Juggling

One last time at Writers Ink Books for Think like a Pro:  New Advent for Writers.

It's the last blog of the year at WIB.  Writers juggle many balls, and that's the focus.
click to read!

Thanks for visiting us on Christmas Day, but you should be playing with your gifts.  Or the wrapping paper.  Or the wrapping the ribbons from the bows around someone.

But I'll give you a gift anyway.

Here's a juggling video, Penn and Teller in China:

Merry Christmas.  Happy New Year!

Where's the bubbly?

Best Gift a Writer can give Herself. Himself. Everyone's self.

Over at Writers Ink Books, our publisher, their blogging about the best gift that writers can give to themselves and to others, especially newbies and wannabes and gonnabes.

How do you pick the best gift ever?

That's the search for birthdays and the holidays, isn't it?

Christmas is only 10 days way.

The resolutions for New Year's are 16 days away.

With shopping and wrapping gifts and celebrations at works and with friends and with family, we've no time left.

If you're a professional writer, what's the best gift that you can give a newbie?  Wish fulfillment.

If you're a newbie, what's the best gift that you can give yourself?  Wish fulfillment.

Yep, the answer's the same.

Click here to read.

Gifts and Resolutions

Looking for the perfect and unique gift for the special people in your life?

Want something they will remember all year long? Want something that they keep talking about doing but never quite manage?

Want something for yourself? Something beautiful and purposeful?

Meet the 204 Lifestyle planner, in 7 versions.

Undated. Weekly two-page spread. Focusing on movement and meditation, feasting and fasting, brain gain and relationship building.

With six week reviews, seasonal retrospections and re-sets, and pages for notes, gift lists and plans. And a calendar of major dates for 2019 to 2023.

At the low planner price of $12.00. A dollar a month is a deal.

The Meadow Version, for lovers of birds and flowers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1718133286

The Floral Version, for the artistic aesthetic.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1719990379

Cityscape, the Knoxville, TN skyline, with the Henley Street Bridge.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720155283

English Cottage, a warm English garden and a cup of tea.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720073309

Teatime, the peace of drinking tea in the back garden

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720073309

Mountain River, for lovers of the Smoky Mountains (an actual location in the Smokies).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720155321

and

Woodland, for the hikers in the family.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720155348

Meadow / Floral / English Cottage / Teatime share similar font types, specifically Leafy Glade and Harrington. Sample pages:

Cityscape / Mountain River / Woodland share the font TUSJ and Cambria. Sample pages:

Contact winkbooks@aol.com if you want more information.

No, we don't collect email addresses. We have better things to do--like writing more books and creating more planners. We'll just respond to any question / comment / speculation and wish you well.

And we wish you well now.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

free fiction: first chapter in Remi Black's fantasy

Click over here for the first chapter in Remi Black's fantasy Dream a Deadly Dream, book 2 in the Enclave series.

Writer's Inertia

As Halloween looms out of the shadows, it's time to talk about the worst kind of problem for a writer.

No, I'm not talking about Writer's Block.  I believe that Writer's Block doesn't Exist.

Scary October: Meet the Scary Witch in Autumn Spells

Follow this link.

Writer's Procrastination

Writer's Block doesn't exist.

Yes, it sounds like heresy.  It must be wrong.  Everyone talks about Writer's Block.

I'm preaching that Writer's Block doesn't exist.

Instead, if you're in a writing slump, you have one of three distinct problems.

And I've got some solutions.

free fiction: opening for M.A. Lee's historical suspense

Click here for the opening 25 pages in M.A. Lee's historical suspense The Key for Spies, set during Wellington's Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon's Empire.

Writer's Refusal

What happens if you're in a writing slump?  What happens when you realize you need to write, you've scheduled time for writing, but you are no where close to putting your bum in chair?

Need more information?  Try this link.

Free Fiction: M.A. Lee's first chapter for Digging into Death

Follow this link

Monster Monday: Trolling Pronouns

John and Tom met with Mike, and he didn't know how to tell him.

Who is he?  Who is him?

Shouldn't it be them?  Which one should be them?

Wait, one's a one;  it can't be two.  One can't be them.

I'm all confused.  Clear Pronoun Reference to the Rescue.

A Writer's Journey

While I struggle daily to find enough time to fit my Sansward series in--not to mention the medieval mystery that I'm longing to write as well as another fantasy series--Remi Black and M.A. Lee are charging forward with their writing.

Last Wednesday Remi Black shared her difficult passage in writing the first three books in her Enclave series.

This week, M.A. Lee share three bits of advice and acknowledges the people who make our writer's journey possible.

As for me, I'll keep plugging along at my pace.  One day, hopefully, everything will come together. 

~ Burning the Candle at Both Ends ~

Hopes up, head high, pen ready, laptop open!

Monster Monday: Be WIS

Grammar Monster:  a few grammar helps for those in need:

Grammar Monster

Writer's Block Quiz

Here's a bit of heresy for you:  Writer's Block doesn't exist.

Never say those two words together ever again.

Instead, use a bit of self-analysis and determine what your problem is.

Here's a simple quiz to help.

Diagnosis for your writing slump is here!

Passage to Pro Writer

Changing your mindset to become a professional writer after years of hobby writing can be daunting.

Remi Black has 10 bits of string to wind into a ball.  That ball will help you safely navigate as you venture deep "Into the Labyrinth" of writing.

A Planner for Life

Writers Ink Books has gotten into the planner business.  (Total surprise.  Not expected at all.  Not on the project list in January or February or March or April or May.)

The journey began with the Think/Pro Planner for Writers.  Daily word counts, project focuses (foci?), progress meters, and more, all designed to help newbie writers develop the discipline and skills to transform into professional writers.

Now we must be on a mission, for W.Ink Books has added another new planner, the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle planner.  And to appeal to many, WIB contracted for seven planner covers.

The first out is the Meadow version, which you can find here at Amazon.

And you can read about M.A. Lee's development of the planner here:  first steps.

We like the Meadow version, but we're going to hold off on buying until we see the other planners.  There's Mountain Stream, Woodland, English Cottage, Teatime, Floral, and Cityscape.

$12.00 for an undated weekly spread, year-long, with progress meters and reminders, all focused on improving Heart and Soul and Body and Mind.  What a deal?

What's not to love?

Monster Monday: MisMods and DangMods

Those pesky grammar trolls are back.

This time we're battling MisMods and DangMods. 

Join us!

De-Stress with the Teatime 2 * 0 * 4

There's beauty in a peaceful garden when a soothing cup of tea awaits you.

For more information about this version of the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle, go here.

Recalculate your Life

W.Ink's promos this week are focusing on the 2 * 0 * 4 planners that no one anticipated, but suddenly here they are.

And they are great!

I'm still waiting for the mountain version, but for you Urbanites, this is the CityScape version.

For more information, check out this link.

What is the 2 * 0 * 4?

In all the excitement about the release of the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle planner and the 7 versions to choose from, I forgot that you may not know anything about 2 * 0 * 4 itself.

Here's the blurb that M.A. Lee wrote to promote her book.  And the pix is a blurry screenshot of the English Cottage cover.

Remember Your Soul with the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle Planner

M.A. Lee is blogging today about the "Raison d'Etre" for her new planner.

It all started with Luke 10:27, sung as a chorus:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind."

Find the blog here.

The cover version for 2 * 0 * 4 that she's promoting today is Floral ArtCraft 3D: which you can see here.

Free Fiction: the fantasy Summer Sieges

Over a Writers Ink, it's Free Fiction for W.Ink Wednesday.  This month W.Ink promotes my first novel, Summer Sieges.

Get a taste of this alternate medieval fantasy here and find out more information here.  My books are exclusively on Amazon.

Monster Monday: Irregular Verb Trolls

Those pesky irregular verbs have tooken over.

Wait, that's not a word.  It's taken.

Oh, yes, it's Monster Monday.

Need more explanation?

Writer's Block

Think like a Pro, by M.A. Lee offers a whole chapter of strategies to overcome Writer's Block.

As a matter of fact, she speaks heresy because she says, "Writer's Block doesn't exist."

Don't believe her?  Here's her blog and a link to her book on Amazon.  Two covers to choose from!

Check back with us on 9/20 for a link to a Diagnostic Quiz

to determine which problem is blocking your writing.

Buying a Planner?

2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle Planner

~ for those of us who want to celebrate our achievements

Feasting and fasting, musing and and moving, building relationships, and avoiding stagnation.

Picking a Cover's the Difficulty:

Vote a winkbooks@aol.com

Sending in your vote will not add you to a mailing list.  ;)

Wizard vs. Sorcerer

Two wizards on a sharp-bladed road.  

Which blade will strike them down?  

Wyre?  

Sorcerer?  

Family?  

Fae?

Free Glimpse: Remi Black's World

Friend time!

Remi Black writes fantasy set in an alternate Renaissance world with wizards and sorcerers, wyre and elemental wielders, Fae--and dragons to come.

Here are a few links to get you started:

https://remiblack.blogspot.com/2018/07/welcome-to-enclave-world.html

https://remiblack.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-wizard-enclave.html

https://remiblack.blogspot.com/2018/08/faeron-septs.html

A free 1st chapter to whet your appetite:

http://writersinkbooks.com/weave-a-wizardry-web-free-glimpse/

Available for a very reasonable $2.99 exclusively on Amazon

Free Glimpse: Key for Spies (romantic suspense)

W.Ink Wednesday

A free glimpse of the rough draft for M.A. Lee's newest book, coming soon: *The Key for Spies*.

Find it here:

http://writersinkbooks.com/key-for-spies-free-glimpse/

Free Glimpse: Weave a Wizardry Web

Remi Black is offering a free glimpse of the first chapter of her first book in the Enclave series, Weave a Wizardry Web. 

Pearroc Ciele poured Fae power into the newly learned wizard spell.  Even as it flashed lightning bright, he recognized the weakness that shattered through the spell.

“If you are to pass yourself off as a wizard during the Trials, you must defend as a wizard would, not as a Fae would.”

Seasons in Sansward map

The Dangers of Secrets

M.A. Lee is celebrating a summer off by creating a couple of trailers for her books.

She did a new trailer for a book I particularly enjoyed:  The Dangers of Secrets.  It's a book we don't want to keep secret. ;)

Think / Pro: Plotter vs. Pantster

Do you know the good, the bad, and the ugly in the new-old debate about Plotting vs Pantstering?

Should you plot?  Should you pantster?

No and No.

What to do?

Here's an answer: Plotter vs. Pantster?

Summer Challenge

Summer challenge time!

2 versions available ~ beautiful flowers
or the guiding task lamp

Are you ready to transform?

If you've dreamed of writing professionally--making $$$ from your words--the time is now.

But how?  What are the steps?  How do I avoid distractions and the dreaded writer's block?  Where can I find creative exercises?  When do I know I'm no longer a hobby writer and that I am a pro?

Who can help?

Well, bud, you help yourself, but here's a manual that can help you Think like a Pro. 

Think like a Pro guides your growth through 7 lessons.  From deadlines to multi-tasking, Think like a Pro gives advice, tips, and tricks.

• The # 1 lesson for success
• A mantra to keep bum in chair
• Choosing a plot
• Essentials for characters
• Conquering Writer’s Block
• Sparking Creativity
• Healthy Habits for projects, for yourself, and for the money you earn

Stop procrastinating, and achieve your dream.  Like the writer M.A. Lee, in three short years you can become a published writer of more than 12 novels.

Purchase the beautiful flowers version here.

Purchase the guiding lamp version here.

Also available is the Think / Pro planner, a daily companion to keep your goals on track.

With an undated layout, you can start anytime and skip any vacation weeks.  The two-page weekly spread offers progress meters, word count trackers, healthy habits monitors, and monthly, seasonal, & yearly reviews and previews.  Record your victories.  Analyze your challenges.  Determine your productivity.

The Think / Pro planner and the Think like a Pro book will encourage your transformation from hobbyist to professional writer.

Declare your Independence

Declare your Independence with the Think / Pro Planner  Available Now!

The Think / Pro planner with the beautiful flowers is Live on Amazon.

8 x 10 size, about a 1/2 inch, very lightweight.  Here's the raison d' etre.

Want to be published?  Think / Pro can help.

Do you start stories but never complete them?  Do you wait on your muse while she hides behind trees and in caves?

Do you know how to write, but the mountainous novel seems insurmountable, with too many words and too few days?

Do you keep telling yourself “Carpe Diem”, but days speed by before you grab several hours to write?

Time to change “Seize the Day” into “Seize the Dream.”  For success, you need to Think/Pro.  This planner can help.

The Weekly Spread

A two-page week keeps you focused on three tasks, with room to record your day-by-day focus as well as a word count tracker for daily and accumulating totals.  The Progress Meter, divided into writing stages and blocks for each ten percent of that stage, is a visual representation of your growing achievement in reaching your writing goal.

While daily word counts are important, I now advise writers to take one day off each week.  Reserve that day for planning as well as completing a creativity exercise.  On a back page is a list of 13 exercises to choose from.  Reminders of the four basic Healthy Habits (walking, water intake, sunshine, and diet) offer daily fill-ins for those who like habit trackers.

Each week also showcases an inspirational quotation from a famous writer.

Analyze your Progress with Reviews and Previews

In addition to the weekly spread are Monthly Reviews & Previews and Seasonal & Yearly Planning pages.  The planner begins with a brief look at your yearly goals, on the following page.

The Monthly Review has a Productivity Tracker and a Progress Meter as well as places to jot down Business Contacts and Expenses.  Once tax time arrives, you will have compiled the necessary information in one location.  And a Tax Tips for Writers lists on a back page the expenses you can record.

In planning, we sometimes neglect to consider obligations beyond our goals and objectives.  On the Previews is a reminder of those commitments that keep us sane.

Seasonal Previews ask you to polish the nuts and bolts of your projected words per week and sharpen up the time remaining before your deadline.  All the Reviews ask you to record your victories and consider your challenges.

The purpose of any planner is to keep us on track as well as to give us a look ahead.  In this fast-paced world, it helps to have a physical reminder, one that is not dependent on the five and more tap-clicks that it takes to access the electronic calendar on a smartphone.

Grab a pen and this planner, and quickly jot down reminders and notes.  As the Think/Pro planner is undated, you can start at any time of the year. 

Purchase here.

Think / Pro: Why Plot?

Can you think of a good reason to plot?  Are should you be edgy and creative and avoid plotting?

Wait. How can avoiding plotting be edgy and creative when that's the way most writers have done it?

Does that mean that plotting before writing is actually edgy?

What to do?  What to do?

Try this > link to a link.

Think like a Pro: Best Plot Method Around

Think like a Pro: 4 of the 5 Methods of Plot

Last on the Train Wreck

Cassie Sharp says it better than anyone else can:

https://cassiesharpbooks.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/open-letter-to-faleena-hopkins/

It's sad, really.

For everyone.

The Train Wreck becomes agonizingly slow.

You have to wonder.

I mean, what happens when things become indefensible?

Flight or Fight.

That's the two reactions.

Or as Rory Miller writes:  lizard brain, monkey brain, human brain.

Gut.  Emotion.  Logic.

Which should come into play?

When I returned to this page to update labels, etc., I discovered that the writer in search of a SNAFU had removed her rant from YouTube.  The old link led to nothingness.  Here's a new link, with the latest, from May 25.

More on the Slow Train Wreck

My goodness!  The train just keeps wrecking.

Romance Writers of America is now involved.  Amazon, as RWA's request, is no longer removing books and reviews that were purported to be in violation of trademark (which is impossible, since a single word cannot be trademarked).

Here's more on the train wreck in progress.

Victoria Strauss on SFWA's Writers Beware blog is "Weighing In":  https://accrispin.blogspot.com/


From Mark Whipple's Legal Inspiration blog:
http://legalinspiration.com/?p=503

And Sasha White gives us 18 minutes that are well worth watching:

Slow Train Wrecks

If you haven't heard the c*ck-up about trademarking a word (which can't be done, unless the word is used in a non-usual sense, like Apple Computers), then here's a brief summary, courtesy of Courtney Milan's twitter stream.

click to read

7 Types of Plot Detailed

If you're struggling with your writing, head over the Writers Ink Services for the recent blog on the 7 Types of Plot.

All of us struggle with some element of story construction, whether it's characters or genre tropes or setting or plot.

Plot is the foundation of story, or as M.A. Lee says, it's the most important structural element.  Just like a house's foundation, the plot has to be right.

Writers Ink is working through the manual Think like a Pro:  New Advent for Writers, and Plot is the third chapter, the One Guiding Decision.

Lee says it may take five separate blogs to get everything about plot said, and she's updating the manual as she goes, preparing for a Revised Edition.

But for now, to learn about the 7 Types of Plot, click this link.

New from Writers Ink Books

Writers Ink, my own publisher, is putting out two books right now.  Both are exclusively available on Amazon as Kindle ebooks.

The first is by my friend Remi Black, who likes fantasy with a bit of a harder edge.  (I like my fantasy light, as you can tell from my More than a Wizard.  I'm currently working on a sequel to that book.  I gave you a sneak peek a couple of weeks ago.  Look for more sneak peeks later.)

Remi Black is writing the Enclave series:  wizards against sorcerers, wyre against Rhoghieri, Fae against dragons.

• The first book dealt with the wizards and Fae fighting a sorcerer and wyre:  Weave a Wizardry Web. This story has dual protagonists:  A minor wizard Camisse finds herself attracted to a Fae in disguise while the great wizard Alstera struggles alone against the temptations of darker power.
• The second book Dream a Deadly Dream picks up with Alstera, one of Web's protagonists, trying to help a countess-in-hiding, accused of her father's death.  With Alstera's help, Cherai decides to find the reason her father was assassinated and regain her rank and standing.
• The third book, just out, is Sing a Graveyard Song.  Alstera continues her journey south, heading into snow-locked mountains to help villagers fight a re-animated corpse, the Death Walking.  A bit of a horror story, which is one of the reasons I say Remi has a harder fantasy edge than the rest of us publishing with Writers Ink.

The second book is by Edie Roones and will be published on Tax Day, April 15, but you can pre-order it now.

• Winter Sorcery, third in the Seasons in Sansward series: When a Gitane WitchMaster pursues two Frenc spies who stole a sphere of power, can a half-trained mage and a simple temple cleric help them escape?
• The second book in the series, Autumn Spells, is one of my favorites:  fantasy with a great couple: Autumn Spells pits the Green mage Saisha against an aged sorceress who needs a younger body to continue to live.  Helping Saisha is a keep warder Hethan who falls into the sorceress’ trap to capture a mage.
• First out by Edie was Summer Sieges which presented the story of Beren, a warder for a castlekeep.  She must lead a handful of people in escaping from the Watrani horde that conquers their keep.  After escaping through a horrible underveil world, Beren meets the enchanted Prica Storr and helps free him from a curse hundreds of years old that transformed him into a wolf.  With only a magicked sword for defense against sorcery, can they defeat a Gitane WitchMaster and his apprentices?

Check these books out on Amazon Kindle!

Think like a Pro: Know your Plot

Think like a Pro: Work Every Day

Think like a Pro: Turning Dreams into Reality

Over at Writers Ink Books,  the publishing cooperative that's my tribe, we're promoting a little writing manual called Think like a Pro, by M.A. Lee.

In that little book are Seven Lessons designed to turn a hobbyist mindset into a professional mindset.

Chapter One: Set Deadlines turned into four blogs:

• the introductory blog for the chapter, 
• 3 Tricks for Working with Deadlines, 
• M.A. Lee's successful journey in working through the Seven Lessons, 
• and a "Knowing Where to Start and How to Start: Turning Dreams into Reality" blog that talks about the Three Sevens:  7 Characters, Plot 7, and 7 Work Procedures.

I'm a pantster who tries to be a plotter.  Truly, I would rather plot--at least I tell myself that.  Then I find myself launching into a new book with little more than a few ideas.  Or I plot out where I want my story to go then abandon the outline.

Maybe the outline helps me write.

I don't know.  When life interferes with writing, I'm never very sure what's going on.

The flu, a new diet that puts my brain in a fog--Hello, Keto!--opportunities for day-tripping, and January passed and we reached mid-February with very little done.

But I have PLANS!

As if saying it makes it real.

As if saying it puts words on the page.

I have an outline for the book.  A few sketched scenes.  I know my characters.  Maybe I need to get a progress meter.

I'll probably ignore the outline, abandon the sketched scenes, and change the characters a bit.  That always happens.

Coming later this year may be Out of the Green Wood, with Little John of Robin Hood fame, leaving Sherwood Forest and becoming John Little.  A little murder mystery will add to the story.

After that--who knows?  I've got ideas for two different books sketched out, fantasies.  Right now, one idea is called Desora while the other is called Changeling 3 in 1.  Those titles will change, of course.  Right now, they don't sound very interesting, do they?  Plus, an Into the Green Wood with Much of Muchness.  (I have to wonder how he got that nickname, don't you?)

Maybe those books are next.  Who knows?

Who knows what life holds?

If you've always dreamed of being a published writer, then visit www.writersinkbooks.com to read the blogs.  Before you know it, you will be writing and considering your writing.  And before very long, you can become an Indie Writer publishing e-books for everyone's enjoyment.

~~We're madder over here.  Contact us at winkbooks@aol.com.

Check out THINK LIKE A PRO at this link.

Think like a Pro: Deadlines