Glass Bridge Music Collaboration

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT MY NEWEST PROJECT, DRAGON MOON! It all started when Chrystor of Glass Bridge Music approached me with an intriguing idea for a Glass Bridge Music collaboration – if I would write a Medieval Celtic Fantasy novel, Glass Bridge would produce a music CD to complement my story. I couldn’t resist. I said “YES”. Glass Bridge Music is a fantasy duo, Chrystor and Brynna, whose musical genre is Celtic Fantasy Metal. If you’re not familiar with…

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Publishing Lightning on the Levee

Still working on publishing Lightning on the Levee!

I THOUGHT I SHOULD LET YOU, MY FAITHFUL READERS, KNOW ABOUT MY PROGRESS TOWARD PUBLISHING LIGHTNING ON THE LEVEE. It’s been over a year since I first considered the book complete, and I’ve been looking for an agent or publisher on and off since. I say “on and off” because every time I read back over the book, I find something that needs to be changed. So Lightning on the Levee, although “complete”, has been in improvement for all this…

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6 Easy Steps to Branding Your Author Business

WHEN I WAS IN THE MARKETING BUSINESS, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I MOST ENJOYED DOING was helping small businesses with their branding. The principles I used are exactly the same as those that should be used by an author or indie musician. Did you know that branding is probably the most important factor in giving your business the ability to “Run with the Big Dogs”? For those of you who don’t know, branding is the visual component of your…

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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 an author 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…

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The Query Letter

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…

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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 – what a certain songwriter called “Yellow Mountain”. And so it became the opening scene for Lightning on the Levee.…

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