The original title of this piece was "Old Dogs, New Tricks". Then I recalled using that same title in 2016. But that's okay. I like my new title better.  The phrase "dog days" kept nagging at me, so I conferred with Merriam-Webster to get a clear understanding of the term's meaning. Often said in reference to the hot, muggy time between early July and early September, it refers to the typically uncomfortable, steamy temperatures north of the equator during those two months. Then I saw it had a second definition: "a period of stagnation or inactivity". That pretty well sums up the last two years, thanks to COVID-19 and family. Hence, "Old dogs, new tricks" rolled seamlessly into "Goodbye, Dog Days". We've had some excellent posts recently on the topic of Kindle Vella. I planned to serialize a novel (then 2 or 3 more, perhaps, if the "test drive" went well). However, a brainstorm hit me with unexpected suddenness. Wh...

Alrighty, folks, we're winding down on Women's History Month (which includes International Women's Day), but that doesn't mean we have to stop reading relevant books on March 31st! So, roll up your reading sleeves, and let's march forward with some reading lists for your consideration: CNN recommends 20 books that are essential reading for Women's History Month   Princeton University Press (ahem, yes, THAT Princeton) offers an impressive nonfiction reading list for consideration Popsugar pops out The 11 Most Popular Books to Read During Women's History Month Here's a GoodReads post on  64 Top Nonfiction Books to Read for Women's History Month  (which includes an almost equal number of comments with more suggestions and some interesting perspectives on the list) Buzzfeed waxes enthusiastic about 9 Fantastic Books That You Must Read for Women's History Month Orion goes poetic with 17 Poetry Collections to read during Women's History Month   Mov...

A few days ago, Polly Iyer wrote about an ugly world that started for her in 2015. Those comments resonated on so many levels for me. I don't remember what I was doing in 2015, but, by 2016 and that dreadful presidential election, my creativity had waned to almost nothing. By the first quarter of 2017, I simply crawled under a rock with 43 J.D. Robb In Death books and read them all consecutively until I was caught up. That took until early April. Then I gardened. A lot.  And tried to paint again. The creative muse didn't like that. My work was simply dreadful. Finally I cooked for a few months. And gained a lot of weight! But I didn't write. Not until I started really thinking about how the country could heal some of its divisiveness. First I wrote some letters to the editor. Then some blog posts.  And then I started thinking about fiction and stories that might help me cope... and maybe also others. I thought about all those JD Robb books, and how they saved my soul and...

What’s going on in the world is not a mere distraction in the writing process, it’s a mind-bending, hard-to-fathom series of catastrophes with roots in a few different causes. Let me explain. Without getting specific and naming names, the genesis of my struggles (and I can only specify this post by how it affects me), started way back in 2015 with ugliness rearing its political head, causing a fissure in this country that goes on to this day. We have had divisions in the United States before, but never have they been more apparent, more deeply felt, with two sides locked into their conflicting beliefs, each charting a course that the other side disparages except maybe those that triggered the Civil War. These beliefs are not just polite disagreements but a vicious clash of ideas and direction, steeped in anger and finger-pointing and buoyed by lies and disinformation, promoted by men and women with their own political and personal agendas. Politics has always been a dirty business, g...

Last month, my friend  Heather Kindt  and I sold our books at Albuquerque Comic Con, our fifth event where we shared table space, learned and relayed each other’s pitches, and vied for the attention of new readers. This being our fifth time selling together, in addition to each of us attending writing- and book-related conferences individually, we’ve honed what we both believe is key to a successful event:  our display . Event #3: FanExpo Denver, October, 2021   Looks pretty good, right? I’ve boiled down the most important elements to three, all starting with S for easy remembering purposes. You’ll see by the end which one was missing in that FanExpo pic up there. First S: Signage Anyone displaying wares knows signage is important. What’s less obvious is which size, type, and placement is ideal. Let’s take a trip into the past, to our first two events. Event #1 Event #2 Oktoberfest (Event 1) was outdoors, so it didn’t occur to me that my too-small poster (...

Note: Contest 1 closes midnight March 9th . Contest 2 closes on March 17th. Scroll down for more details. Many writers don't enjoy the marketing and promoting side of the business of being an author. Myself, included. Those first steps in the overall process - the writing - creating characters - coming up with a plot - finding the perfect setting - and then ending up with a finished novel - are the most satisfying. As Neil Gaiman, who writes the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline , and The Graveyard Book  says, “Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.” Still, we have to promote if we want our books to rise in the rankings at Amazon - the giant retailer that controls so much when it comes to book sales and a force in the business that we can't ignore. There are millions and millions of books listed on Amazon and where does ours land in that mix? Unless an author i...