HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It is my hope that everyone will take a moment and reflect on 2009 before we usher in 2010. My wish for all of you is success and joy in the coming year no matter what your goals are in life.

If you are out at a party please be safe and don't drink and drive. Get home safely so your goals and dreams can be realized by one and all.

I look forward to hearing from you in the New Year!!

What are some of your goals and dreams for 2010?

Published News

I really enjoy closing things out on the right foot. You know, like finishing a report with a positive attitude or finishing a home project with the last piece fitting in place just as it should. Writing and becoming an author is no different. As we prepare to entire 2010 I'm sure everyone can agree that we want to finish 2009 strong and on a positive note.

I wanted to share with you tonight some great news I received recently. This, to me, is closing out one year on a positive note and starting the New Year off strong. First, I have been published for the second time in Dream Chaser's magazine. I submitted a poem which the editor enjoyed and included in the January issue.

Recently I prepared a book review that I will be posting here in a few days. The author also publishes a magazine (whose name escapes me right at the moment). She informed me that my book review will be published in the January issue of this magazine. I will get the name of it soon.

I have a few more articles out that I need to follow up on but I believe this is a great start to the year but I saved the best for last. The day before Christmas Eve I received an e-mail from a publisher in Ireland. I previously submitted two poems to him because he is publishing a book of poetry. His e-mail informed me that he selected both of my poems to be in the book. The book is tentatively titled "Poetry Against Cancer" and will be available in February. This book has special significance for me because all the proceeds made from this book will be donated to the St John’s Cancer Ward at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin. I believe everyone has experienced the trials and anguish brought on by cancer so it is my hope that this book is very successful. I will update you on this as I receive information.

I am waiting patiently on word regarding my manuscript I submitted to the publisher. It is my plan to touch base with them after the New Year celebration.

Why am I sharing all of this with you? It is by no means to brag but to encourage. Keep moving forward and don't allow anything to hold you back. Each little positive step you take is moving you in the direction of your goal. You can do it, we can do it and in time we will do it!

Finally - A Guide For Mom

Title: 5 Life Skills Smart Moms Must Have:
        Proven Strategies to keep you sane!
Author: J. Rembrandt
ISBN: 978-0-984-24930-5
Genre: How-To
Pages: 106
Reviewed By: Brian Knight
Official Premium Promotional Services Rating:

Ever wish there was an instruction guide for being a mom?

J. Rembrandt has been a single mom, working mom, single working mom and stay at home mom. She has learned through the trials, stress and workload involved with all those titles. “5 Life Skills Smart Moms Must Have: Proven Strategies to Keep You Sane!” is her account of lessons learned in an effort to help mothers facing the same incredible to-do list.

This is more then a how-to book, it’s a survival guide as it covers topics such as your physical, mental, and emotion health as well as the importance of understanding finances and delegating work. Private time is an important aspect highlighted in which to handle the tasks of a normal day.

A family is a joyous gift, one to be celebrated but are you feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of that gift?

Right from the first paragraph, the reader will understand that Rembrandt is writing from experience. Fostering the wisdom gained from both her mother and grandmother Rembrandt has matched her experience with lessons learned to develop a field guide for mothers. Her appreciation for mothers and the things they must handle on a daily basis is virtually on every page.

I recommend reading “5 Life Skills Smart Moms Must Have: Proven Strategies to Keep You Sane!” for single mothers, working mothers and stay at home mothers who are young and old. These time management tips are sure to ease the stress life introduces when you become a mom and wife.

This is a Premium Promotional Services book promotion. To learn more about this book follow this link.

Joy to the World

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

To all my friends, family, peers, and readers I wish you and your families a safe and joyous Christmas.

I appreciate you all and thank you for being part of the New Author.

Keep Up With It

Lately I have been experimenting with different ways to pick up a new writing session for my novel. I'm looking for a way that gets me into my writing as quickly as possible from the point I stopped at the night before. I have tried keeping notes on a note pad but that felt cumbersome.

I've read on many sites and blogs that writers will reread what they wrote during their last writing session in order to pick up the flow and carry on. This I tried the longest and I can say that it worked but not well enough for what I was looking for. This method allows you to pick up the flow but it doesn't help with the thoughts of where you want to go with your story like taking notes does.

What I'm looking for is simple in thought. I want to be able to turn on my computer, open my novel, browse a few sentences and then begin writing. At this point you might be thinking; if you know your story well enough you should be able to pick it up right away. This is true but I'm looking for a way to maintain all the little details and side stories as I weave a tapestry depicting the main story.

This past weekend I tried a new approach that seems to be working very well for me. At the end of each writing session I space down a few times and, in all capital letters, write a summary of what just happened and a few ideas I want to cover in future chapters. This allows me to pick up where I stopped and gives me an idea of where the story is going. For example, my hero was having dinner with her parent's and her boyfriend/villain was invited. I made it halfway through the dinner but stopped for the night. At the end of my writing I made a note to myself - "continue with dinner." I also added a few thoughts of what I wanted to happen after dinner and items that spun off of the things learned during that dinner. Last night I switched on my computer, opened my document, read my note and began typing. It was a smooth, quick move from start to getting the flow going.

A little caution though, remember to delete your notes and make them stand out. I use all capital letters but you may want to use bold letters. Also remember that this will, temporarily, throw off your word count.

What do you do to keep track of your story?

First Character, First Story

This is a first for me. I found inspiration for an article from a dream. Before you shake your head and conclude that I've gone crazy give me a moment to explain. Tell me, do you remember your very first character? I thought I did. I mean, I just finished my first novel not to long ago and before that was the short stories so it was easy to remember. Last night proved me wrong.

I woke up this morning thinking about writing. I'm sure many of you share this method of waking but this was a little different. I was wondering, when do we realize we could be writers? What is that first sign that the flame for prose dwells within our core? Shockingly, to me, the answer to those questions crashed into me like a wave last night.

Before I continue just know that I have no idea why this dream came to me but I don't think it has anything to do with what I ate. It did leave me with a smile and a thought. You see, way back in the years when I was young, before I started school, we lived in the country. When I say country that is what I mean, my neighbors were the goats, horses and other animals living on the farm next door. Fun and survival from boredom caused me to rely on my imagination most of the time while growing up there. This is when it happened.

My mom, after I complained about being bored and having nothing to do, would encourage me to use my imagination and play with my toys. I did just that, I pretended to be in school (trying to be like my older brothers) and even developed other school students. Everything was detailed and in my minds eye I could envision it clearly. The characters had depth, well, as much as a child can add anyway, while bad was bad and good was good.

If you didn't think I was crazy before you probably do now but do you see what happened? My pretend school was the scene and the pretend students were the characters. I remember taking it further and having a bully that I would defend the others against. Yep, I was the hero and the bully was the villain but I also had secondary characters as well. It turned out that just about every rainy day transformed into its own story as I fought against the bully to save the school.

Many may think this is silly but I look back on it now and smile as I see just how much an imagination can help us have fun and develop our minds into something more. Would I have this passion to write and the ability to develop stories if I did not exercise my imagination at a young age? I really don't know and I would not want to find out.

Imagination is so important to us, as writers. Where would we be without it? Funny how it is similar to when we were young, where would we be then without it? As an extension, writing allows us to be kids again. We may write about adult topics but we get to tap into that wonderful part of our brains and ask 'what if' or 'how about I do it this way.'

Will You Be Entertained?

I believe many of you have listened to an episode of Authors Articulating. The widget is located on the right hand side of the New Author below my Twitter updates. Tonight I invite all of you to listen in because I will be the guest for the show. If anything my southern accent will be entertaining (at least that's what I'm told).

The link to the show is at the bottom of this article. You can also log in and chat through the forum with everyone there. Should you miss the show it will be uploaded so you can listen in tomorrow or next week. What will be discussed tonight? I think we will touch on the New Author, Premium Promotional Services, the novels I am working on and the publishing world in general. I am looking forward to it and do hope you will join me tonight.

You thought I was going to forget to tell you what time didn't you? To be honest, I had to remind myself but that has been the story of my day. The show will start at 9:00 (EST). Hope to see you there.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/prempromotions

Closing the Week

This was a fun week here on the New Author. Before I begin, welcome to all the new followers. I'm honored that you have joined our community.

This week we had a book review, we looked at formatting, and I celebrated a birthday. I believe there was something else also...did I forget one? If so you can find them all listed on the right hand side under 'recent articles.'

Next week will be fun also as I have an interview scheduled for Wednesday. This time I will be getting interviewed not giving one so that will be a change. I believe I have another book to review and I'm lining up more articles I believe you will find interesting. More about all of this will be coming your way on Monday.

I do hope you have a good weekend, be safe out there and don't spend to much money on Christmas presents.

Before I close the week and start the weekend here is a little something to think about:
What is that one thing that gets you in the holiday spirit no matter what is happening around you?

Happy writing!

Oh the Formatting

I must confess to you, making the necessary changes to my first novel so it matches the format needed by the publisher is difficult. Yes, I'm still waiting for a response from them. I say, still, but in all actuality it hasn't been that long and I do need to be patient. With that said, however, I want the novel to be as close as possible to their format now so I'm not burning the midnight oil when they do request the full manuscript. That last sentence read rather cocky but it is meant to be confidence.

What went wrong? Why am I reworking the manuscript and more importantly what can we learn from this? I believe there are things we can do before we write the first word that will pay off in a major way down the road. First, write in an easy to read font such as Times New Roman. Next, and this is a little trickier, make sure your formatting is uniform throughout the entire manuscript. It is surprising how quickly that can change. I don't know about you but when I write a first draft it is usually double spaces so I have room to make notes and changes between the lines. This is just fine as long as we realize that most agents and publishers will want it single spaced. I am experimenting now with my second novel. I want to see if I can make my notes and edits while it is single spaced thereby deleting a future adjustment.

Margins can be a problem area as well. Agents and publishers will want something different for this setting but, in my opinion, they should not be less then one inch on all four sides. This should get us very close should an adjustment be needed and the manuscript will not look unbalanced. This is a great example of making sure the formatting is the same throughout the manuscript. If so then this is a relatively simple change to make in Microsoft Word.

I'm still working out how to simplify changing the tabs for a manuscript. Most of the time they are set to a half inch but there are those few times when we will be asked for more or less tab.

Have you ever been writing and finish up one chapter and start another about midway down the page? This can be fixed by inserting a page break. I know, this is all pretty straight forward but when we get writing these are steps we easily overlook. By inserting this page break we keep the chapter and title at the top of the following page.

Another tricky one is font size and boldness. I'm not sure there is a way to anticipate this but if we keep the chapters and the title of the manuscript apart from the text, with a few spaces in between, then we should be able to change these quickly as well.

I need to insert scene breaks and that should be fun.

If we think about these things before we write and prepare for them then we should have a smooth transition from working version to submittal ready. The main thing I learned through this experience is to plan a little before jumping in and running full speed.

I have a long way yet to travel down this road of writing but I'm getting there one step at a time.

In Reflection

Many of you may now from Tweeter that today is my birthday. I enjoy reflecting on the past twelve months before making goals for the coming year. Today, while working, I did just that. However, this article is not about what has been or what will be but instead, what is.

My 33rd year has been great and I have many to thank for that. The blessings have been overflowing. I can only shake my head when thinking about all the things that have come and gone in twelve months. I am amazed, proud and thankful for everything. I can only hope that my 34th year is as good.

It is my birthday but I want to send a big thank you out to all of you. It has been a joy sharing thoughts, ideas and information with everyone this year. I continue to learn and grow through your comments and e-mails. We really do have a community full of people willing to lend a hand and offer support here. I would not have it any other way.

Thank you very much for walking with me down the road of a writer's life. I look forward to our travels in the months ahead.

Career Vs Calling - A Review

Title: Final Approach - Career vs Calling
Author: Franklin Shelton Jr.
ISBN: 978-0-578-03939-8
Genre: Religious/Inspirational
Pages: 115
Reviewed By: Brian Knight
Official Premium Promotional Services Rating:



Which way to go when at the crossroads of career versus calling?

Christian Frank has led a life blessed from above but now he finds his life at a crossroads. For many this situation may ring true — which way do you go? Frank’s inspirational tale may help with that decision.

“Final Approach - Career vs Calling” illustrates the conflict endured in adult life as we struggle with our decision to work that career job or follow our destiny by listening to the calling. The story of Christian Frank addresses the need to sustain life here and the desire to do that which the Lord has called us to do. After reading “Final Approach - Career vs Calling” the reader will feel inspired to lean on their faith in order to make that all important decision.

Christian Frank is a man with a mission. At an early age he discovered his talent to reach people and help them through conversation. As Frank grew he developed goals for his life but always held true to his Christian values. From the steps of the U.S. Capital building to a stage in Alabama we see the influence on his life and the impact he has on others. His mission is simple, share the good news of Christ and motivate others to walk with the Lord. As proud and productive as he is on this mission he cannot help but ponder the offer of a new job with benefits and high pay. Now Christian Frank must decide – should he follow his calling or take the stable, easy way out?

In essence, you get a bird’s eye view of Christian Frank’s life in “Final Approach - Career vs Calling.” From this vantage point you can see what drives him to do what he does and the reasoning for the decisions made. Through this account you can draw inspiration and motivation to utilize in your life.

Mentally, physically, and emotionally, the reader will have a different perspective when facing life changing decisions. They will be prepared to answer the age old question: why am I here? What is the reason for my existence?

“Final Approach Career vs Calling” is meant for those who find themselves struggling to make those life changing decisions. Career or calling, which will you choose?

To learn more about this author and the book you can by clicking the title of this post or by following these links:
Frank Shelton.com
Amazon.com

Friday Wrap Up

High fives for everyone. We made it to another weekend! Did you know that, not counting this weekend, there are three weekends remaining for the year? Is it just me or did time pick up speed some where? What do we have coming up in the final weeks of the year here at the New Author? I just might have a few things of interest planned. Like what?

I just might have another contest. That's right, I had one over the Thanksgiving holiday and the lucky winner got a gift card from Amazon. I'm thinking about running another one but you'll have to stay tuned for the details on that one. Also, I've read a few books recently that I will be reviewing and I'm working on something special for Christmas. Did I forget anything? Let me think....oh, yea, I might have a birthday next week but since I'm getting old I need to make sure.

Who knows, I might post some other fun Christmas stuff to bring in some holiday cheer. I don't know about you but I think we could use some this year.

Did you miss any of the articles this week? Look over to the right and you will see a list of the five most recent articles. I invite you to read them and let me know what you think.

The weekend is upon us. It has been sometime since the last time I did this but I enjoyed it so I'm bringing it back. That would be the weekend thought and here it is - what do you enjoy most about the weeks leading up to Christmas?

Have a safe weekend and happy writing.

To Master a Different Game

I love strategy games. It doesn't matter if it is with a game center like Playstation, on the computer, or the old fashion board games. If I start a game that makes me think out what I plan to do in advance then I'm having fun. It is such a thrill to match wits with someone or even a computer. How many of you are as amazed as I am when master Chess players admit that they see the Chess board ten moves in advance? That is astounding!

It has been a long time since I've played a game of strategy...or has it? I mean, I just finished a light hearted game of Chess with Rebecca Woodhead, that was enjoyable but before that it had been years since I studied the board. No, life presents us with many opportunities to use strategy. It could be as simple as plotting out lunch, running errands, sending twits and getting back to work in an hour's time to something complex like planning a surprise anniversary party for your wife or husband. We use strategy everyday and may not even now it.

I find that strategy plays a large part in writing. Oh, don't get me wrong, characters can go wild in our stories but there is still a sense of strategy while we write. That is, to a certain degree, the idea behind the plot of the story. We want our characters to get from point 'A' to point 'B' but along the way they run into trouble, hardships, and a villain set to thwart them at every turn. This is similar to a game of Chess. The board is our setting, our goal is to travel by predetermined motions across that board and capture the king before our king is. The villain to this story is our opponent as they cut off our advances, eliminate some of our pieces and make things difficult for us.

Writing, in my opinion, is like a game of Chess or any other game of strategy on steroids. Why is that? When we start a project we, as the writers, are both hero and villain. They reside within us waiting to come out. They battle each other in our minds. The page, or screen, is our board and we use it to set up confrontations between our battling characters. Even as our characters go off in a different direction we are still thinking how to work that into the story so everyone ends up where we want them or this particular thing happens. That is strategy - that is seeing the story in advance. This is way so many authors outline their stories before they write. By developing this outline the strategy of getting to certain points becomes a little clearer.

I would be willing to bet that long time authors like Stephen King know their stories so well they can see where their characters will be half way through the novel when they start writing. Will the characters end up in that situation or in that place? Maybe not but I bet it is very close. As much as it is a thrill to see where a character is going or how they are developing could you imagine seeing where they will be first? This will only be eclipsed by getting to that point in the book and seeing how very close the characters are to matching our strategy. It might just be me but the thought of that gets me fired up.

Wait a minute now, that would make writing boring. The thrill is the journey right? Yes, the thrill is the journey...for the reader. I believe the thrill for a writer is seeing their fully developed story on paper just as they planned it. Of course there are those surprise characters that pop up or die off but at the end of the day these characters are absorbed into the overall plan of the story. The best thing about this is it will come to us as we write. The more we write and think about our stories the better we will become at seeing four, five, six chapters ahead. When that happens we will be a master of a different game of Chess.

Writing is a great game of strategy. We should have fun with it as we learn and grow.

The Month of Gain

As the saying goes "when one door closes another one opens;" so to as we walk out of November and into December. What lessons did we bring with us? What did November have for us as a parting gift?

Of all the months in the year I believe November stands out as the month of gain. We gain insight as to what our families want for Christmas and many of us gain a little more around the waist during one particular meal. We gain in other areas too. Some gain additional knowledge about the coming year with their employer, some gain that much needed time off from work to unwind and some gain that needed look into the soul that dwells in us.

I never realized this until I acknowledged my desire to write and become an author. Why is that? What is so special about November for writers? In my opinion the weather change and the time change has a big part in it. Leading up to November we are still outside or preoccupied with other priorities in life but when we see it getting dark at six o'clock and the weather drops into the thirties or forties our muse wakes up. Is there any wonder why Nano is held in November? This is the month that uncorks that dam in our minds holding back the flood of ideas.

I am especially thankful for November. It is actually amazing when thought about but my second novel was giving me fits. I would spend hours writing but I was getting no where but as I felt the flow picking up momentum and speed I became simply too exhausted to write. About midway through November that changed. It was a progression, my writing got fire sooner and sooner with each session. Now it is full speed ahead and the story picks up immediately where it stopped.

Many will also gain a verifying knowledge of where their boundaries are when it comes to their writing. Again I go back to the Nano competition but it teaches so much during the course of the month. Some will learn that they thoroughly enjoy it and accomplish the goal but some learn they cannot finish, not because they can't write but because of the pressures that come with the competition and the rules applied to it. Some will learn a mixture of the two but all will leave with the prize of knowledge gained.

We write all the time throughout the year but November ushers in a special time for writers. It is almost like discovering our muse all over again. Okay, maybe not to that extreme but you can agree that the month bringing the cold weather and early darkness also delivers the excitement of a new story idea or a fresh jolt to a current project.

To gain in our abilities in anyway is a powerful gift. What did you gain in November?