This post first ran on October 6, 2015 Okay. First off, let me say I know zilch, nada, nothing about marketing - which is what self promoting is all about. What I've learned from online resources, such as Kristen Lamb's interesting and entertaining blog and others, just highlights how much more I have to learn. But when it comes to promoting, the first thing a writer must do is come out of the closet  - so to speak. Back in 2009, I wrote a post here about Glenda Gibberish , who worked on her stories while hiding in the closet so nobody would find out that she was a writer. She didn't want any attention, and she didn't want to have to explain what she was doing if one should happen upon her writing at a desk. However, she finally reached a point where she had to tell someone, so she invited her best friend out to lunch. After hearing Glenda's tale of surreptitious writing, the friend assured Glenda that she would keep the secret, to which Glenda responded, “Ac...

Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates Published by Spiegel & Grau July 14, 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these...

Since this month has been focused on humor here at The Blood-Red Pencil, I thought I would give a shout-out for humorist, Slim Randles. He has written a weekly column, Home Country , that has been syndicated in hundreds of newspapers across the country, and several years ago the best of the best of those columns were collected into a book of the same name. He has also been a frequent contributor here with stories   about his friend, Dud, the writer who struggles like the rest of us with finishing his novel. I first met Slim when he was a contributor to WinnsboroToday.com, and online magazine where I was the Managing Editor for a number of years. I've always had a special affinity for humor writing - that's where I got my start as a writer - and I believe that humor helps the days pass in a much more enjoyable way than if we never got to laugh. When the online magazine closed down, Slim was kind enough to still share his columns with me to post on my blog, It's Not...

Every November we at the Blood-Red Pencil pause to consider thankfulness and what, or who, we are most thankful for. I don't have any one single person to put at the top of my list, but there have been many writers who inspired me, mentored me, taught me, and supported me in my creative journey, and I am thankful for them all, especially my friends at here at the BRP. In addition, I have had great support from writers in the Nebraska Writers Workshop . There are too many to name individually, but I learned so much from them when I lived in Omaha. Courtesy of http://www.myquotesclub.com/ Before moving to Omaha, I was a founding member of the Greater Dallas Writers Association where I met many terrific writers including Laura Parker Castoro;  a friend for many years. We were also neighbors and close friends for all those years we lived in the same Dallas suburb, and I am happy to say that we still are good friends, even though more distance separates us now. Laura is the autho...

Back in June 2013 here on The Blood Red Pencil , I offered some suggestions on taking a professional approach to being a book reviewer, so today I would like to take it from the other side. Writers, we are in a business, and it is so important to be professional in how we write, not just our books, but every letter and every e-mail we send, unless we're sending those to Mom, and then we can be all cutesy cutesy and forget about proper spelling and punctuation. Although Mom might remind us that she taught us better than that. Or at least she tried. I've been a professional reviewer for many moons, starting out for newspapers and magazines, and then moving into online sites. I now do reviews primarily on my blog, It's Not All Gravy , and also post reviews on the online retail sites and Goodreads. I get several review requests a week and turn down many of them for not being a businesslike letter. Such as:  Hi there. I am hoping that you will consider reviewing my lat...