Sunday, September 21, 2014
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” ––Stephen King Author Born September 21, 1947
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Friday, August 17, 2012
My first paid writing job fell into my lap when working for a TV syndication company. My boss needed to hire someone to watch seven seasons (23 shows a season) worth of “Hunter,” the police drama starring Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer, and compose a one page, double spaced synopsis of each show to be faxed (our office didn’t have […]
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Since I was a kid, I have loved short stories. Amongst my favorites were “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Gift of the Magi,” both by O. Henry, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “The Telltale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. They packed fun, poignancy and terror in just a few short pages, providing word for word a powerful […]
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Am I An Author Idiot? Working with a freelance editor I face each new project with a combination of angst and self pity, positive I will never write a decent book again much less publish one. After 23 published novels, one indie and two scripts (one in development) you’d think I’d be over all that. I’m not. Enter, my freelance editor Jenny […]
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Columbia Pictures Vice-President, DeVon Franklin, leads a double life and he’s proud of it. Franklin is a devote Christian and a minister as well as studio executive. Franklin has incorporated his faith into a business model, which he talks about in his new book “Produced by Faith: Enjoy Real Success without Compromising Your True Self.” Franklin is the executive who brought […]
Monday, November 1, 2010
Writers around the world are pounding computer keys or scribbling as fast as they can in notebooks — as part of the annual Write A Novel in a Month project. It kicked off today and writers have until November 30 to produce 50,000 words — that’s a short novel of 175 pages. Last year, 165,000 writers reportedly took the challenge and 30,000 […]
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Two agent/bloggers are showcasing query letters from authors that grabbed their attention. The authors who wrote these knockout queries got requests for their manuscripts and later representation. Last Friday Kristin Nelson, on her Pub Rant blog, discussed one of her client’s boffo queries. Also, over at the BookEnds, LLC – A Literary Agency blog, Jessica Faust is posting a series of successful author query letters. Faust not […]
Saturday, January 3, 2009
FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove Story Analyst/author Billy Mernit chatted with writers and signed copies of his book, “Writing The Romantic Comedy,” last month in Brea. Actor Hugh Grant has had some of his best film success with romantic comedies so he knows a thing or two about the genre. Back in 2003, Grant explained the problem with most romcom scripts […]
Friday, November 14, 2008
A guest blogger today – author Lynne Marshall. Lynne, a Registered Nurse, is building a second career as a writer. It hasn’t been easy. Like many writers, finding an agent has been a struggle. Recently, Lynne got an agent and she shares that experience along with tips for other writers in this post. This picture pretty well sums up the way I […]