your time and energy to…are important aspects of whether or not you achieve your end goal. If you’re a writer, your first choice is whether to self-publish on Amazon, Book Baby or through any of the hundreds of services that charge you a fee to put your book in print or if you choose the traditional route of contacting agents and publishers in hopes of a contract. If you choose the self-publishing route, you’ll be forced to learn how to market your book and then spend precious hours taking all those little marketing steps to achieve your book’s success. This what I have been doing for the past two years, during which time I’ve had odd jobs, my mother had a series of small strokes, requiring my help, and I had a massive amount of reading in a new subject to do! I always felt like I was running behind on everything and the things I did finish didn’t look as well-polished as I would have liked. When my mother had an acute stroke last month, I knew she needed more of my time than ever before and that something had to change in my activities. That’s when I decided to work on publishing though the traditional venues. They take more wait time for responses, but while you wait, you continue writing. And that’s exactly what I’ll do.

Setting and Accomplishing Goals

As I end this writers’ blog, let’s review the baby sets we have to take in order to take the leap of achieving our goals:

1)     Set the goal you want to accomplish.

2)     Establish activities that will lead you to that goal.

a)     Practice, practice, and practice some more.

b)     Get feedback on your work whenever possible.

c)     Accept that feedback with grace, remember that the growing requires you to be wrong once in a while. Smile and thank that person for helping you grow.

d)     Get educated in your field of choice, through reading or courses.

e)     Find a mentor or be a mentoring, you’ll learn and grow either way. This is where being part of a writers’ group will really help!

f)      Network with people in you field of choice.

3)     Revaluate your progress toward your goal regularly.

4)     Tweak, change, and alter any activities that are not taking you to the goal you want to achieve or require time away from more meaningful activities that WILL help you grow.

5)     Believe you can achieve, even when things go wrong. Only allow yourself a couple of days to mourn any bad luck, then pull yourself back to focus on your goal.

6)     Repeat these steps frequently until you have achieved the results you desire.

For those of you who enjoy a more visual representation of this Goal Setting Flowchart.

Good luck, good writing, and thanks for reading my blog. Don’t forget that Dystopian Reviewer will still be available and keep an eye on my website: Icy Thoughts for upcoming publications.

Face Your Fears!

Issue #17 October 2015

Launching Your Book

Last year I entered my novel, A Long Winter’s Night, in the 22^nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. I was discouraged to not even receive an honorable mention, however, I did receive many suggestions for improvements and encouraging notes about my skills and future as a writer. So, during the summer, I used those suggestions to edit and rewrite my novel. My sisters/editors, God bless them, told me that those changes have made an incredible difference in the entire story. With my confidence restored, I took an online workshop about launching your book with Kimberley Grabas of Your Writer Platform and Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer. They later sent out a fabulous and informative Book Launch Toolkit that included several blank worksheets and an instruction booklet. What hit me in the instructions is the importance of have an established writer’s platform whether you self-publish or go through traditional publishers and agents. Apparently, you can have a good book launch without a writer’s platform. However, if you want to truly “make it” as an author, you HAVE to have that platform in place.

I’ve decided to try to publish my trilogy via an agent, who will have greater knowledge than me about the ins and outs of writing contracts. So I took a step back and made a new TO-DO list, which started with writing the synopsis and sending it out to agents. Cold sweat immediately popped out all over my body and my mind went blank.

Synopsis Terrors

I think we can agree that we all love writing. It’s the one thing that everyone reading this blog has in common. We either currently write our hearts out, trying to publish our work, or we want to take all those pent up emotions and scribble them across the screen. It’s the whole reason we’ve gone to the trouble to set and monitor our goals, which I hope you’ve mastered. Whether you’ve already completed that first novel using the marvelous tool of self-discipline or you’re just beginning it, we all have to face the terror of writing a synopsis for our book. Agents need them. Publishers want them. Writers shutter at the thought of writing them. However, just as writing flash fiction is excellent practice for compressing our writing, so condensing our book to a one page synopsis is an excellent way to learn how to write the back blub for your book. So take three deep, even breaths, then exhale, because here we go!

First of all, don’t try to jump into writing your synopsis without first planning your route. That means research and read about HOW to create a synopsis. There are literally thousands of suggestion out there, so you need to be careful to select credible sources.

My search took me to two good sources:  Jane Friedman and Glen C. Strathy. Jane Friedman impressed me because, not only has she been in the publishing industry for 15 years, but she also has “expertise in digital media and the future of authorship.” Plus she’s a guest speaker at book fairs and conferences around the world. When I read Glen’s profile, I learned that he is already an accomplished freelance business writer. He also has several awards for independent publishing and on for being a book reviewer. So I chose Jane and Glen’s as references for two reason: 1) for their experience and 2) for their readability.

Now I had to take the second step: read and study what they had to say about the synopsis. Jane’s article is specifically about “How to Write a Synopsis” and it referenced Glen’s article named “How to Write a Book Now.” The specific reference was about the eight basic plot element, which I thought I knew. However, I was surprised by the new terminology in Glen’s article (i.e. story goal instead of plot, consequences if the goal isn’t reached and requirements to achieve the goal). Glen looks at a story from a more practical standpoint or actual motivation for the characters. While Jane’s article is clean and to the point with bulleted items for what to include and what mistakes to delete.

The third step is obviously to practice writing the synopsis according to their instructions. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right the first time. My first attempt resulted in an overly detailed 26-page synopsis. Unusable, of course. My second attempt was better. It turned out to be four pages. Still too long. Now I need to go back to the articles, reread and actually use Glen’s suggestion of using 5” by 8” cards to organize the eight elements of fiction. I’ll let you know how that turns out. The main point is the old “never give up, never surrender.” The only real reason to fail is if you quit trying. Which reminds me of a story my mother-in-law told me. Ma is a terrific artist who used to give private art lessons when her children were young. Apparently, a young woman came to her wanting to learn how to do fashion drawing for newspapers and magazines. After several lessons, Ma was saddened to see that woman had no talent for drawing. She tried to gently dissuade the young woman from a goal that seemed unattainable. However, the young woman was determined. She practiced continuously, continued her lessons with Ma, and studied the techniques of the current fashion illustrators. I shouldn’t have to tell you the ending of this story, but I will. The young women became a fashion illustrator for the Chicago Tribune. Does this exemplify our adapted motto or what? So even during those inevitable times of discouragement, remember to “never give up, never surrender.”

Writing Challenge #16: Dialogue Delight

Last quarter, I challenged you to enter the Bartleby Snopes Contest, which was writing a story composed entirely of dialogue WITHOUT using “he said/she said” tags we’re used to using. I hope some of you accepted that challenge. Even though it sounded like a lot of fun, I was too tied up with other writing to do it. Let’s hope we all do better with the next challenge.

Writing Challenge #17: Write From What You Know

We have a couple of options for this writing challenge. Notice in our list below that October 15, 2015 is the deadline to submit a story for the RROFIHE TROPHY. You could take something from personal experience and fictionalize it. We also have the topics for CHICKEN SOUP for the remainder of the year. The next deadline is October 30, 2015. These are virtually flash fiction pieces, so give it a shot. Remember to use the plot graph to keep yourself on track.

Still haven’t gotten my author website back, so we’re taking a sabbatical from our writers’ group, Contributors’ Corner, until further notice. But don’t let that stop you from writing!

If you’re not receiving your copy of The Prodigal Writer, please contact me. Or if you’d like to start receiving copies of our newsletter, you can contact me, too. Just click my name below to send an email.

Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all your heart!

Rhodes FitzWilliam

Venues for Writing

I still don’t have gotten this list on Google Docs yet. Please accept my apology.

Contests

If you still aren’t receiving Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers, here are upcoming opportunities:

RROFIHE TROPHY

http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/no-fee-rrofihe-trophy2015.html

Genre: Literary Fiction

Word Count: 3,500 to 5,000

Compensation: $500, trophy, announcement and publication on anderbo.com

Deadline: October 15, 2015

Special Instructions: story previously unpublished and author previously unpublished on Anderbol; email submissions only. Please read their instructions.

Magazines

CHICKEN SOUP            

http://www.chickensoup.com

Genre: Real Stories that are Uplifting

Word Count: 1,200 or less

Compensation: $200

Deadlines:

October 30, 2015:

The Joy of Less

Alzheimer’s and Dementias Family Caregiving

November 30, 2015:

Angels and Miracles

Military Families

The Spirit of America

AE SCIFI

http://aescifi.ca/index.php/submissions

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count:  500-3,000

Compensation: $0.07 per word

Deadline:

Special Instructions:  E-mail submissions only; Subject Line:  “INT Sub: ‘Story Title’ (word count, words); Cover Letter; Include your name, byline (if different); Brief Bio (50 words)

AE welcomes submissions from both established and emerging authors. We publish exclusively science fiction, though our interpretation of the genre can be quite inclusive. We are not soliciting poetry or screenplays at this time.

THE THREEPENNY REVIEW

http://www.threepennyreview.com/submissions.html

Genre:	Critical Article	Stories or Memoirs	Table Talk	Poetry
Word Count:	1,200-2,500	4,000 or less	1,000	100 lines or less
Compensation:	$400	$400	$200	$200
Deadline:	Open Reading January through June
NOTE:	No submissions are read or accepted between July and December. No simultaneous submissions. No previously published submissions. Submit ONLY one story or article or five poems. Responds within two months.

The Threepenny Review is a quarterly, international magazine which buys first serial rights in our print and digital editions, and the copyright then reverts to the author immediately upon publication.

Happy 2016: Time to Evaluate Our Goals

Issue #18 January 2016

Evaluate Last Year’s Goals

If you remember last year’s January issue of The Prodigal Writer, you know that we need to constantly stay on top of our long-term goals by setting mid-term and short-term goals, then checking ourselves to make sure we’re staying on track. As you look at your goals from last year, mark down what you actually accomplished in one column. In the next column determine whether your goals were 1) unrealistic, 2) too difficult to achieve and in need of modification or 3) just right and worthwhile continuing.

Here are the goals I set last year and my evaluation of them. Notice that I’ve made notes about each of my goals before deciding on which goals to select for 2016.

	2015 Goals	Actual Accomplishment
Must Read Must See Books and Movies	6 blog entries	4 blog entries, updated keywords and title
Prodigal Writer	4 blog entries	4 blog entries, updated keywords and title
Contributors’ Corner Newsletter	12 newsletter	Only 4 entries – this was connected to my website, which was cancelled
	Submit 12 stories/essays	Submitted 5 stories; 12 stories was too many in light of the editing and writing for my novels
Icy Thoughts Book 2	Write 4,000 words per week on Book 2	Wrote 32,000 words, 4,000 words per weeks MIGHT have been feasible IF other life issues hadn’t come up
Find & Use Editing Service	Contact 2 editing service per month until finding the best match	Contacted 4 different editing services to find out it would cost $2000 to get my book edited-can’t afford
Have a new book cover created	Contact Arts Alliance to find a suitable illustrator	Tried to contact, but no response
Education	Complete another course in marketing	Took How to Sell a Truckload of books on Amazon, Book Launch Toolkit, read numerous articles on how to write a synopsis and how to write a letter to agents.
Apply the Launch Your Ebook principals to promote A Long Winter’s Night AFTER completing the goals for it below		NONE
Author Facebook Page	1 entry per week, either from the blogs, the website or something new	NONE Apparently this is an area of weakness which requires extra work…and study
Character Facebook Page	1 entry per week entered as a diary or journal	NONE – removed from Facebook due to awkwardness
Author LinkedIn Page	NONE	NONE Apparently this is an area of weakness which requires extra work…and study
Author Website	Maintain weekly updates on the author website via the blogs or new info on the home page	NONE – lost website due financial challenges
Write Synopsis		Read about and wrote synopsis
Compose Letter to Agents		Read about and wrote letter to agents
Contact Possible Agents		Wrote and sent letters to 3 agents

As you can see, I accomplished some goals, but not others. This is a natural part of the process and, if you’re seeing the same pattern in your own goal setting-accomplishment process…don’t give up. It takes stamina to reach for the stars and even NASA didn’t make it on the first attempt!

As you can see, I accomplished some goals, but not others. This is a natural part of the process and, if you’re seeing the same pattern in your own goal setting-accomplishment process…don’t give up. It takes stamina to reach for the stars and even NASA didn’t make it on the first attempt!

The next step, of course, is to set your goals for 2016 and break them into monthly goals to be accomplished. This is basically your “to do” list for this year. I like to enter these on my Google Calendar with alerts to keep me on track. If you have another tracking method, that’s fine. Just don’t let yourself fall too far behind or you could get discouraged about actually gaining recognition with your writing.

Goals for 2016	Monthly
Write 6 reviews for The Dystopian Reviewer	Read a book every other month, then review the review for publication: February, April, June, August, October, December
Write 4 blogs for The Goal-Focused Writer	Write blogs for publication: January, April, August, December (remember that the writing must be done the month before the publication date)
Develop and push Goal-Focused Writers’ group, writing 6 blogs, alternating months with The Goal-Focused Writer	Read a book every other month, then review the review for publication: February, April, June, August, October, December
Submit 6 stories/essays	Write/edit on new story every other month for publication: February, April, June, August, October, December
Write 90,000 words	Write 7,500
Create book cover myself for each of the four parts of LWN	Created cover for Part 1 in December; create covers for Part 2, 3 and 4 before one month trial of Photoshop ends
Continue reading and applying marketing information
Launch all four parts of LWN:	Part 1 in February Part 2 in April Part 3 in June Part 4 in August
Create and promote new author web page by February
Rewrite and improve synopsis
Rewrite and improve letter
Send out to 6 agents every two months

  

So let's look at some of the specific ways to accomplish our goals.

Change is Good

I taught English at a local technical school where the motto was “change is good.” It used to exacerbate me because not ALL change is good. Change is only good if it leads to improvement. After hours of reading and research, I decided changes needed to be made to improve my novel’s presence on Amazon. But more than that, I knew I had to make my blogs more accessible, too. Since this blog is focused on goals, I’ve renamed it to The Goal-Focused Writer. We’ll still discuss the steps we need to take as writers to achieve publication… and hopefully notoriety, but those steps can also be applied to accomplishing any goal. 

Re-education

Among the steps to launching any new career path, whether it’s writing or engineering, re-education in the subject area is number one on the TO DO list. That may involve traditional college to improve your writing, but it also means a lot of research and reading on your own. Some of the reading needs to be novels by other authors who are writing in your genre. Reading successful writers has immediate rewards. As you analyze the piece for what works for you as a reader and what doesn’t, then apply this analysis to your own writing, you improve your work. My work as a reader for Gemini Magazine, as well as writing book reviews has increased my awareness of the subtle techniques that change a mediocre novel into a really good one. This is the easy part because it’s right up our proverbial alley.

Other times, though, we must read information which is out of our area of expertise, like how to create promotional material and setting up websites with the correct keywords and linking it to Google Analysis to make sure we’re getting the desired attention. We also have to learn about keywords or tags that word for attracting our desired audience. This type of reading takes time away from our beloved writing and, for we right-brained, creative types, it means working the left side of our brain. When I first began researching how to promote the novel I’d written, I went straight to the horse’s mouth, so to speak. In this case, it was the horses who are professional marketers. I don’t mind telling you, I felt like I’d been stampeded. However, unless you have the good fortune to snag an agent, get a publisher’s attention or have the money to hire a marketing team, it’s absolutely necessary. Accomplishing goals, like getting older, isn’t for sissies.

Luckily, we don’t need to rely solely on marketers for information. Other writers have paved the way for us with FREE easy-to-assimilate directions. One of those writers is Penny C. Sansevieri. Her book, How to Sell Your Book by the Truckload on Amazon, is a must read for any author self-publishing on Amazon. The language is clear and concise and there’s no technobabble to send us in a thousand directions at once. There is, however, a great deal of usable information. So keep your notepad and your TO DO list ready. I’m only halfway through the book and I’ve already learned a great deal about how to improve my keywords and ranking on Amazon. More importantly, I’ve gained the confidence I needed to release of the second, “new and improved,” version of my novel, A Long Winter’s Night. There’s a little more work to accomplish before the new book launch, but I’m well-armed with understanding now. When I finished reading her book, I changed the name of both my blogs. I already explained the change for this blog above. But I also changes my book reviewing blog, Must Read, Must See Novels and Movies, to a more focused title. The Dystopian Reviewer will include a new book review by January. The reviews will still focus on my favorite genre, but they will include other related books as well. Another excellent source of information is Kimberley Grabas’ (Your Writer Platform) and Joel Friedlander’s (The Book Designer) Book Launch Toolkit. While their book feels a little overwhelming, it still has many great suggestions. They offered on online workshop, which included a PDF of the book and a ton of worksheets to help you stay organized.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

In last quarter’s issue, I told you how I struggled with writing the synopsis for A Long Winter’s Night so I could send it out to literary agents. I chose three agents and simultaneously sent the query letter and synopsis to them. Of the three, only one auto-responded to let me know they’d received the query and later they told me that we weren’t a good match. That’s fine. I read enough to know that this process takes time and, since I’m a rhinoceros (reread the January 2014, Issue 10, Do You Have Thick Skin to remind you what this means) I’m ready to take the hits and keep charging.

The next step is to re-visit my query letter and synopsis, edit them again, select another set of literary agents to submit them to, and continue working while I wait for a response. This is the heart of publication: not giving up, not surrendering to the self-doubt and self-pity that can accompany rejection. Keep moving forward!

Don’t forget to join us at the Contributors’ Corner for insights about writing and to receive feedback on your pre-published work. We’re all here to help one another grow as writers. Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all your heart!