S'up Saturday..
. and the top ten
Lots of great stuff coming up. I just read Noah Lukeman's interview and it is packed full of information you have to read.I decided to make it a two parter it was so great. Also coming up: interviews with Jonathan Rogers, Jeri Board, James David Jordan, Chip MacGregor, and many others. Also commentary from Mary DeMuth, publicity from Jessica Dotta and whatever Ane's secretly working on.
Also, my critique partner, the wonderful freelance editor and author of killer mysteries, Elizabeth Ludwig, featured a profile of yours truly. If you'd like to go have a look:
Now for the real news:
THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH WHEN YOU'RE A NYT BEST-SELLER
10. Keep using the same photo on the back cover that was taken when you still had hair.
9. Hire a stand-in to play you at book signings.
8. Make a crappy movie from your crappy book.
7. Do a cameo appearance in the crappy movie made from your crappy book.
6. Read queries on 'Evil Editor' saying a new book will strike the reader as reminiscent of yours :-)
5. Jump all over Oprah Winfrey's couch.
4. Tell your publicist you just turned down Oprah Winfrey and giggle as she has a meltdown.
3. Call your agent at two am to ask if he thinks you'd look better in red highlights or blonde.
2. Tell people "Let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book and my life" when The Smoking Gun reveals your memoire of drug and alcohol abuse is largely made up.
1. Write a book in second person future tense in a stream-of-consciousness style from the POV of an asparagus, and if anyone mocks it, say, "You just don't understand art."
That was fun!
Here's next weeks if you want to play:
10. I'd do the interview if I didn't already have a massage apt.
9. There were less than a hundred people at the book signing so I left before anyone saw me.
Durham, NC to host Faith-Based Arts Conference:
An interesting article from World Mag:
Some commentary regarding a Left Behind type video game I've never heard of until now:
What's new in our little circle of the world? Well, fellow aspiring novelist,
Cindy Sproles, just landed her first newspaper column.
The cool part was they came to her.
Congratulations Cindy!
Chris Well's 'first chapter splashed all over the web' event did quite well.
According to Technorati, it was one of the most discussed books on-line that day.
Way to go Chris!
Personally, I'm moving along quite nicely on my psychological thriller.
It took me an entire week to write five pages. It was a pivotal chapter and I've grown quite anal in my wordsmithing, which I do believe is a good thing. The writing is heads above anything I've ever done and I'm getting my characters in so deep I'm going to have trouble getting them back out.
Also a good thing.
While my second novel, Demon Chaser, is sitting on a few editors computers, I pitched this new work, (Nailed Open), to a certain publishing house. As always I hope, but expect nothing.
One day I'll be pleasantly surprised ...
God willing.
I'm reading Melanie Well's second novel, The Soul Hunter and absolutely loving her style. I'd heard from a couple people in the business that her books were similar in style and tone to mine.
I'll take that as a HUGE compliment. There are big differences in the way we write, but I see what they're saying. She and I write in the same genre, are probably around the same age, and are both intelligent donkeys (aka smart a**'es), so .
..
Ane Mulligan is working hard on her latest wip, (her best women's fiction novel yet!
) and looking into getting agented. Her work is so strong and she has so many publishing possibilities, I'd think they'd be beating down her door, but this business is a strange creature.
Jessica Dotta is working hard for many of you on publicity campaigns.
Knowing some of what this woman does behind the scenes, she works ten times harder than you'd ever imagine. When a best-friend who knows what really goes on says: "I'd want her for my publicist", that should say something. Also, as Jessica's agent pitches her historical suspense trilogy (which honestly is one of the finest pieces of writing and story-telling I've ever read), she is hard at work editing the second in the series.
I hope these books sell. You all absolutely HAVE to read them. Amazing, in a Gone with the Wind kind of way.
I kid you not!
That's it for us. So, bloggers, any of you have interesting news?
Heck, it doesn't even have to be all that interesting. Tell us what you're up to in your writing life. You know we live for this kind of thing.
L. Higley, Wendy Alec, Christy Hancock, Beth Webb Hart, Linda Wichman, Nicole Mazzarella, Nancy Moser, Robert Elmer, Joyce Livingston, and many more.
Teaching from: James Scott Bell teaching on plotting.
Sally John teaching us show vs. tell and, of course publicist Jessica Dotta on..
.what else?
Commentary from: Yours truly, J.
Mark Bertrand, and Mike Duran.
Today is a friend of mine's birthday, author Don Brown. You can wish him a happy one in the comments below.
This audio blog will play the birthday song for him, (or you if you happen to share the day or just happen to like the happy birthday song).
Another good friend, author Kathryn Mackel, had a new release come out that somehow I missed until now. I LOVE her writing and eerie story lines and I think she's pretty cool as well!
"A dark ravine. A fiery death. An unimaginable secret.
Some things are best left hidden.
Grieving her son's death, psychiatrist Susan Stone returns home to Colorado to help her elderly father manage his horse-breeding business. After the botched delivery of a prized foal, Susan rides wildly into the mountains, seeking release from consuming guilt.
Thrown from her horse, she tumbles into a dark ravine and makes a startling discovery--a young man, chained in the darkness.
This novel will forever alter your perception of the darkness of
evil and the light of forgiveness and hope."
Here's what author, had to say about The Hidden:
"Mackel has quickly established herself as a writer of depth and suspense.
Her first two novels combined original premises with supernatural/spiritual flavors, and they flowed nicely with the depth of her characters. "The Hidden" uses the same ingredients, but lets them simmer a bit longer before boiling over with unique ideas, tension, and a surprise or two. This time around, Mackel takes readers into small-town Colorado, where gruesome deaths become linked with the lives of a family and the young man they find chained in a ravine.
Each character has depth and motives that become clearer as the story goes along. Readers might think the path is leading in a straight-ahead fashion, but it starts to twist and turn. The spiritual ideas are developed well, and the final pages bring satisfaction in unexpected ways.
If you like tightly-wound stories that still manage to develop memorable characters and thought-provoking themes, "The Hidden" is one you'll want to read. I hope to see more from Mackel. She's never the same, but she's always dependable.
I like that in a writer."
Hi all.
I know you were looking forward to Jessica teaching on publicity. I asked her to take the day off and bring it to us next Friday.
Our goal here at Novel Journey is to promote great CBA novels and we're going to help Chris Well promote his upcoming release.
Today across the internet, bloggers et al will be posting the first chapter of his book for your perusal. I hope that you'll check it out and then come back here and leave a comment encouraging our friend.
It really goes a long way to keep everyone going. We greatly appreciate it!)
Deliver Us From Evelyn (Harvest House, 2006) is already building abuzz in its own right.
In this thriller, everyone from the Feds to the mob is scrambling to find the husband of heartless media mogul Evelyn Blake.
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