By Cherrilynn Bisbano @bisbanowrites Why do you write or speak? I’ve chatted with many of you and believe you walked out of the womb, pen or microphone in hand. No matter when we started most of us will exclaim, “God called me!” As a speaker, I desired to be used…

By A.C. Williams by @acw_author One of the scariest, most upsetting words in the English language is the word CHANGE. Nobody really likes it, no matter how much they claim they do. Change requires effort and energy, and, frankly, it’s usually just easier to keep doing things the same way.…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills It’s December, the month of Christmas, and we’re all scrambling for the perfect gift for our writerly friends. The opportunity should be easy, but when we choose to offer something special that encourages them, our creative minds head into overdrive. Here are a few ways you…

By Aaron Gansky @ADGansky For the most part, a good first chapter does the same thing as a good first page to a deeper extent, there are a few more considerations when writing your opening chapter. While most of the answers to these considerations depend largely upon the genre and…

by Maggie Wallem Rowe Last month in this space, we talked about the problem of platform – will a publisher be interested in your work without a big one? (For a refresher, click here.) But before you even begin to build a platform, you need to establish your identity as…

by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea You better not pout, I’m telling you why. Because somebody will snap a pic and post it on social media and you’ll have to live with that face forever. And ever. That’s why I try not to show my seasonal angst. And still…every time. Every time I…