by Lynn H. Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn I never dreamed that we would be one of “those” families—the kind whose kids have sports almost every night of the week. But then I had boys and they turned into ballplayers. Flag football, basketball, baseball. They can’t get enough. And the truth is, neither…

By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin Wherever you are in the writing world: brand new or experienced every writer needs publishing connections to editors, agents, promoters and their fellow writers. Attending a conference like the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference is a great way to be connected but that only happens…

By Aaron Gansky @ADGansky Charles Baxter, in Burning Down the House, Essays on Fiction, devotes an entire chapter to a principle he calls “Stillness.” To paraphrase a rather lengthy and well documented argument, he proposes that stillness, a moment in fiction where action subsides and characters/narrators focus on the minutiae of their…

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28 I can’t help but think of Christmas decorations even in September. After all, there’s less than four months between now and the most wonderful time of the year. If we start now, we have time to prepare Christmas presents (I make mine), find just the right…

By Cherrilynn Bisbano @bisbanowrites Agent’s and publishers scan the Competitive Analysis section of a proposal to see if your book is similar enough to published books, yet different enough to grab those reader’s attention. It provides information on how well your book might sell. Publishers and agents love to a…

By JP Robinson @JPRobinsonBooks Every indie author knows that standing out from the crowd is an uphill battle. And, like most battles, it won’t be won by sheers numbers of dollars or manhours. Instead, authors are most likely to succeed if they implement effective marketing strategies. When I mention marketing,…