Happy Thursday One And All, An interesting question came up in an interview I was reading earlier today ( interview was debuting author, Robin Badillo ). It was: "When did you first consider yourself a writer?" The terms author and writer can mean different things to people, depending on who you are. For me, author and writer are generally the same thing. An author usually writes in some way (whether it's through words, pictures or music) and a writer writes things. So if published and aspiring writers/authors are writing with words (or pictures/music) when do you consider yourself one? I think when I got serious about writing is when I started considering myself a writer/author. I mean, I played around with it for years. Everything from lyrics to poetry to essays, then finally, as I got into high school and adulthood, novels. I had story ideas even before high school, but I didn't get serious about it until I got older. But truly considering myself a ...

Happy Wednesday All, I wanted to post earlier, but for some reason the site was acting crazy, but it's mostly behaving right now. So, I can finally put something up. New Releases: Last night I picked up my copy of Kerrelyn Sparks' new book, Eat Prey Love, which is Carlos's story from Sparks' Love At Stake series. Looks good, by the way. Coming up: October 1st:  Robin Badillo makes her debut with  Journey Of The Damned: Retribution. October also means Laura Childs' new book from her Scrapbooking Series, Fiber & Brimstone will be available. Notes on Query Letters: A couple of days ago Scott Eagan talked about query letters and what he has to say about them. On a similar note today,  BookEnds, LLC talks about what their rejection letters look like. On September 26th, Query Shark had a winning query letter posted. Other News & Fun Things: Another thing happening in October is something I've been talking about:  NWHRWA's Lon...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, I'm delighted to introduce to you, Shanna Swendson , author of the Enchanted, Inc. series . (the ones I was reading that one time and recommended to everyone?) Shanna was kind enough to agree to do an email interview with me and I'm happy to make her my September author interview. So, without further delay, I give you Shanna Swendson... Me: Every author has a story about how they got with their publisher, so, how did you end up with Ballantine Books as your publisher? Shanna: There's no real story to it. They happened to be the ones who bought the book. My agent submitted it to a number of publishers. Most rejected it. One publisher said they planned to make an offer, which triggered an auction. Then that publisher couldn't bid because the executive who needed to sign off on it wasn't available, and Ballantine ended up being the publisher to make an offer. What's funny is that at least one editor who rejected it later conta...

Happy Monday, In every email interview I've done with a published author there's one question I always ask:  What piece of advice do you find helpful? (or most helpful).   With every interview, there's been different answers, but I think in a lot of ways it boils down to:  don't give up.   Now that doesn't mean authors never get nervous about putting their name out there. It doesn't mean they never fear it won't work. What it means is that they've stopped letting the fear get in the way.   So...what makes  you keep goinging for it?   One way you can "go for it" is in 2 weeks and 5 days the NWHRWA Lone Star Conference will happen (October 16, 2010). I don't know how much room they have, but you won't know if you don't "go for it".  Please click here and check it out.   Have A Merry Monday!

Hi Everyone, I've been reading and editing, and some other things, which is why I haven't been doing a lot of blogging. But I hope to get back to regular blogs, soon. (Possibly next week). I still have to finish this round of edits--but I'm getting closer--less than 100 pages left. I got some comments back from a "beta" reader and played around with those edits; so I'll have to wait for the next several pages from her. Which, depending on the comments from her, could mean some more edits, but at least it's getting polished up and things that I didn't catch in my editing are being caught. I'm trying to make Surreal as polished as I can. So, still moving forward. I'm also gearing up for the Conference ! 3 Weeks until the day of the Conference (October 16, 2010). Have A Wonderful Weekend!

Happy Tuesday All, My business cards with the name "Bethany Averie" on them just came in yesterday (the first box, that is). It feels surreal (to borrow from the title of the manuscript I'm polishing for querying) to have them. "Averie" is a pseudonym for me since I'm trying to keep my personal/private life personal and private and my writing life separate for a variety of reasons. Also, I'm sending information off to my webmaster so that he can start looking around so I can buy my domain name and get that going. He's someone I know and good with the web mastering and easy to work with--very knowledgeable, too. So, he's gonna help me with that part.  Anyway, there's exciting things happening on my end, so check back to see what's next :-) What's going on with you? Have A Terrific Tuesday!

Happy Friday Everyone, If you have NOT signed up for the NWHRWA Lone Star Conference, you need to hurry and do so! Why? Because... Randy Ingranmanson of the Snow Flake method is going to be there. (He's the keynote speaker). http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/ Christine Witthohn (Luncheon Speaker) of Book Cents Literary Agency is going to be there. http://www.bookcentsliteraryagency.com/ Naomi Hackenberg of Elaine P. English, PLLC is going to be there. http://www.elaineenglish.com/ Amy Boggs of Donald Maass Literary Agency is going to be there. http://www.maassagency.com/ I was told Katy Budget Books was going to be there.   http://www.katybooks.com/ Several writers both published and unpublished just like you are going to be there. So, don't wait another second...get over to the NWHRWA's website and register now:  http://www.nwhrwa.com/conference.htm There's only 4 weeks and 1 day left until October 16, 2010 when the Conference is happenin...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Here's the scoop: Progress is being made on the "polishing" of Surreal. Ideas are popping up like daisies for this other story I'm working on, which, will cover a being completely different than that of Surreal or Conjure A Man . CAM's been on hold while I've been prepping Surreal .  This other story came to me and I had to get it out and we'll see where it takes me. The mermaid story is still being fleshed out. There's some details that aren't quite coming to me, yet. I've ordered my business cards and I am hoping to get them before the Conference (info on the Conference can be found below). Life got a bit chaotic when my son got sick, so I had to play "catch up" for a bit. A few notes on some release dates: Debut author (and someone I know), Robin Badillo, has her first book (I believe an e-book title) coming out next month. Check out Retribution here.   Looks good :-) I'm totally into Rick ...

Happy Monday Everyone, Recently a found out my son's God-brother (who is in his late teens) is looking into the writing world. He says he has several ideas and he told me one of them, asking if I'd have a look at it. He's got quite an imagination and I'm interested to see where it'll take him. The conversation has me pulling together some materials to give to him to help him research the craft of writing and understand the business better. So now, I'm turning the question over to you...what would you include in resources for writing and publishing to someone? Have A Marvelous Monday!

Hi Everyone, Yes, I know it's the weekend; and I don't normally post on the weekends, but I'm here to remind you to sign up for the NWHRWA's Lone Star Conference happening in 1 month and 5 days! Click here to sign up! Have A Wonderful Weekend!

Happy Tuesday All, Well, I finally finished this round of edits. Now I plan to buff and polish my manuscript in hopes that it'll "shine" for the agent querying process. It was weird getting to the end of the manuscript and realize I had finished that round. I sat there thinking "Really? This is the last page?" I didn't believe it at first. Then the relief fell through me and I thought, "Yay!" I hope this will be ready by the Lone Star Contest, but I don't know. I just know I'm working on it and my goal is to have it ready by the conference date. If I don't, then I'll just finish it as early as possible. My son is finally doing better and I'm starting to feel better, myself, so it's easier to concentrate. So, what's everyone else working on? Have A Tremendous Tuesday!

Happy Monday All (Happy Labor Day), Fall and winter are my favorite seasons. If you live in places where it gets past 90 degrees in the summer, you understand. I live in Texas, and it gets hot, hot, hot in the summer (plus you know, there's the humidity factor). So, on Saturday evening when my husband, son, and I headed toward the entrance/exit of the mall near us and a breeze kicked up and I could smell the way the air smells in the Fall, you won't blame me if I got excited. Seriously, it really did smell like Fall. There was that leafy, woodsy, cooler weather scent that always gives me a thrill. Plus there was a cool breeze ! Not something you normally get in Texas in the summer. Then I went to Bath & Body Works to get some more hand soap and my favorite body wash. After getting the body wash I went to the back of the store to where they had their hand soaps...and lo and behold, they had out their fall scents! There they were...lined up just waiting to b...

Happy Friday Everyone, Well, this weekend is Labor Day Weekend. My husband is taking today off, rather than Monday. He still gets a long weekend, just in a different way. But you know, I often wonder why Labor Day is called Labor Day when it's an off day. Should we call it Labor-Less Day? I don't really know the history of how or why we got this Holiday, but I'm glad we do, because it's nice to have my husband home. (Hmmm, do I smell a reason for research here? I'll have to look it up and if anyone has any cool tidbits to add, let me know!) So, if you could name a Holiday where people had off (and/or there were big sales) what would you call it? Have A Flawless Friday!

Happy Thursday All, You  might have noticed the lack of posting on my blog this week. I've had an unexpected occurrence happen...my son got sick. Monday morning he was not doing well. He threw up in the doctor's office, found out he had an ear infection and went home. Tuesday and Wednesday he developed a cough and then Wednesday night he woke about 3 times sounding bad. So, back to the doctor's office we went (today). Found out he's fighting croup. He should be better soon and the doc said we were doing what we could do. Of course, all this going on means I'm walking around with my brain barely functioning. I've been reading--which has helped keep the imagination alive to keep those creative juices flowing for editing and writing. I think today or tomorrow I might actually (drawing on my faith here, praying that nothing else happens) get to seriously focus, rather then sitting there staring at the computer screen thinking "Why am I at the computer...