The Year that Was

2009 is the year that was. . .
Full of Major Life Events. Our family had two engagements, one wedding, three graduations (one high school, two master’s degrees!), one death, announcements of another grandchild on the way, major changes for our 19 year old who is facing life decisions, major travel with a great trip with [...]

27 Tools for Writers

Writers use many tools! Here are some I use online, offline, and by hand.
Essential Writing Tools:

Pen or pencil. No, you don’t need this $2000, 18k gold pen. Or even this pen and pencil set. These pencils are fine.
paper

Preferred Writing Tools

WordPerfect

Successes

NYT List, Sales, and Champagne
Wow! A couple of you have had great success this year. Read these:

Value of school visits

Yo-Yos v. Author
When I first started doing school visits, I was uncertain, trying to figure out what to do and why. That’s when I had a near encounter with a yo-yo.
I went to a rural elementary school a week after a yo-yo company had performed at the school. The yo-yo people had charged the school [...]

Who is Reading Your Work?

Online Tools I Use Daily
As a writer and blogger, I use several tools daily to check on my published work and my online work.
To Monitor Sales of my Published Books
Salesrankexpress.com
This site will quickly return

Fame and Fortune

Tempted by Fame and Fortune
There are lots of distractions on the internet on any given day. This week, I’ve been distracted by a couple writing competitions
$5000/month for six months.
The folks who make Sam-e a natural mood enhancer are looking for a Good Mood Blogger.

Writing Goals

What are Your Writing Goals?
What are you writing goals? Have they changed?
I know that one of my early writing goals was to write a great read-aloud picture book. And a second goal was to write a middle grade fantasy. Those are still my goals.
Yet, I’m working on a middle grade, character-driven (definitely NOT a [...]

Teens

I’m going today to a high school English class and writing class to talk about my writing process. It may not come up, but I’ve been thinking about what advice I would give a teen about becoming a fiction writer.
Advice on Becoming a Fiction Writer
Essentials
First, be a reader. Read widely.

Treadmill Desk

Treadmill Desk
What sedentary lives we writers lead. When I heard about the treadmill desk, I decided to try it out. Here’s the update on how it’s working.

August

September? When did September come so early in the year?
Now, August? It was good.
Treadmill Desk: I set up my treadmill desk and