Genre Favorites Blogfest

Today's the day for the Genre Favorites Blofest, so I'm going to do a quick list of my favorite genres in Film, Novels and Music.

I'm actually a very "Anything Goes" kind of girl, so I don't really have enough of a self-awareness to have a guilty pleasure.

So:

Movies: Anything that gives me a few hours of escape. Usually either fantasy or a comic-book adaption.

Music: Rock. Of all persuasions although I tend to lean more to Alternative and Nu Metal.

Books: This might surprise people, but I adore good crime fiction and procedurals.

What about you? Care to share your favorite genres? Got any guilty secrets?

Successful Book Marketing – Ninja Style!

Hi all! Today I have the awesome privilege of welcoming the Ninja Captain himself to MFB! I'm pretty sure everyone already knows him, but if you're new to this blogging thing, his blog is a must visit. So go here for sheer awesomeness. :-D

Thanks again, Alex!

Successful Book Marketing – Ninja Style!

Misha invited me to talk about marketing. I guess after two successful book launches, she thought I knew what I’m doing! I learned a few things as I stumbled my way through the process though – and I’m happy to share them with you:

Write a good story – because no amount of marketing is going to help if it sucks!

Early announcements – let people know about the book and its release date.

Reveals – no, you don’t have to get naked! But when your publisher sends you the cover art, synopsis, or book trailer, reveal them on your site.

Reviews and giveaways – coordinate with your publisher on giveaways, such as on Goodreads. Contact book bloggers and pass on their information.

Release day events – plan something fun for your release day and get others involved.

Twitter – announce your release on Twitter and don’t forget hashtags and Twitter parties.

Blog tour – plan several months in advance, as some people (like me!) book up fast. I’ve found two weeks and one stop a day is best. Contact hosts, set date and topic (guest post, interview, review, and/or giveaway) and send hosts information, links, and images at least a week before the date. Promote the host on your site and visit each stop throughout the day. (Can you tell this is one of my favorites?)

Guest posts – both before and after your blog tour. Build interest and then maintain with more guest posts. That includes hosting others on your site.

Sell yourself – this is the one thing that is often overlooked. Yes, we’re marketing and selling our book, but in reality, we are marketing and selling ourselves. We do this by being a genuine, caring person. We’re supportive and relatable. We’re the positive light that draws others to us.

There are other options as well, such as podcasts, Facebook, forums – the list goes on and on. But no matter how you chose to market your book, don’t skip the last item. (Or the first one!) If you can sell yourself, you’ll sell books, because you’ll have an army of supporters behind you.

And in my case, a Ninja Army!

Alex J. Cavanaugh

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/AlexJCavanaugh



Alex J. Cavanaugh has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works in web design and graphics. He is experienced in technical editing and worked with an adult literacy program for several years. A fan of all things science fiction, his interests range from books and movies to music and games. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The author of Amazon Best Sellers, CassaStar and CassaFire, he lives in the Carolinas with his wife.


Thanks again, Alex! Anyone else in doing a GPF? Please feel free to contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Have a great weekend, all!

P.S. What's your favorite way to discover new books to read?

On finishing a manuscript...

So... Doorways is done... for most of a week now. Feelings about that: Mixed.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled and enjoying the freedom of not having anything to finish.

On the other, I'm... bored. After all, I've spent a very long time working on it. It's basically framed my life for almost six years. Now it's gone. Sure I might, and probably will do some final polishes, but nothing that requires my immediate attention just yet. On the contrary, if I'm going to do some more polishing even though it's good enough now, I need distance. Which means I need to do anything else but work on Doorways.

In fact, I'm thinking I might take a bit of a break on writing, since it had taken up a substantial part of my life. You know, to experiment with new hobbies, catch up with friends, read more...

*snort* Yeah. Right. My muse is already back on my case with a variety of options as to what I can work on.

So... maybe my writing holiday will come to an end soon.

What do you do after finishing a manuscript?

GUTGAA: Pitch Polish Bloghop

I decided to sign up for the GUTGAA Pitch Polish bloghop, although I'm not quite sure what I can fix any more, after WriteOnCon. Still, if anyone sees any glaring errors, please feel free to point them out. Please just no "I don't like it"s, "It doesn't work for me"s or anything like that. They're not all that helpful. In return, I can go over your query, if you want and you're not signed up for GUTGAA. I'm all for quid pro quo when it comes to writing. ^_^



AUTHOR'S NAME: Misha Gericke
TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT: Doorways
GENRE: YA/NA Epic Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 112 000

Query: Please don't crit this one. Only kept it in the post so everyone can see what the old comments were about. New pitch is below this one.

In the past five years, families from all over England have sent sixteen-year-old Callan Blair back to her orphanage. She's not stupid enough to think her newest family will be any different, no matter how desperately she wishes to belong somewhere. Not with an evil entity living inside her since before she could remember, picking at random when to possess her and ruin her chances at happiness. The best thing to do is to go with the flow until she's rejected and returned again.

This plan of action becomes impossible when she bumps into a sadistic asshole on her first day of school. Because he decides he's in love and kidnaps her.

After hurting her just to prove a point, the Psycho drags Callan to a hallway where every door opens to a wondrous fantasy world she never knew existed. Before he can force her through one, however, Callan is rescued by a small army from the world beyond the doors and taken to their country. There Callan learns two things: Her parents both came from this strange world and her mother had been an elvish princess.

Lacking any knowledge of her parents’ pasts, Callan wants nothing more than to unravel her mother’s secrets. Why did she leave her country? And why did she keep her past hidden? Callan also longs to take her rightful place in her mother's family -- her family. But a series of huge obstacles stand in her way. The elves despise her. Her own grandfather marries her off to the neighboring royal family living in the country where the Psycho lays in wait. The evil within her is gaining strength and wants her to die. As if those problems aren't enough, she must choose if she'll go through with the wedding or not. And her choice will either have her keeping her new world's tenuous peace or sparking a war that has been generations in coming.

DOORWAYS is an 112,000 word YA/NA Fantasy Epic with series potential.

New Query based on comments: Changed again to clarify and tighten up.

In the past five years, sixteen-year-old London girl Callan Blair has been returned to her orphanage so many times she lost hope of ever belonging with a family. Whenever there’s a chance, the evil entity inside her awakens and does exactly enough to get her rejected. The accompanying panic attacks and nightmares are intensifying, so Callan knows her newest family experience will be identical to the others.

Except this time she bumps into a sadist who decides he's in love and kidnaps her.

He drags Callan to a hallway where every door opens to a fantasy world she never knew existed. Fortunately, a small army from there rescues her and take her to their home. Before they get there, though, Callan learns a staggering truth: the elvish king is her grandfather.

Callan longs to fit in with her true family, but the elves despise her, and her grandfather arranges her marriage into the neighboring royal dynasty -- in the country where the sadist waits. Meanwhile the evil entity is getting stronger and wants to kill her as long as she follows her grandfather's bidding. But is belonging somewhere worth risking her life? Or even marrying a total stranger? If not, her choice not to go through with the wedding will spark a war that has been generations in coming.

DOORWAYS is a 112,000 word YA/NA Fantasy Epic with series potential. 

 First 150 words:

Breathe in, breathe out, spur the horse into a gallop.

Easy. Natural. Soothing. Far from the orphanage. Far from its matron and the rejects. Far from dreams of carnage and death.

The lush park was heaven in comparison, with children laughing and playing, lovers strolling and only a Boeing streaking overhead to prove they were in the middle of London.

Callan guided the gelding to where Mrs. Sotheby, her only hope at promotion, stood waiting.

She worked with the young gelding’s quirks, trotting around the older lady, letting him find his stride. He sensed Callan’s excitement and it made him a bit more tense than he should have been. Nothing to worry about. Nothing she couldn’t control. Breathing deeply, she relaxed her grip on the reins and allowed the gelding his peace.

Even though her stomach still flipped every now and then, the horse settled down beneath her.

*  *  *

So? Thoughts?

What's Your Chocolate Blogfest

Hi all, before I start today's post, I just want to make a *tiny* announcement... DOORWAYS IS FINISHED!!! Although this fact makes me a little sad, I'm also quite relieved. Been working on it for almost six years. Sadly I'm on a diet at the moment, so no chocolatey celebrations, but as luck would have it, I'd entered a blogfest a few weeks ago and it allows me to fantasize about it a little.



So my chocolate... I'm a chocoholic, so anything goes. Although Lindt's dark chocolate is divine. Any flavor works for me. But when I have 85% chocolate, it goes to one thing. This:

The picture below isn't of a fondant I've made, but my recipe comes very close. With luck. It's a french recipe, after all.

Credit

(From a previous post of mine.)

Unfortunately it will be in metric, since I'm too lazy for conversions.
(From Mariete van der Vyfer's new recipe book, but I changed the method slightly so that I could enjoy the process...)

Melted chocolate tart (Or, by my name: Delightfully easy fondants.)
200 grams 80% or above dark chocolate
125 grams butter (Yes. BUTTER)
6 separated eggs
1/4 cup of sugar

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (that's 392 degrees Fahrenheit. see? I can be nice)
Step 2: Spread something like butter or margarine or non-stick spray over the inside of a small but deep cake-pan, or 6 to 10 oven-proof dessert moulds depending on the size. I prefer the latter, but please don't use muffin moulds unless they're deep.
Step 3: Mix the yolks and sugar
Step 4: Melt the chocolate and butter together in a fire-proof glass bowl over boiling water. This is the fun part since you get to watch the butter and chocolate turn into a smooth, creamy liquid. Siiigh.
Step 5: beat the egg whites until stiff (Sorry if this sounds weird, but the recipe is in another language.)
Step 6: Mix results from steps 3 and 4
Step 7: Carefully fold the egg whites into the above mixture. Make sure that everything is well blended.
Step 8: Pour the mixture into the prepared dish(es) and put into the oven. Be careful not to fill the dish to the brim, since the mixture does expand in the heat.

Now this is where you need to take a bit of a gamble, since the time left in can be a bit of a gamble, but here's a rough guide for you to guesstimate:

Cake pan: 20 minutes (cover with foil after the first ten minutes to prevent drying out.)
6 moulds: 12 minutes
10 moulds (what I got, since my moulds were a bit small.): 6-8 minutes

Basically, the smaller the volume, the less time in the oven.

Step 9: They will be soft and sticky when you take them out, but the outside hardens as the fondant cools. When they are cool enough to touch and stable at the bottom, turn the moulds over. The fondants should drop out without much trouble. I strongly suggest you serve them/it with vanilla ice cream.

Step 10: Break through the soft crust and relish the soft, gooey centre bursting forth. 

So what's your favorite chocolate/chocolate dish?

Self publishing - Tips and tricks

Hi all! Today I welcome Rekha to MFB. She's truly a talented and interesting writer, so if you haven't met her before, please head over to her blog and say hi. :-)

 

Self publishing - Tips and tricks

Publishing hasn’t gotten so easy and hard at once. While traditional “biggies” in respective countries and small press have their hands full, more writers are seeking myriad opportunities to publish thanks to the eBook revolution.

Purists in the industry may frown upon self publish (now distinct from vanity publishing which incidentally was how some classic authors got their first book out), but it has produced quality works and authors who have later signed publishing deals. Whatever be the reason, writers travelling this route can avoid the “trash” box - the delete button on Ereaders and negative reviews with a few essentials:

1) Good Story: The classification of good differs but here it refers to stories of any length or genre that uses these elements well - characters, setting, plot with good scenes and crisp dialogues. As a self confessed advocate of self published writers, I have read books where these haven’t been explored properly.

2) Proof Read: Self publish doesn’t give the writer licence to upload works with typos and errors with grammatically and syntactically incorrect sentence structures. Don’t rely on spell checks. Get it beta read by test readers and critiqued by other writers.
Editor: Not all those who self publish can afford a top notch editor, but unless you have the qualifications for the said job, make use of a freelance editor especially in the case of single novels and series.

3) Formatting: Use professional e conversion and format services available. They are reasonably priced and save the trouble if one is not tech savvy. One can also use free formatting tutorials available for Kindle or with Smash words, and good ones provided by helpful techies and writers online. Don’t forget to earn a brownie point with the reader by providing a table of contents directly linking to chapters.

4) Book Cover: With thousands of books vying for customer attention, a book cover is the first step to pique reader interest. If you, friend or family are artists who are apt at photo manipulation and design software, good for you, else hire one. Here again, it doesn’t always cost a bomb, there are many artists on DeviantArt who produce exquisite work at economical rates.

5) Network: The book is being written, edited, and dressed to kill with a cover, now - before you hit the hit the publish button, would be a good time to create a author blog/website to attract prospective readers and meet other writers, send ARC’s to reviewers/review sites open to self published works, and get on book sites like Goodreads or Shelfari.

6) Marketing: The book is available for the world to see; it’s time to use various online options. Some are author interviews and blog tours, professional services like book tours and giveaways organised by book publicity websites, use of social media - twitter and facebook pages to spread the word, a book trailer if you have the inclination, free promotion schemes on seller sites and entering the book into breakout novels contests.

7) Other Stuff: Self publishing on established seller sites comes with the benefits of pre assigned ISBN numbers. But, be ready to juggle roles of an accountant, manager, assistant, publicist, and marketeer.

Tackle all of these and more importantly, get back to completing that book first - a successful self publishing career awaits you.



Thanks again for these useful tips, Rekha! Anyone who wants to book a GPF is welcome to contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com. I have the 28th of September open if you want to post on the theme of Self-Publishing and Marketing, but there are also dates available in the next few months as well.

Have a great weekend all!

Interview with Craig MacLachlan

Hi all, this was supposed to go live on Tuesday already, but things were a little hectic in my live and work, so I asked him to post it today. I'm not going to say much about Craig, because the interview says it all for me. ;-)



Welcome to MFB, Craig!

Thanks for hanging out with us today. First things first: Tell us a bit more about yourself?

Thank you for having me Misha! I was born in Thompson Falls, Montana, spent part of my youth in Kennewick/Benton City Washington and from there my family moved to the Belfair,Washington area. I have been married to my wonderful wife, Christina, for 17 years. In fact I asked her out in 9th grade of high school, she's the first and only girl I have ever dated and we've been together for 23 years! I love the outdoors, hiking, camping, tubing down creeks and rivers, and just enjoying everything nature has to offer. I also enjoy bowling and am still working on getting that 300 point perfect game! When I was younger I used to do a lot of cross-stitching and am going to pick it up again to create characters and scenes from my first book for giveaways and contests. I watch too much television and have so many favorite shows it would take pages to list them all.

Besides writing YA fiction, I am also a screenwriter with a short film completed and a mid-length film in post-production. I am currently working toward my Bachelor degree in Sociology. Even though writing is my first passion and I hope it's what I am able to do for the rest of my life, backup plans are always nice to have tucked away just in case. I am a cupcake fiend, especially for red velvet with cream cheese frosting and cream cheese filling! Ice cream is a staple at least once a week and besides adoring chocolate of all kinds, don't let me near Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups because if I lived on a deserted island, the moon, or another planet, it would be the one food I would have to have with me. Oh, and Cadbury Creme Eggs!

Nice! When did you start writing and why?

I started writing in 3rd grade when I came in second place for a county wide writing competition. I didn't get to move on in the competition, but it was my first real taste of writing. In 7th grade I had a poem about a trout published in a local newspaper in Benton City, WA. In that same year I also co-wrote a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book with my friend Jesse and we entered it into the competition they were having. We didn't win, but it was a fun experience. After that I mostly just read books and I really didn't get serious about writing again until I was 26 and started dabbling in screenwriting. I wrote a few scripts and a couple years after that I wrote a script based on my friend Andy Davies book 'Diary of a Curtain Twitcher'. I also began writing adult fantasy and adult thriller ideas, but I never felt truly connected to the writing. I then finished several short stories, won an online short-short writing competition and received a copy of Stephen King's 'On Writing' for the win.

After reading several YA books I decided to delve into that genre of writing and immediately felt connected to the characters and my stories. I spent several years writing short YA stories as I was considering several ideas for a full length novel and finally decided on the one which I now have representation for by MediaAria CDM. Even though I recently won third place in a one-act script competition, my first love is novel writing.

The reason I write is because I love telling stories and hearing about the joy and excitement others get from what I created. I not only write for others, but for myself as well. When I write, the satisfaction I get from creating characters, the world they live in and the stories gluing everything together is like I'm reading a book and flipping through the pages with anticipation. I'm a fan of writing pure and simple. If I was never published I would always keep writing because it's such a passion within me. Ideas are always bouncing around inside my mind like the silver steel ball in pinball game!

What sort of writer are you?

I am definitely a plotter when it comes to writing and my plot forms before anything else. My characters always find their places within the plot and end up in the driver’s seat enhancing it as the story unfolds. Without great characters a great plot is meaningless.

I always map out an entire story from start to finish. I’m not meaning just a single book, but an entire series. With SIERRA WINTERS AND THE VOID I knew the entire story arc and where all three books fit into it. I have written tentative beginnings and endings to books two and three as well. I have another series set to write after SIERRA WINTERS and I have that entire series mapped out also. I can’t just write one book and then wonder to myself what happens in the next one.

As far as writing characters into my formulated plots, I am a huge fan of bad, evil characters. I often feel sorry for my good characters, but it makes their triumphs that much more meaningful!

I also love bad guys in stories, because they're usually incredibly interesting to write. Who is your favorite bad guy ever?

Who is my favorite baddie of all time, hmm, good question. There are so many great evil characters out there to choose from, but I am going to have to go with the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia. She was the first truly evil character I ever read about when I was young and I recall having nightmares about her! So even though there are some definite competitors in my mind for top baddie, I have to stick with her at this point in time.

She's an excellent choice. Especially since Chronicles of Narnia is very special to me. What do you do to write a really good bad character?

When I write an evil character I don't want that character to be 'pure' evil and all bad. I always create a back story that shows snippets of information on why the character is behaving the way they do. This way there is always that little bit of compassion the reader can touch base with, no matter how small for the character. Of course that ounce of feeling isn't going to stop the reader from growling and despising them, but it's nice to give purpose for every characters behavior. When I do write an evil character I take that moment in time that changed their personality and take that reaction to the most extreme that I can possibly take it. In SUMMER'S SHADOW there is one main bad guy, but also a few other in-between baddies that alternate back and forth for various reasons which is fun to write as well.

I also have more than one baddie in Doorways. What is your favorite sort of heroic character?

Having more than one baddie is always fun within a story. Okay, my favorite type of heroic character? I like a heroic character to be strong-willed and as independent as possible, even if their circumstances don't exactly allow them to be. One of the greatest attributes to a heroic character in my opinion is faults. A character with faults creates emotions and affects decision making. So with all that said, a great heroic character for me is one that is ambitious, independent and strong-willed, yet realistic because they can also stumble under their own faults and problems.

That makes a lot of sense. Perfect characters make for bad reading. Which brings me to my next question: What's your pet reading peeve?

I used to consider novels written in first person as a pet peeve, I didn't like them. But as I read more and more YA novels I learned to appreciate first person more and more. My side project novel which is a YA paranormal thriller is actually written in first person from a boy's perspective. Okay, let me think here, a real pet peeve of mine when reading a book is not being able to tell the difference between characters. A well written character can be imagined by the words they speak and their actions without having to read their name. When I read a book, I want to know the characters as if they were part of my life. Yet, when characters are stale and the speech/actions are almost carbon copies of one another, there is no depth to them and its hard to care about the character. So my pet peeve is poorly written characters which ruins the story for me.

I know what you mean. I hate shallow characters like those. What do you find the most difficult part to writing?

The most difficult part of writing for me is finding a flow every time I sit down to write. If the flow of my muse is off, everything I write will come off as stagnant and stale. So what I do write two to three sentences involving one or more of my characters. I then re-write those sentences over and over in different ways until I feel it flow and once that happens it's like gliding through the skies with wings. So yeah, getting the flow of my writing started is the most difficult part of writing for me. Oh, and editing, what is that? It's a word banned from my vocabulary!

Yes flow can be so difficult to pin down. I try to do it by not leaving anything in the middle of a scene. And why is the e-word banned?

Ha-ha, the e-word. Editing isn't the most difficult part of writing for me, it's the part I least look forward to. I do enjoy re-writing my rough draft the first time and fixing problems, deleting this and adding that, you know, making it great! It's when those edits become one after another, after another and I want to curl up inside a dark closet and hide! I think every author, including myself, has the dream that their first draft will be perfect and they can continue on to their next work. Editing is just part of the process no matter how fun or painful it can be. I wonder if I said "Abra-ca-Edit" enough times, would it turn into a real magical word and edit my novels?

Excellent question... Now for another one of my own: What is the best tip you ever got about editing?

The best tip I have ever gotten about editing was a single word. "Patience". I was told with patience that the editing process would unfold much smoother than wanting to rush it along. That advice was spot on as I quickly learned that rushing an edit only harbors frustration, erratic writing and the editing process becomes much longer than it ever needs to be. Patience, I make it my top priority when editing and it works! I edited SUMMER'S SHADOW four times before sending out queries. And yes, it will be back in the editing process once again as my publication date nears.

Yes, it does say it all, doesn't it? Final question is the easiest: where can people find you on the internet?

This was a lot of fun, thanks again Misha! Book one in the SIERRA WINTERS AND THE VOID trilogy, SUMMER’S SHADOW, is due for publication in Spring 2014. Book two, FALL’S FURY and book three, WINTER’S DEATH, will follow. I have some exciting developments coming up soon which include a VBlog on my YouTube channel and my cover reveal in February 2013. Regarding the cover, there is going to be some really fun news for fans and everyone concerning it by December which I can’t wait for! You can find me, Craig MacLachlan, online at the following locations:

https://twitter.com/CraigMacLachlan
http://www.craigmaclachlan.com
http://www.goodreads.com/craigmaclachlan
http://www.youtube.com/user/CraigKMacLachlan/videos
http://www.mediaaria-cdm.co.uk/blog.html

Insecure (Frustrated) Writer's Support Group

 

Hmm... This post could probably be called Frustration. Or... The Joy of Living with a Family Who Doesn't Have an MS to Finish.

 

Because yes folks. Directly after discussing my book and how awesome it would be if I was like the next JK Rowling (lol I wish), in the car after a long day of meetings. After I said that I wanted to edit. I got called to waste almost two hours in the kitchen to clean up a mess that I wasn't even there to make.

 

So yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in my family who grasps the magnitude of what this was. Because I want to start QUERYING at the end of the week. But I've just been set back yet again. I mean seriously. Packing away dishes that maids will come clean tomorrow if they're there?

 

After picking up both my brothers' slack for lame excuses such as pc gaming and such?

 

Not on.

 

So yeah. I'm still not finished. Which is frustrating the crap out of me.

 

That's me for now. More frustrated than insecure.

 

So what about you? Does your family sometimes frustrate you as well? Or are they supportive?

GUTGAA meet and greet

Hi all! Sorry for the radio silence on Thursday and Friday! Had to go here for some meetings and just to go soak up my surroundings.

Didn't say anything because I was planning to schedule ahead. But we all know where good intentions end up more often than not. Luckily I had kept the 31st guest free, so I didn't even feel bad.

Speaking of which, I just barely missed my deadline. Will hopefully be done by this weekend.

Okay... done with admin for now.



Today's the day for the GUTGAA meet and greet, so I get to answer some fun questions.

Where do you write?

Right now, I write in bed. Have the perfect space for my writing desk, but the desk itself is proving illusive. Soon though... soon. 

Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

Me. I'm looking at my built in cupboards. All the doors have full-length mirrors.

Favorite time to write?

Early to very early morning. If I'm the only one awake, no one can distract me.

Drink of choice while writing?

None, actually... many a messes has been born because of me forgetting my drink and spilling it on my bed.

When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

I definitely listen to music. My main WiP has playlists for my main characters, as well as each the plots for each story in the series.

What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

He sort of found me. I was reading Chronicles of Narnia and in walked my one main character, insisting I pay attention to him instead. Of course, quite a few of my crit partners will agree Darrion is well worth paying attention to... so Narnia took a bit longer to finish, and Doorways was born.

What's your most valuable writing tip?

I have more than one, but because I gave the other quite enough air, here's another:

Want to learn how to write? Write. Want more time to write? Write. Other people achieving publishing success and you're not even done? Write. Know rules so you can bend them. Write whenever you can, even if it's for only five minutes. And for heavens sake stop comparing yourself and your writing speed to others. George R.R. Martin takes FOREVER to write a new book, and he's definitely not a failure.

So that's me. Thanks and welcome to all the new faces stopping by! Can't wait to meet you.

Where did you get your inspiration for your WiP?