The forensic artist below draws individuals based on their descriptions of themselves, and then again based on the description that someone they’ve just met provides them. As you’ll see, most of us are far more beautiful in real life than how we perceive ourselves. As you watch this short, moving video, think about how… Continue Reading
Brainstorming
As a literature major at the University of California, Santa Cruz I would regularly meet with other students to discuss themes in the books we had been assigned to read. We’d get together in small study groups and explore what the author was trying to say along with the implications of the ideas and symbolism.… Continue Reading
Writing Coach Client Delivers with her First Book
If you’ve ever had to deal with back pain or a teenager, you know how deeply trying either can be. My writing coach client Wendy Coblentz had to contend with both simultaneously. Can you blame her for getting desperate as her back pain continued to escalate–desperate enough to try just about anything once mainstream medical… Continue Reading
Write a Bestseller
A lot of my writing coach clients want to write a bestseller. Who doesn’t? When I ghostwrote The Legacy of Luna, a memoir about Julia “Butterfly” Hill’s two-plus year tree-sit in an ancient redwood to keep it from being chopped down, I had no idea that I would write a bestseller, let alone a national… Continue Reading
Web and Blog Alert: Don’t Ignore Quality Content
What’s wrong with this picture? Clearly, the batter has been handicapped by the lack of a bat. If you’re trying to hit the ball, you need a bat. If you’re trying to nail something, you need a hammer. If you’re beating eggs, you need a whisk—or at least a fork. In short, you need the… Continue Reading
Critic Spotlight – The Art of the Pan
Being a critic is a tough gig if you’ve struggled with being a people pleaser like me. I know how much work goes into creating even a bad product–be it a book or a meal. I also know that judgment, by definition, is subjective. So I fall into the kinder, gentler category of critics when… Continue Reading
Battle with Amazon
You’ve finally gotten your book written, edited and published. No one (except perhaps your writing coach or collaborator) will ever know the struggles involved in getting those words on paper, or how much of yourself you’ve poured into your work. But that doesn’t matter because, finally, there it is on Amazon. And then, out of… Continue Reading
Battle for Publication with Battle for Grace
Some books take a long time to birth. Such has been the case with Battle for Grace: A Memoir of Pain, Redemption and Impossible Love, the book I wrote with Cynthia Toussaint and John Garrett. Battle for Grace chronicles Cynthia’s struggle against a crippling illness that would remain undiagnosed for years, against the health institutions… Continue Reading
To Blog or Not to Blog
Worried about writing a blog? The first question to ask yourself is whether you really need to blog. Maybe you don’t. If you’re selling carburetors, unless you have a unique technique for restoring them or unless you race or show vintage cars in which you’ve installed your carburetors, a blog probably won’t do you much… Continue Reading
The Writing Process
Writing isn’t just the act of putting words on paper. Idea work, research and background reading all count as work when you’re writing. In fact, you could argue that this phase of the writing process is the most important and the most difficult aspect of writing a book. Figuring out what you’re going to write… Continue Reading
Literary Agent:
Ted Weinstein
Ted Weinstein Literary Management
Mechanics’ Library Building
57 Post Street, Suite 512
San Francisco, CA 94104
tw@twliterary.com
www.twliterary.com