First Word

I want to tell you my story. It is an important and inspirational story about life and love and betrayal. All of it will go into my book If You Not Wrong Us . I was used, lied to, and grifted for thousands of dollars. If I showed you the spreadsheet of the so-called loans and money scammed under false pretenses you would be horrified. I'm horrified, too, but I decided to use this story to help others avoid my pitfalls. This man came into my life under false pretenses right from the beginning. In doing my research and checking, I've managed to piece together the truth. The truth didn't come from the source of the behavior, but from my own investigation. My only regret is that I didn't dig in sooner. I let this man play, con and use me. I loved him. I would have done anything for him -- and he knew it. Yes, I kept having misgivings. Yes, my gut screamed warnings, but love is blind . Love is blind . Your heart wants what your heart wants. And thus, what I beat myself u...

The publishing industry is in transformation with the eBook revolution changing the business model. The value of eBook publishing offers many positives to buck publishing industry trends -- one being the ridiculous book-return policies practiced by book distributors. Book distribution into the bookstores is a literal joke. The other day I got a bill for $2,000 from Baker and Taylor. I said I haven't even had $2,000 in royalties paid to me, why do I owe you this money? They replied that I had accepted an agreement to take all returns from all sources. Not understanding obviously what that had meant I became disgusted. How can any business make money under the weight of such nonsensical policies where I'm obligated to pay for books returned from any source. With no tracking on which books were returned, I couldn't even reconcile that information on the royalties. Now I'm wondering how to revise the business model. Authors still expect bookstore distribution. The ability...

How do you grow your followers without having to do the outreach? I have one key tip: Keep your posts interesting! I didn't say salacious, profane or hateful. Keeping your posts interesting doesn't require you post your bare skin, bikini pictures, or anything that resembles Playboy . Keeping it interesting requires lots of pictures (people like visuals), thoughtful or provocative, and generally intelligent. When you're out and about look for the opportunity to photograph something different. Food shots are marginally interesting if it's a great meal or wine or even coffee. Beauty is all around you. Interesting things happen all around you. Make note of these things on social media. Write your own great quotes and thoughts. Inspire other people. Use your life events and lessons learned to share and help other people grow from your experiences. Use humor or be humorous in your responses to other people's posts. All business these days benefit from social me...

I've watched readers and behavior when interacting with books. Here are the three things you want to be your very best to close a sale: 1. Enticing book cover -- the very first thing that lures in readers is a great book cover. A great book cover is the first draw to get a prospective reader to pick up your book. It's the first step toward a sale. 2. Fantastic title -- readers walk up, they see an intriguing title. A great title should be interesting, mysterious, intriguing, and not so own the nose direct that it won't spark the question, "What is this book about?" Note: If your title is esoteric or unique, make sure your subtitle tells the reader what the book is really about. Your subtitle should be direct. 3. Captivating back-cover copy -- reader picks up book based on cover and title and what does he/she do next? Flip the book over and read the back-cover copy. I've learned that you need to make sure your copy reaches the right audience. My boo...

Dear Player, You think you're so smooth. You think it's cool to brag to your friends how you have X-number of girls on the hook. You think it's so amazing that you could get girls to fall in love with you and then take advantage. Dear Player, Let me tell you true. Life has a way of making justice prevail. You will not get to move on and act like you did no wrong. Your callous and insensitive and purely selfish behavior will find you. You will pay a price higher than the physical plane. Dear Player, When the scale of justice weighs in on you then you will know the price of your messing with hearts and minds. You will have to pay that price and it will come in a way that will destroy you. And you will heartlessly wonder why? How could this have happened? What did I do? Dear Player, The classic line is what applies to you ... Straight from the Color Purple and Miss Celie: Until you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna fail!

Some interesting questions I commonly get asked that I want to share and answer. I work with dozens of writers, and I get asked all sorts of questions about the profession. So here are some common questions and answers:   Do you have a writing routine ? For 3L Publishing projects, I have very specific routines and processes. For my own writing, I don't have the time to include a routine per se. What I usually do is work at night and just go for it. Other writers do things like write eight pages per day or write in the mornings or evenings for at least an hour. I do recommend you give yourself some kind of goal. I like the eight-page rule because you know when you're going to wrap it up, and if you want to go longer that works, too.   Do you take input from readers ? Yes, I like to do focus groups. I don't recommend you do a focus group with friends and family. You want unbiased opinions. Friends and family can't help but be nice. Nice doesn'...

Did you know a book cover (not content) can sometimes be the determinant of whether or not a book sells? I know authors may feel disappointment that a visual aid could make or break their books, but it's one of those realities. Here is what I know about great book covers: Sex always sells . It is just the way it is and no use in fighting mother nature. So a compelling and sizzling sexual cover can do wonders to pique curiosity and sales. Beauty sells though too . One of our authors was stuck on whether to go sexy or beautiful. She went beautiful on instinct and her book cover for Passenger from Greece was acknowledged with a finalist award. Headline treatments can stand on their own . A compelling title combined with an interesting use of typography and white space can provide the tools for some fantastic book covers. Mystery and intrigue provide the basis for great covers . Think about 50 Shades of Grey , a now iconic book cover. It had a lure of dark mystery ab...

The Abused is about eight addicts who go to rehab and one starts murdering the others. The complete novel will be available this summer in an eBook-exclusive release by 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com).  15             After coming out of detox, Kevin was shaken. He had detoxed on his own many weeks before arriving at rehab. He wasn’t really gay. He just liked sex and gender didn’t to matter to him. He thought of himself as more sophisticated than the average guy.   He had never had enough money to go to school, but he had been good with engines and machines and managed all right. When he met his former wife he should have felt lucky to have this educated, beautiful woman want him, but he was arrogant. He thought she was lucky. He bragged to his buddies how this poor desperate chick wanted him. He had always been good with women, acting like their best friends and listening to boring dra...

Recent events in my life got me to thinking. Why don't I listen to my intuition like I should. First, some people will try to tell you that you don't even have an intuition. Stop right there. Want to know what is your intuition? It's the slightly uncomfortable feeling that something isn't quite right. It makes you feel uneasy and provokes you to question things more than you normally would.  After being monumentally lied to for not just a short period of time, but literally years I felt so angry. Not just with him, but mostly mad at myself for continually chasing my little voice into a closet. The man in question lied and lied and lied and lied until the very definition of lying should be "his mouth is moving".  After being manipulated and conned out of literally thousands of dollars, I really was indignant. At the same time, the signs were all over the place. So for the art of teaching others important lessons I learned at both the expense ...

Here are some tips to improve your novel:   Pacing 101 -keep your prose moving by not getting caught up in redundant techniques. For example, I laughed with my author today that only so many facial expressions are available in the repertoire of descriptive opportunities. She puzzled on the comment. I chuckled, "Well, you can only 'smile, grin or frown' so many times before it's repetitious and unnecessary to keep saying it. When you take out what I'll call "the extended version of dialog" you'll notice something interesting-suddenly, your story is moving much faster. When trying to create the famous "page-turner" effect you'll want to expeditiously tell your story. Trim the fat, make it lean, but don't make it skinny (and that's a whole other tip in and of itself).   Redundancy, Redundancy What's Your 'Abundancy'? You'll notice a little play on School House Rock here (for those of you youngst...

14             Sandra walked off the elevator in a confident stride. Just then Darian came around the other corner away from Merry’s office. She was chewing her fingernails and looked very edgy. She saw Sandra and stopped and waited for her in front of her office.             “Hey, you know, I need some gum. Can I have some gum? Do you have any?” she frenetically shot off these questions.             Sandra stared at her. Her hair had thinned and fallen out so it was scraggily looking. The sores on her face had at least healed and scabbed over since her arrival. But judging by her hyper mood and her shifting eyes, Sandra wondered if she was high. She unlocked her office door and allowed Darian to walk in first. She went to her desk and pulled out a plastic-cup-shaped Orbit mint-gum container. She ...

1. Using the character's name too often in the dialog . Think about it. When you're talking to someone, how often do you actually say his or her name. You don't need to use their names. People don't talk like that and repeat someone's name often in conversation. It bogs down your writing and pacing. 2. He said, she said -- no, no . If you have only two characters in a scene once you establish who has spoken first, no need to use "said" anymore unless you have specific purpose to express more than the statement of someone saying something. For example, she said with an angry look of outrage. 3. Repeating what you just described . Too often writers will show the character doing something and repeat in the dialog what the reader just read. Once you've established something about a scene, no need to rehash it in the dialog or even reference it again. It bogs down the pacing and bores the reader with the redundancy. For example, a character walks in t...

The time is now -- go see the Wildflowers at Tabletop Mountain ! This nature preserve, which is located in Northern California just above Lake Oroville offers a colorful feast of nature's wonder. The flowers consisting mostly of purple lupine and orange poppies carpet the landscape that consists of lave outcroppings and expanses of brilliant green grass. A three-mile hike takes you to waterfall pouring down the side of the butte. Bring plenty of water and hiking shoes and don't forget to jump over the muddy areas.