Do you ever wonder if you should be writing for specific trends in the book industry? Genre fiction, especially Science Fiction and Fantasy seems to be especially susceptible to trends. One day it might be dragons, the next zombies. Oh look, vampires that glitter. While it might work to see what’s coming and write for it, you need to keep in mind that getting a book from manuscript to shelf can be a very long process. It may be that by the time your book is ready, it’s already out of style. But what if that isn’t a problem. Maybe vampires (for example) as a subject are going to be around for a while and you decide to write a story […]
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Don’t Let Setbacks Set You Back
We’ve all had moments where things didn’t go quite as planned. We’ve all had times when it seems like the world is plotting against us. Responding positively to these challenges is critically important and often extremely hard to do. Case in point, I interviewed JC Hutchins for ‘Get Published’. I must confess that I was really looking forward to talking with JC. We connected via Skype and started talking. Five minutes into the conversation, JC dropped off. I called him back and we picked up where we had left off. About 25 minutes into the interview, increasing amounts of distortion crept into JC’s side of the talk. I should have halted the session, reconnected and proceeded. Unfortunately, I thought maybe […]
Read moreLost Opportunities
I had a lot of ideas about how I wanted to approach today’s post which goes to show how conflicted I’m feeling right now. You see, yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend and former colleague and it really got me thinking. Now before you ask, no, he wasn’t my best friend. He wasn’t even a friend who I spoke to every week. But he was the type of friend that you can see after a long absence and just pick up where you left off. We had a real rapport and we always had a laugh together. It would be very easy to slip to bitterness and anger about the accident. A drunk driver hit the vehicle Alex was […]
Read moreWriting on a Rollercoaster
It has been a tumultuous week for me. I had the priviledge of interviewing J.C. Hutchins for ‘Get Published’ (GOOD) only to discover that half of the audio is incomprehensible and J.C. is booked solid for the next while (BAD). I am going to try and transcribe the dialogue and re-record it myself, but honestly, how good will a conversation between the same voice be? I’m planning to adjust the voice on J.C.’s side of the conversation just to actually make it sound like a conversation, but still. Then my wife badly injures her hand (VERY BAD) and we spend the next 6+ hours in emergency. Now, just to be clear, I don’t get upset by that sort of thing […]
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