Life and work can definitely get in the way of carving out writing time. Having decided to revise and self-publish Busting the Brass Ceiling: How a Heroic Female Cop Changed the Face of Policing, I put my children’s book writing on hold. That’s nothing new. I got the...
By Monday mid-afternoon, I had hit my goal of writing and scheduling my weekly blog posts through August. And it was only the end of April. If I keep this up, I'll have the rest of the year's posts completed by the end of May, I thought. Four weeks later, I had...
Five of my writing coach clients are starting new books this spring. That means that I'll get to engage in my absolute favorite writing coach activity—brainstorming. The brainstorming, however, will look different with each project, because the projects and indeed the...
My pup Misha reminds me of a lot of the guys I dated and thankfully never married—a sweet heart with a bad-boy edge that keeps you guessing. While his snuggle factor convinced me to bring him home even though I hadn’t been looking for a puppy, he’s become stingier...
It is time to self-publish your book? When Michelle Dickinson and I first started working together, it was clear from her pages that she had the makings of a very compelling memoir. Having grown up with a bipolar mother, she had led a life that was very different than...
Before we get into how to leave an Amazon book review, let's talk about why book reviews are so important for authors. Starting with the obvious, the more positive reviews you have, the more you will convince people who have hit your sales page to buy your book....
How risky is the memoir you're writing or are about to publish? I didn't say risqué. I'm talking about memoir legal issues here. Since most memoirists aren't writing about happy periods in their lives, memoir legal issues must be considered. The last thing you want to...
Sometimes promoting a book on social media can feel like pitching into a black hole. That's certainly how I've felt with Busting the Brass Ceiling: How a Heroic Female Cop Changed the Face of Policing, which I co-authored with Fanchon Blake. And then you find that one...
Over the last year-plus, most of us have experienced Covid in a variety of personal ways. We've been forced to isolate. Work has been impacted. Friends and family have gotten sick, as have some of us. In short, it's been a tough slog. But the journey has been far more...
A man I met at a party years ago just reached out about writing coach services. He's come up with a solid and timely idea for a book. Since he's laid up with a broken leg, he's suddenly got the bandwidth to get a jump on the project. In short, he's got a writing...
