Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

It's resurrection Friday. You know, where I mine my old posts and re-use one. Earlier this week I wrote a short story with a seaside setting, so I chuckled when I came upon this old writerly post. I must have a thing for the ocean. I admit, I miss it.  Plus, I'm a bit clairvoyant, predicting the lit agent harassment and all. Enjoy! THE EBB & FLOW OF BEING A WRITER Being a writer is a lot like playing in the ocean. Some people just take a run at the surf and dive in head first, knowing full well they may end up paralyzed from a neck injury, but the rest of us enter writing timidly. We stand just at the edge of the tide line, toes first. When the cold water laps up over our feet, goose bumps rise on our legs and arms. We step forward cautiously and slowly, getting used to the temperature as we advance. The journey onward is unstable. Dips and unexpected rises have us hitching forward as unsteadily as personalized rejections and unanswered emails. O...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters or COMICS! from the publishing industry. This week artist/writer, Jack Kent, joins us. I met Jack and his wife, Verity at the Northwest Author Fair. I’m so excited that he’s visiting because he does COMICS. Just knowing him makes me feel a little cooler! Okay, I’ll cool it with the fangirl attitude. Welcome, Jack. Can you tell us a little about yourself? Gulls Comic is about a rag tag group of shorebirds and their daily adventures. This is a daily comic strip created by Jack Kent who grew up on the Oregon Coast. Gulls Comic is all ages, they mind their language and are here, like you, for a good time. Join the zaniness with these wacky Gulls and their buddies every day. Book mark the website and join the flock! Daily! That must be so hard to keep up with. But I remember the books you were selling at the author fair. What’s your latest? RAWK is ...

My exercise of choice is walking. Aggressively, mind you, I maintain a speed of 4 mph. I’m not sauntering down the road stopping to admire the bunnies. Okay, I’ll stop or slow down to snap a picture of something really pretty or of wildlife that I happen upon. I may as well enjoy myself while torturing myself, right? This year I’ve been averaging 80 miles per month, which is a big step up from last year’s 40 mpm. I really only meant to increase my distance in January to kick start my New Year program, but I must’ve liked it because I’ve kept it up all year. Anyway, in the 1700 miles I’ve tracked through my Nike+ app over the past 3 years, this week something new happened. I’ve been completing interviews for my upcoming virtual book tour. I’d just completed one interview in which I was asked what I’d want people to say about me/my books/my writing when they write my obituary. I said I hoped it would say that I’d inspired people to do certain things and one of those thing...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week author and editor, Kathy Sattem Rygg joins us. Since she is the Editor-in-Chief at www.Knowonder.com and I’m a staff writer there, I feel like she’s kind of my boss. So if you see a couple ‘yes ma’ams’ you’ll understand why. Mrs. Rygg – or can I call you Kathy, tell us a little about yourself. I am children’s author and freelance writer/editor. I earned a degree in magazine journalism from Iowa State University and worked for several Fortune 500 companies in Marketing/Public Relations. I also worked at the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Business Publications Division in New York City and was the Editor-in-Chief of  Women’s Edition magazine in Denver, CO. I am currently the Editor- in-Chief of the children’s online magazine knowonder! and live in Omaha, NE., with my husband and two children. Author and editor? You...

Inspiration for Latitudes - A Story of Coming Home The idea for this book first came to me two years ago after completing my second novel. For my third story, I thought I was ready to use personal material, the story of my own childhood. Although not a memoir, the characters are largely based on my own family. Writing it as fiction gave me enough distance to be able to make it real and compelling. I would not have been able to write this book without the support of my own family today, my wife and three children. The absolute foundation of my life, they give me love and provide me with inspiration every day. Without them, especially my wife of over twenty years, Susan Caplan, I really have nothing. About Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home LATITUDES – A story of one boy overcoming dysfuntion, dislocation and distance… When Father and Mother, a highflying young American lawyer and his party-hard bride, fall prey to the self-destructive lure of alcohol and sexual liber...

I tried to do some R andom A ct of P ublicity during the September event, but I fell off. So I'm gonna make up for it now. I've talked before about easy ways to help your favorite authors sell their books. There is no denying that the current hot spot online for book buying is Amazon and Amazon makes it easy for readers to support their favorite books and authors. First you can click the like button on the author's page and also on the book's page. The more likes an author or book has, the more confident a browsing reader is in making the investment on a book they are interested in. When clicking like on a book, be sure to get all the versions, hardcover, paperback and kindle editions. One like does not like all. Also, you can tag a book with related words and phrases. The more times a book is tagged with that word or phrase, the more it will come up when a browsing reader is doing a search for books related to those tagged words. As an example, my Weaver Tales...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. It is back from a short hiatus while I caught my breath after two book launches. Exciting, but BUSY! This week author, Sheri Larsen, joins us with all sorts of exciting news. First, Sheri, tell us about you. Growing up, one might have categorized me as having duel-personalities. On one hand, I was tomboyish, wearing baseball caps on backwards and ripped jeans, and majorly in love with sports—primarily ice hockey and football; it’s not like I had a choice with my dad being an ice hockey coach. On the other, I had a serious passion, which eventually defined me as a person—the art of dance. At the age of seventeen, I was invited to study under a NYC Rockette. And as thrilling as that was for a small town girl, I turned the invite down to stay home and help care for my mother who’d been recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Ti...

As my fingers tap the keys, they seem to sink deeper and deeper into the mire of the story until finally my hands are buried wrist deep in it. But still I type. Words pour into the story. Clever words, of course, so clever that when I finally finish this first draft, I’ll hardly have any editing to do at all. *Excuse me while I un-stick that exaggeration from my throat before I pass out from lack of oxygen* I’m not even in the middle of the story, the usual slogging spot of a story. I’m past it and revving up to the exciting conclusion. Yet, even though the words are flowing and the tap-tap-tapping resounds through the house, I don’t seem to be making progress in the story. Or not the progress I’d expect. Perhaps it is because the story has already played out in my head and the tedious task of typing it out takes so much longer than I have the patience for. Maybe there is more story than I expected when the movie reel spun to empty inside my brain. All I know is tha...