Quiet Keystrokes and Midnight Ramblings

"Home is where the heart is. Or maybe the pizza." One of my very good friends, author S.E. Anderson , has just released the cover image for book five in her Starstruck series !  Book five, Starbound, is set to launch later this year. I'm so excited to get back to these characters again. If you haven't read this series yet, you're missing out on some hilarious Sci-Fi adventures. Sally and her friends jump around the universe, foiling would-be crimes, (accidentally) reigning supreme over alien races, and guest-starring on intergalactic television. Make sure you get caught up on this series before Starbound hits the bookshelf! You can check out the blurb from the book below, and remember to get the rest of the books in the series over on Amazon. Home is where the heart is. Or maybe the pizza. There’s no better feeling than being back home after a long week exploring the galaxy, though being abandoned by one’s friends and left to fend off...

I am in the midst of writing a biography to sit alongside a project I am working on.  This is probably the fifth biography I've written because no matter what I come up with, the next time I take a look at it I feel like it's so "blah".  For some reason, I just can't fit enough honest razzle dazzle into a paragraph or two about myself to make me feel like I'm the kind of person I'd like to know. (If that sentence doesn't make any sense to you, don't worry.  It doesn't make much sense to me either.) Whenever I do get the urge to sit down and rewrite the biography blurb, in addition to feeling like it lacks the pizzazz of my wit and charm, I also tend to be a little less than honest about some things.  For example, the biography has never said anything like, "Denise is a workaholic author, business owner, office manager, caregiver and paintball enthusiast who often spends the wee hours of the morning mentally drafting new policies, procedu...

Although in the past I have helped to raise funds for grade-school kids, scouts and church groups, I think this is the first time I've ever attempted to do a fundraiser for myself.  It's been an interesting journey so far, and I hope my heart and colon can make it to the end of the Age / Sex / Location kickstarter project intact. I like to be in control of things in my life, and this project has certainly given me a life-lesson that life cannot always be organized and predictable.  There is always going to be uncertainty, anxiety, hope, elation, disappointment and suspense... it's what keeps the whole thing interesting. So, I'm doing my best to promote without groveling; trying to convince others that I believe solidly in the novel without revealing that I don't really  know what I'm doing.  There is a first for everything, and this novel is one of my firsts.  I am hopeful that the next month yields the funds I need to move forward with printing, ...

One of the greatest things about writing about small businesses, doing reviews for products and services and doing human interest pieces in general is the unique way that these bits of writing are promoted from both ends of the spectrum. Most writers do some type of self-promotion, whether it's posting links to articles on Facebook and Twitter or lobbying for their articles to show up on the front pages of magazines and e-news bulletins, but there is rarely any other promotion that really goes on unless someone else with a big reader base finds interest in it and pushes it out to their group. With reviews, human interest and "promotional" pieces though, you get double the promoting power.  Small businesses and individuals are excited to see their name in print, and it is rare that you will run across a business owner or local celebrity who isn't proud to share their piece with their distribution network.  The "Look at Me!" promotional tactic is good for ...