It starts with falling down. In the snow. And not being able to get up. Art Hritus. Ben Gay. Johnny Walker. Three men I don’t want to meet up with these days. Of course I wasn’t wearing boots. The mittens had been left on the kitchen counter. I didn’t even have a hat. The wind and the snow came up out of the open expanse of fields and pasture as soon as I got out of town on Hwy 47. I was headed for Weston, Wisconsin, where essayist, Nancy Runner was having a book launch event. Driving 35 mph in a 65 mph zone out in the country during a total white-out. How funny would it be if I get stuck and have to walk for help? Seriously, the snow and wind made driving conditions extreme. I pulled over at the next road crossing and turned around and headed home. I met Nancy Runner in Neenah at the Wisconsin Writers Association conference. In the fall. When it was sunny and warm. She had attended one of the sessions where I gave a presentation about publishing. With the charm of Angela Lansbury and the wit of Erma Bombeck, Nancy told me about her idea for a book, Early Birds Flock Together: Joys, Sorrows—and Laughs—in Senior Living. She wanted to know where she might find a publisher and how to go about it. We had a great conversation and I enjoyed looking at her writing portfolio. Nancy hired Swenson Book Development for…
What’s bookcamp? Think boot-camp for your book. Spend six days in an intensive program to help you finish a manuscript worthy of publication and figure out how to pitch it to win a successful publishing deal. Dave Rank, past president of the Wisconsin Writers Association, is the host and director of Bookcamp which he established four years ago to attract and encourage emerging novelists. Last… [Read More]
Filed Under: Cedar Valley Center, Chicago Writers Association, Dave Rank, Novel-in-Progress Bookcamp, Wisconsin Writers Association
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Let me introduce my guestblogger today, Ira Rabois. Rowman & Littlefield released his new book, Compassionate Critical Thinking, in late October 2016. I invited Ira to write a meditation for today because we all need compassionate critical thinking to write well. “How do you write well? Probably thousands have written about this. On the surface, it seems writing is about language, which to a large… [Read More]
If you seek traditional publication for your book manuscript, then it is incumbent upon you to obtain copyright permissions for any text or images which are not original. The book will not go to print until every written permission has been secured. Because publishing is a for-profit venture, an author cannot include the copyrighted work of others without permission and it is not covered under… [Read More]
One of the things no one tells writers about becoming a successfully published author is the importance of building your literary community and participating in book culture long before you land an agent or a publishing contract. There are no shortcuts to creating a career as an author. I hate to disillusion you of the idea that you will be “discovered” and become rich and… [Read More]
Filed Under: Authors Guild, AWP, book fairs, literary festivals, Loft LIterary Center, public library, TEDx
I feel anger when I look at the cover of the new graphic novel adaption of Kindred, originally written by Octavia Butler in 1979. The cover shows two wrists bound, and the colors are red, beige, brown and black. The uplifted arms are brown, the handcuffs are black, and the hand grasping one wrist is beige. The title, Kindred, in red burns upwards from the… [Read More]