Posted on

Building Your Author Platform 101

Do you aspire to be an author? Writer? Musician? Do you plan to be in any other business where you will depend on the general public and faithful followers for your income? If so, you need a platform.

What is a platform?

Imagine a politician, standing on a stage (platform), rousing the curious and the devoted into a frenzied roar, after which they go to the polls and put their mark next to his/her name.

This is what we want for ourselves, but instead of voting at the ballot box, we want them to vote by buying our book. Or our music. Or our invention. read more

Posted on

12 Romantic Memes for Your Valentine!

Look what I made you for Valentine’s Day – Romantic memes with quotes from famous writers and authors! Please share with those you love!

(And subscribe to my email list to be the first to know about new posts!)

“My love is deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” – William Shakespeare

“We are most alive when we’re in love.” – John Updike

“Who, being loved, is poor?” – Oscar Wilde read more

Posted on

The Query Letter

Now that I’ve completed my first novel, Lightning on the Levee, I just need to send it to a publisher and it will become a bestseller, right?

Wrong!

There’s still a lot of work to do. “What kind of work?” you ask. Well, I’ve been researching what else needs to be done ever since I finished Lightning on the Levee a couple of months ago. I truly didn’t expect it to take so long just to get ready to start sending queries to literary agents. Here are some things that every author has to decide, and do, in order to get their book published. read more

Posted on

Flint Arrington: Character Bio

A native of the Deep South, Flint Arrington grew up in a small city in Mississippi, the youngest of three children. His architect dad always placed a great emphasis on the children’s education and their future careers, encouraging all three to make a decision early about what career path they would take for their lives. He would sometimes be cold toward his children when they didn’t live up to his expectations.

Flint’s mother, a second grade school teacher, worked to enrich her children’s lives by making sure they were exposed to many and varied educational experiences. read more

Posted on

Writing Lightning on the Levee

Lightning on the Levee began with a dream, a literal dream, where the dreamer awakes from sleep with a vision and a memory of scenes and events.

I wrote down the dream, as I frequently do. Instantly, I knew that this one had to become a book, rather than to lie forgotten in a growing stack of filled-up yellow pads. And so it became the opening scene for Lightning on the Levee.

It took a while to decide where I wanted the story to go, but eventually I had an outline for the book, and by then, I knew my characters. Knew, not in the form of charts and notes, but as friends, people whose lives and whose backstories I knew intimately. My characters, with their complexities and idiosyncrasies, are the easiest part of writing for me. read more