PPW News

Sweet Success for Donnell Ann Bell

Sweet Success

by: Darby Karchut

Congratulations and a rousing round of applause for Donnell Ann Bell and her upcoming release, Black Pearl. This suspense novel—and the first in a series—is the author’s fifth book. Mark your calendar as it releases November 8th from Bell Bridge Books 

About Black Pearl

A cold case heats up when a 9-1-1 call puts police at a Denver murder scene, pointing investigators to the abduction of a Colorado teenager fourteen years before. The connection? A calling card—a single black pearl—is found on the newest victim. Is the murder a copycat? Or has a twisted serial killer, thought dead or in prison, returned to kill again?

The hunt for a multi-state killer is on and brings together an unexpected team:  a Denver Major Crimes police lieutenant;  an FBI special agent who investigated the previous murders; a rookie FBI agent with a specialty in psychology; and the only living victim of the Black Pearl Killer is now a cop.

For Special Agent Brian DiPietro, the case is an opportunity to find answers. For Officer Allison Shannon, the case will force her to face down the town that blamed her for surviving when another did not. And for both DiPietro and Shannon, it’s a chance to find closure to questions that have tormented them both for years.

Pre-order Black Pearl from: Amazon   Kobo   Barnes & Noble

Meet the Author

Donnell Ann Bell
Author, Donnell Ann Bell

Before I was published in fiction, I paid my dues in the Unpublished World, finaling in or winning numerous Romance Writers of America® chapter competitions as well as several multi-genre writing competitions. I’m extremely proud to be listed as a two-time Golden Heart® finalist for RWA’s® highest competition. These particular accolades led to the publication of  The Past Came Hunting and Deadly Recall.

I am as at home in nonfiction as I am in fiction. I’ve worked for a weekly business publication and a monthly parenting magazine, but prefer my fictional writing compared to writing about stock portfolios or treating diaper rash. I have a background in court reporting, have worked with kids and engineers, and have volunteered for law enforcement and other organizations.

My heart is stretched between Colorado and New Mexico. I’m proud to call both places my home. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or stop by my website.

Darby Karchut

Sweet Success is coordinated by Contributing Editor, Darby Karchut. If you have a Sweet Success to share please contact her via email.
Darby is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. Her latest book (lucky number thirteen), DEL TORO MOON, released October 2018 from Owl Hollow Press. Visit the author at her website.

The Short Story

Writing from the Peak, PPW Blog

You have decided to write a short story. Congratulations! Short stories can be great fun to write, and like any writing project, they can be a bit daunting. So, what is a short story, and how do you write one?

It is Short

The first thing to keep in mind when writing a short story is pretty obvious, but I will say it anyway. Short stories are…well…short. They can range anywhere from 6 words (flash fiction) to 7,500 words. I have seen some accept 20,000 words as a short story, but that is more the realm of a novelette. I like to read short stories in one sitting so 7,500 is a nice top end.

It’s a Mini-Novel…Almost

Second thing to keep in mind is that a short story is almost a mini-novel. I want to emphasis the word almost. It is a mis-conception to think that a short story is written just like a novel because there are a lot of things a novel has that a short story doesn’t.

A novel will usually have many character and places, along with multiple story lines. A short story has only a few characters who may visit just a few places, and the plot lines through the story are limited to one or two. Of course, there is an exception to every rule, but in general this is how a short story plays out.

It is like a novel in that it has a beginning, middle and end. There are protagonists, antagonists, an inciting incident, a challenge to overcome, and a solution to the problem. All of these are squeezed into a compact story rather than an epic novel adventure.

Give it a Plot

When writing a short story the plot needs to be tight and concise. In short stories, every scene, paragraph, and sentence needs to be spot on with the plot. If you find yourself meandering between the North and South Poles then you might consider a novel instead.

The Hook

In the short story the hook looks a little different than in a novel. First, it usually comes in the first paragraph of a short, but better in the first few sentences. There isn’t much real estate in a short story so the hook may turn out to be only one or two words that are strategically placed to capture your reader’s attention.

The Draft

Everyone has their own way of getting words from their imagination to paper. My version of writing may not fit your’s, but that’s the beauty of writing. You can test different methods and find the one that fits you. My method is a bit sloppy, but it works for me. It’s like testing to see if spaghetti is cooked; slap it on the wall and see what sticks.

My mind skips around like a leaf blowing up the street. Sometimes it goes in a straight line, and sometimes it gets caught up in a dust devil. So goes my writing method. I usually don’t have a plan, goal, or idea when I start. I just crank out words that pop into my head and write them. Within about five or ten minutes of pure nonsense a plot forms and the story takes off.

Every once in awhile I will start with finding the main character’s name. I love odd or tongue-twister names. I wrote one story where I did an internet search for odd surnames and found Quackenbush then wrote a story around it.

The most important lesson I learned about writing short stories is to not fiddle too much. Frustrations will get you down and kill your creativity. If you get your story pounded out, without editing or second guessing as you write the draft, you will have an easier time in the editing phase.

The Hair Pulling

Once you have the bare bones of a draft you can move on to editing, revising, and hair pulling. During this phase you should be trimming the fat. Again, scenes need to be tight and concise. Make every word count.

In the draft you create where the story will start, where it will grow and thrive, then where it will conclude. The editing phase should only be about tweaking what you already have. Get rid of every word that doesn’t count, squeeze it until it sings.

But I Write Novels!

If you are a novel writer then you have to write short stories. They give you an opportunity to test out ideas without writing the entire book. Do a quick short story draft of your novel idea. See how it feels. If it writes into a good short story it could be a great novel too.

What if you already have several books under your belt? Then add a short story to your repertoire. If you’re not sure where to start here’s one idea; find a thread within the novel that you loved, but the story line didn’t let you fully explore. Expand the scene into a full short story that diverges from the main plot of your novel. Or, take a single character who is minor in your novel and write a short story with them as the protagonist.

Get Unstuck with a Short Story

If you get too bogged down in novel, then a short story will give your creativity a quick vacation away from the work. It may even give you ideas that will help move your novel forward. A quick short story will clear the cob webs.

When you are stuck on a short story then stop and write something else. Make it far out or goofy. Write about how Ford Parker learned to drive, or about Kenny Penny’s school days. A story can always be found in characters like Harry Baldz and his furry friend Shaggy. Have fun and keep on writing!

KJ Scrim, head shot

Kathie “KJ” Scrim is the Managing Editor at Writing from the Peak. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder the same year Roald Dahl published Matilda. Kathie’s inspiration for blogging, flash fiction, short stories, and the long haul of novel writing comes from her many life experiences. When she’s not writing you can find her somewhere in Colorado walking, hiking, or rock climbing at the local gym. She scribbles every now and again on her blog, and you can follow her on FB and Twitter (@kjscrim).

Sweet Success for Margaret Mizushima

Sweet Success

By: Darby Karchut

Margaret Mizushima is thrilled to announce the November 12th release of Tracking Game, her fifth Timber Creek K-9 mystery. Library Reads named Tracking Game a Top Pick for November 2019, and Booklist states: “Whether one likes stories about conflict or relationships, there’s something for everybody in Mizushima’s fine novel.” Tracking Game can be found wherever books are sold.

Congratulations, Margaret, on your newest release!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Tracking Game by: Margaret Mizushima

Two brutal murders, a menacing band of poachers, and a fearsome creature on the loose in the mountains plunge Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo into a sinister vortex.

An explosion outside a community dance sends Mattie Cobb and Cole Walker reeling into the night, where they discover a burning van and beside it the body of outfitter Nate Fletcher. But the explosion didn’t kill Nate–it was two gunshots to the heart.

The investigation leads them to the home of rancher Doyle Redman, whose daughter is Nate’s widow, and the object of one of their suspect’s affection. But before they can make an arrest, they receive an emergency call from a man who’s been shot in the mountains. Mattie and Robo rush to the scene, only to be confronted by the ominous growl of a wild predator. 

As new players emerge on the scene, Mattie begins to understand the true danger that’s enveloping Timber Creek. They journey into the cold, misty mountains to track the animal–but discover something even more deadly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Margaret Mizushima

Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries from Crooked Lane Books. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves on the board for the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected the 2019-2020 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She lives in Colorado on a small ranch with her veterinarian husband where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on her website at www.margaretmizushima.com.

Darby Karchut

Sweet Success is coordinated by Contributing Editor, Darby Karchut. If you have a Sweet Success to share please contact her via email.
Darby is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. Her latest book (lucky number thirteen), DEL TORO MOON, released October 2018 from Owl Hollow Press. Visit the author at her website.

Stealing Screenwriting Ideas to Blast Through NaNoWriMo

Writing from the Peak, PPW Blog

By Tammila K. Wright

We all have that dream. The phone rings. Hollywood is calling. They want to develop your book into a movie. It happened to my friend. He took notes during his career and turned those notes into a few small books called the Kenda Files. His idea just finished its ninth season of filming for the Discovery ID Channel. Thinking of a movie or series deal is something I must get out of my mind because there is a behemoth shadow looming over me – and I’m not talking about Pikes Peak.

It’s NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow!

I’m trying not to think of next month. I’m stuck now! I have an astounding premise, mesmerizing characters, and a soul mending ending. But my rough draft is so raw I am embarrassed to read it. But what if I take my idea and start fleshing it out as a screenplay before I transform it into a novel? Would I sail through NaNoWriMo with excitement instead of worry that I’m going down the wrong plot path and waste time and thousands of words?

 To be honest, novel writing is horribly slow. The few screenplays I have developed in the past, move the plot along quickly. My characters don’t pout about their firing from a job for pages on end, and they blow up the building after closing time, so no one has a “job”! I want pumped-up action. Plus, if I throw the “interrogation lights” on my idea that the simplicity of a screenplay will achieve, I am more likely to have a better story in the end. Right?  

THINKING LIKE A SCRIPT WRITER

            What can we steal from screenwriting? By starting with the creation of a skeleton script. Not to be confused with a Spec Script that would be sent out to agents in hopes of selling it, a skeleton script is a fleshed-out outline “hybrid” that crawls, walks, runs, or speaks. Like traditional storytelling, screenplays usually rely on the basic three-act structure to give our ideas a framework; Act 1 is the setup, Act 2 is where the story plays out, and Act 3 is the resolution. We can create six plot points to insure pacing by hitting the following milestones:

Act I- The hero needs to hit a turning point, sending them on a new path before Act II starts.

Act II- Should contain three things; a metaphor with foreshadowing will contain hints at the resolution, the point of no return, and a new development or twist to throw the audience off.

Act II- Needs an event that raises the stakes giving the hero no choice that leads to the climax. The ending of Act III might contain something to help recap the main events for the audience.

THE FUN PART, CREATING SCENES

Don’t worry about correct scene formatting or software. Assign a number and a title to the scene, location, time of day. Add the characters with a quick description. Ex: CRIMINAL CARL, 55, (ex-con), SLUTTY SALLY, 24 (a jewelry store clerk). Add only their name in the consequent scenes. Start each scene by looking at the main objective and then block your characters.  We have a front-row POV on your character’s reaction in a situation. We are forced to show and not tell. Give each character their personal line and their action. I prefer to place each character in large caps to easily find them later.

EXAMPLE:

Scene 1, SLUTTY SALLY’S REVENGE, 1920’s Chicago Hotel Room, Late Night

CRIMINAL CARL, 55, (ex-con), SLUTTY SALLY, 24 (a jewelry store clerk)

Both CRIMINAL CARL and SLUTTY SALLY are nude, laying on bed, smoking, empty liquor bottles, dim light                                           

CRIMINAL CARL

You don’t really believe that I would split the jewels with you, sweetheart? (menacing laugh)

SLUTTY SALLY

But I gave you…everything. (pulling out a hidden handgun) Actually, I deserve all of it! (shooting Carl)

When you write the full scene in your rough draft, you can add details that in a film we can’t see. For instants, Sally was secretly holding the gun under the pillow, ready for the right moment.

EXPOSING CONTENT LENGTH

I know it sounds like enormous amount of work. (The “Pantsiers” reading this are vomiting.) But wait, put down your flaming torches & pitchforks and imagine you have created enough content to fill 120 pages with around 100 scenes. You’ve put nitro in your writing race car for NaNoWriMo! On the other end of the spectrum, maybe you ended up creating only 60 scenes? If you don’t have enough content to fill 100 scenes, how will you fill a full 350-page novel? A typical film contains over 110 scenes and action films even more. But here’s another thought, what about hitting the 500-page mark and your publishers say cut it down? It’s easier to ask which finger to cut off!

Developing a screenplay forces you to show not tell fleshing a character’s unique reactions to conflict and their environments.  Forcing your idea into a skeleton screenplay is brainstorming on triple shot lattes. Scenes are mapped out logically and organically, hitting the essential plot points. Want a twist? You can easily see where a plot might benefit from a twist. Timeline tracking is easy. Is your idea begging for more action scenes that a novel will not do justice? Maybe it needs to be further developed into a full working screenplay. But now you know.

No one left a Batman film saying, “I wish I had read the book!” But I am glad to have read Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novel series because the details surrounding Claire Fraiser’s medicinal habits and fine details in the TV series are lost. But to be treated to the lavish visual appeal of Scotland is priceless, not to mention Jamie Frasier.

Tammila K. Wright is a fifth-generation Colorado Native and self-proclaimed history geek. She writes, talks, and even acts out her love of history. She is a commissioner for the Manitou Springs Historic Preservation Commission contributing articles for the Pikes Peak Bulletin Newspaper. Tammila has been involved in projects for Pilgrim Films & TV, Greystone Productions, Taurus Productions, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, PBS and Animal Planet. Her first full novel, Mirror Memory, will be released in May 2020 and is a member of the Scriveners of Manitou Springs and Pikes Peak Writers.

Tammila resides in Manitou Springs with her husband of 31 years, an astonishing daughter, and runs The Feather W Bird Sanctuary.

The Five Insurmountable Problems of NaNoWriMo

Writing from the Peak, PPW Blog

By DeAnna Knippling

So you’re thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year for the first time. Or you’re thinking about doing better this year. Or you’re partially through NaNo and you’re stuck and you hate life and you’re reading NaNo blogs because you just like to punish yourself for not being good enough as a writer.

Um, yeah.

NaNoWriMo is a kind of hothouse of writing.

NaNoWriMo is a kind of hothouse of writing. It brings up all kinds of ugly things that encapsulate our failures as writers – or at least the failures as we see them.

So let’s get past that, not by treating NaNoWriMo as a kind of writers’ resolution, (”This year, I will write 50,000 words, mostly by…I don’t know, just forcing myself!”) but by looking at the root causes.

Here’s my premise: anything that stops you from writing is a bad writing technique.

1. I don’t know what to write.

Tip: Pick the first memorable person you think of, drop them in a memorable setting (it’s easier if you know the setting reasonably well), and give them a problem they can’t solve using their normal M.O. (that is, don’t give a firefighter a fire to put out–give them a parent with cancer).

It’s not that we don’t know what to write. It’s that we get hung up on finding the perfect thing to write. Why is that? Because we’re secretly convinced that stories aren’t about how the story’s told, but about the idea that sets them off.

And yet. Everybody who’s ever admitted to being a writer in public has heard this: “I have this great idea for a book. Why don’t you write it for me – I’ll even give you a percentage of the profits. Fifty-fifty!” As though the idea was worth half the work in the book. You’d laugh at that person…if it wasn’t you.

If you’re held up on the idea, then coming up with the perfect idea has got to go. Because anything that stops you from writing is a bad writing technique.

2. I have no time to write.

Tip: Give up Facebook and Twitter for November. If you want to get really extreme, give up all non-job reading and entertainment for the month…no reading, no games, no going out, no socializing…but them’s desperate measures.

You have time to write. I’m sorry, you do. It’s not about time, it’s about fear.

I once had a talk with my daughter about math class, which she normally likes and finds easy. She had a math teacher who threw things at her faster than she’s comfortable with. I could have a talk with the teacher about slowing things down for her or helping her somehow. Maybe getting her a tutor (well, other than me). Instead my daughter and I discussed learning and what it feels like, and how easy it is to run away from feeling like that. I told her that part of a good teacher’s job is to unsettle you, to get you used to and over the terror of learning.

I told her it’s okay to take breaks from your homework, but she can’t run away.

You have time to write; it’s just easier to justify cooking healthy meals and spending some extra time with the kids and doing laundry and Dr. Who and even puttering around on Facebook than it is to face learning something new. If you have fifteen minutes, you can have a page of fiction.

Yes. You can. When you’re not screwing around like a kid trying to avoid homework. When you’re not paralyzed by fear.

Telling yourself you have no time to write stops you from writing–it’s a bad writing technique.

3. I write nothing but crap.

Tip: Check all the items on this list:

  • Did I drink enough water?
  • Have I eaten? Have I eaten something other than crap during one of my last two meals?
  • Have I had enough sleep?
  • Have I had enough exercise?
  • Have I journaled/stress relieved lately?

Some people are surprised to find out that mental effort is physically draining, and learning something new is even worse. NaNo is a writing marathon, and it will burn energy and other resources faster than you’re used to. When you feel drained and horrible about your writing, first check that your body (or subconscious) isn’t trying to send you a message: I need fueland/or repairs.

The other part of this issue is the nature of crap.

The bad news is that we all write crap. The good news is that when you know you’re writing crap, it means you’re ahead of the game–seriously. In order to learn something new, you have to be uncomfortable with where you are now. Viscerally. Painfully.

The idea that you have to feel like you’re writing well in order to be a good writer sounds logical but it will keep you from writing and improving. It’s a bad writing technique!

4. I wrote for a while, but now I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do.

Tip: Write the next thing. Or maybe back up a paragraph or two, delete that, and then write the next thing.

A few years ago I took up knitting as a bucket-list kind of thing. I’d failed miserably at it as a kid – my mom’s right-handed to my leftiness, and she’s no good at explaining things from the other direction. I thought I was doomed. However, then I realized I have the Internet. I must have gone through fifty knitting videos on learning how to get started knitting before I found The One That Made Sense. At one point, I could have watched knitting videos all day. Instead of actually, you know, knitting.

You can, and should, and will do research to find out what works for you. But it has to be based on your personal trial and error, not on other people’s advice. No class, no mentor, no co-author can replace Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard. The only way to get comfortable with writing is to write.

But what if you’re stuck? Seriously stuck? And you can’t write another word?

You can. You must.

During any long writing project, you will more than likely get stuck at some point, especially as you realize you have no idea what you’re doing, what you’ve been doing, or what you’re going to do next. I’ve talked to writers at various levels of experience. As far as I can tell, this feeling never goes away.

So you look up and realize you’ve painted yourself into a corner. Oh, no – there’s no way to get the characters out of this situation! Clearly, it’s time to completely rewrite the entire book. Or just quit writing. FOREVER.

Except there always is a way out of every fictional situation, no matter how bad, because the characters get to destroy the walls and tramp all over the paint. Nuclear bombs? Alien invasion? Falling in love with someone else entirely? That’s what edits are for: rewriting the opening so the ending fits.

When you get stuck, write the next sentence. It might be weird, ungrammatical, awkward, annoying, offensive, etc., etc. Just plain wrong.

It is also yours in a way that the best-planned, structurally pretty sentences will never be. When you have pushed past everything you can think and plan, then you enter into a territory of naked honesty, which is often ugly and just plain wrong.

This is where the art of writing lies. The rest is craft. You need to know craft. I love craft. But this is where the art is, where you go, “I have nothing. I know nothing. I am writing out on a limb, on a one-sided bridge off a cliff with no opposite bank. I am skydiving without a parachute. I am a fake. I am full of crap and so is this.”

But that’s where the good stuff is.

This idea that you’re stuck because you’re at a dead end – it’s a lie, it’s fear talking. It stops you from writing – so it’s gotta’ go. You’re stuck because you’re at the edge of the cliff. The next sentence you write must be magic. Not because it was good (although it will be, if you let yourself recognize it), but because you were able to write it at all.

5. Now what?

Tip: Continue to be a pain in the butt and do what’s right for you as a writer.

At some point, you’ll decide that you’ve finished your NaNo novel, or that you’re not going to.

In either case, you’re going to hear some negative things about NaNo authors, or people who don’t finish, or people who do, or new writers in general, or whatever. The people who depend on you will be relieved that it’s over. You will be relieved that it’s over.

You’ll be left dangling. Now what?

People will give you advice. A lot of it will sound really logical.

However, if it makes you want to stop writing, it’s a bad writing technique. No matter how logical it is, no matter how long people have been doing it. It’s bad. If you just want to work on something new and not finish your NaNo project – do that. (If you never want to do NaNo again – then don’t!) If you want to keep writing every day despite the fact that people tell or imply that you suck – then write. If the idea of submitting makes you want to never write again – then don’t submit (yet). If the idea of having to perfect your work before you can submit it makes you want to roll up in a ball – then submit before it’s perfect. If getting too many rejections kills you – then take it slow, or wait until you’ve written five other things and you don’t care whether that old thing gets rejected or not.

Work around the problems until they aren’t problems anymore. Learn one thing at a time, not all at once. Be kind to yourself. Keep writing.

Everything else is a bad writing technique.

DeAnna Knippling

DeAnna Knippling has two minor superpowers: speed-reading and babble. She types at over 10,000 words per minute and can make things up even faster than that. Her first job was hunting snipe for her father at twenty-five cents per head, with which she paid her way through college; her latest job involves a non-disclosure agreement, a dozen hitmen, a ballerina, a snowblower, three very small robots, and a disposable dictator in South America.  Her cover job is that of freelance writer, editor, and designer living in Littleton, Colorado, with her husband, daughter, cat, more than one cupboard full of various condiments, and many shelves full of the very best books. She has her own indie small press, www.WonderlandPress.com, and her website is www.DeAnnaKnippling.com.

Sweet Success for Dan Grant

Sweet Success

By: Darby Karchut

Congratulations to Dan Grant! His latest science/medical/conspiracy thriller, Thirteen Across, hit the Amazon best seller ranks and made #2 in medical thrillers and #3 in two other categories. The book stayed in the top #100 in two categories for two weeks. Thirteen Across also garnered a five star review from the San Francisco Book Review. Pacific Book Review said this about his debut novel, The Singularity Witness: “Devilishly clever, and good, this is Dan Grant.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dan Grant

In life, Dan has taken the road less traveled.  Crossroads have been faced with a mix of apprehension and an explorer’s passion.  But the paths people take help make us who we are.  “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

He developed storytelling aspirations as an undergraduate in college at Northern Arizona University, when writing was counter to completing a degree in electrical engineering. Yet, engineering provided the good fortune to work on intriguing medical and military projects, and those behind the scenes experiences allowed him to bookmark “what if” scenarios and ask questions to a variety of deeper storylines. His desire is to tell stories seeded with quandaries, filled with big questions, and set against a tapestry of science, medicine, or technology.

The Singularity Witness was his debut novel and Thirteen Across is his newest thriller.

Dan lives in Colorado with his family and two dogs. Visit the author at his website or follow him on Facebook.

Darby Karchut

Sweet Success is coordinated by Contributing Editor, Darby Karchut. If you have a Sweet Success to share please contact her via email.
Darby is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. Her latest book (lucky number thirteen), DEL TORO MOON, released October 2018 from Owl Hollow Press. Visit the author at her website.

Marketing During NaNoWriMo – Are you Crazy?

Writing from the Peak, PPW Blog

By Jennifer Lovett Herbranson

National Novel Writing Month is right around the corner, and I’m going to talk to you about marketing while you’re writing. I know what you’re thinking: Are you nuts?

Writing 1667 words a day every day for 30 days is daunting enough, and now I’m asking you to think about marketing while you’re doing it. Why yes, I am.

Wait! Hang in there!

What’s awesome about NaNoWriMo is the flood of ideas that rush in your head while you’re furiously writing your book. A lot of those ideas won’t make it in the book, so I want you to write them down.

Why?

Because writing down any ideas you have while you’re in the midst of this windstorm of fiction will give you exactly what you need to focus your marketing later.

Huh?

Marketing is simply finding a way to reach readers. That’s it. In order to do that, you need content. Anything you have in a story can be used for your author brand. Drink the Koolaid because no matter if you traditionally publish or go indie, you’ll be doing the bulk of your marketing.

Writer’s Digest hosted a panel at their annual conference in August with publicists from Hachette and Penguin Random House, and right up front, the moderator said, “All authors should have a fundamental understanding of marketing.” 

I’m not going to get into an explanation of the fundamentals of marketing right now. I’ll have a post on that after the maelstrom of NaNo is over. In the meantime, I just want you to be prepared and ready to go.

So, after you’re done writing for the day, take three minutes and make a quick note. What burst in your brain today about these characters and the story? Think about it like a book bible. Simply write down the pieces.

Use the list below to help you.

  • Character names
  • Character jobs or careers
  • Character hobbies or interests
  • Settings
  • Locations
  • Histories of the town or the people
  • Minor characters your MC came in contact with..their jobs and hobbies
  • Restaurants that appeared in the story
  • Businesses that appeared in the story

Not only will this list help you organize your thoughts about the story, it gives you tons of fodder to develop a marketing plan in December. I’ll walk you through it. Until then, simply take notes.

Jennifer Lovett

Jennifer Lovett is the founder of Writer Nation, a podcast and Facebook group dedicated to helping writers market their work. With 17 years communications experience, she regularly writes on social media, internet marketing and face-to-face publicity.
You can find her on her Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest: @jennylovett

Sweet Success for Chris Mandeville

Sweet Success

By: Darby Karchut

A rousing hooray for Chris Mandeville. Her newest book, SHAKE (the second book in the IN REAL TIME series) releases October 22. BREAK, the final book in the trilogy, will be out in 2020. Congratulations, Chris!

ABOUT THE BOOK

A fractured future.
A family secret.
The ultimate double-cross

The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 leaves Allie without her crew, her parents, or a life to return to in 2018. Refusing to accept this, Allie dives into the rapidly closing wormhole—with her newfound half sister, Bel—intending to go back in time and save everyone.
 
Except Mean Girl Bel has other plans.
 
Bel hijacks the wormhole, taking them both to 2153. Now Allie is trapped in the treacherous landscape of Bel’s “real time,” where Bel’s uber-powerful mom is in charge and has banned all time travel. Out of her element and out of her depth, Allie has to figure out how to get back to 1906 and make things right.
 
Desperate, Allie secures the help of time monitor Flyx and his friends. Together they make a plan to circumvent the time travel ban and send Allie back in time.
 
In order for the plan to succeed, Allie must avoid being “recycled” by Bel’s mom, escape the clutches of Nazis who’ve taken over the city, and finesse her biggest con yet: convincing Bel to take her side.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Mandeville

Chris Mandeville writes science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction books for writers. She’s the author of five published works.

After growing up in California and graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Chris married a U.S. Air Force officer and moved from state to state, as well as to British Columbia, before settling in Colorado. She now lives in the woods of the Rocky Mountains with her family and her service dog, Finn. For more information, visit her at www.chrismandeville.com and be sure to follow her on Facebook and Instagram

Darby Karchut
Darby Karchut

Sweet Success is coordinated by Contributing Editor, Darby Karchut. If you have a Sweet Success to share please contact her via email.
Darby is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. Her latest book (lucky number thirteen), DEL TORO MOON, released October 2018 from Owl Hollow Press. Visit the author at her website.

A Visit with Laura Ingalls Wilder

Writing from the Peak, PPW Blog

By: Margena Holmes

My husband and I recently celebrated our 33rd anniversary by taking a trip to South Dakota. He wanted to visit Mount Rushmore and I figured if we’re going to go there, why not take a trip to De Smet to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites and museum? Laura Ingalls Wilder is the biggest influence of why I’m an author today, so visiting De Smet, where the last five books in her series take place, has been a Bucket List item of mine ever since I found out you can visit the site and see where she lived.

Open prairie at the Homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Open prairie at the homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder

In her writing, Laura’s use of description painted a picture of everything she saw. As a young girl, she had to become good at describing things. Her sister Mary became blind at the age of 14, so Pa Ingalls told Laura that she had to be her sister’s eyes and “show” her the scenery. That is why as writers we must show what is happening in our stories instead of telling.  We paint the picture for our readers so they can see what the characters see, and experience what is happening in the story.

We first toured the surveyor’s house. While reading the books, I understood the houses that she lived in were small. “Small” to me was having a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The surveyor’s house did have four rooms—three downstairs (the kitchen with a small pantry, and bedroom, and the parlor) and one upstairs (another bedroom). Laura, used to living in smaller houses, called it a mansion! It was about this point of the tour that I found out that Laura was tiny—4’11”. So, when Laura’s father called her his little “half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up” he wasn’t joking!

Claim shanty at the homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Claim shanty at the homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Next we drove out to where the Ingalls family had their homestead. The house was gone, but there were other things to experience. The five cottonwood trees that Pa Ingalls planted for each of the girls and Ma Ingalls were still standing. As I stood in that area, I tried to imagine how Laura might have seen everything for the first time. I could truly see why Pa Ingalls had spent the night at the land office to make sure he got that parcel of land. Everything was as Laura described. The Big Slough with its coarse grasses, the soft grasses of the prairie, and the flat land with little prairie swells, though there are more trees there now than were probably there in Laura’s time. Pa Ingalls said at the time that tree claims would put trees all over the area, and it looks to be true.

Author Margena Holmes enjoys the trees around the homestead.
Author Margena Holmes enjoys the trees Charles Ingalls planted around the homestead.

There was also a replica of the dug-out house that they lived in on Plum Creek in Minnesota. It was exactly as Laura described it in her books—dirt floor, sod walls, and you wouldn’t know it was there until you had gone down the hill. I remember reading this as a young girl and I could smell the scents of the dirt as I read. This smelled just like I remembered reading.

Through Laura’s description of the area, I felt like I had seen these places already. That is why, as writers, we need to make our descriptions as real as possible, to bring the reader into the story. Laura did well in describing her life on the prairie.

Margena Holmes

Margena Adams Holmes was born in Bellflower, CA sometime in the 1960s. She has always had a love for both reading and writing, writing her first song/poem in 1st grade. Margena is a big supporter of indie authors and will read anything that draws her into the story. She is an observer of life, and many everyday things could (and do!) end up in her writings. Her publications are available through her author page. Contact Margena via email: jedi_anegram@hotmail.com.