August seems to be a busy month for taking runs on Amazon.  As you know, Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballantine both took their turn on August 8th in their “Double Trouble” promotion.  For Tee and Pip, it was the charge of the sequels and showing how new media can help established authors. Coming up on August 25th it’s Mur Lafferty’s turn.  Mur has been called by some, the Queen of Podcasting and she certainly has the credentials to back that up.  She podcast her book “Playing for Keeps” to a massive audience; 10’s of thousands of subscribed listeners (myself included).  She will be trying to climb the Amazon charts and prove that her listening audience will follow her to the […]

Well, I just came back from a 4-day weekend where I worked every day to lay a laminate floor for my mom.  I decided before I left that I wouldn’t be taking my laptop (and hence my primary writing tool) along.  It was time to take a break from the writing. The problem is, when I got home yesterday, the thoughts of writing came flooding back along with something else… guilt.  I felt guilty that I hadn’t been writing for 4 days.  All the story and plot and character ideas attacked my mind en masse and as a result, I didn’t get much sleep. That means that while I took a break, I’m not feeling terribly rested.  Quite the opposite, […]

On August 8, 2008 or 08-08-08, Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballantine are hosting an event they call “Double Trouble”.  I have been following both authors for quite a while and I am a fan of their work.  I am also a fan of new-media; something they are both very involved in. Those two factors alone are enough for me to want to support their efforts.  Add in the fact that both write a mean tale and I’m more than sold.   For those of you who haven’t heard of “Double Trouble” before, it is Tee and Pip’s run at Amazon on August 8th, 2008.  They are asking us to go onto Amazon.com and order their books on that day starting […]

I like trying new things, especially new writing projects.  This is a relatively recent development.  When I first started writing, I knew what I should write (always write what you know or are most familiar with goes the common wisdom), so I always tried to force my stories into the Fantasy genre. As it turns out, that was a mistake.  I have since learned that some characters and/or stories fit a certain genre (say Fantasy) and some do not.  Sure, I could force them into the genre by trying to twist it/them, but why bother?  If it’s a good story, does it really matter if it’s Fantasy or not? This realization came while I was doing my 30-in-30 self challenge. […]