Blog - Find a Good Book to Read

There is often more to a short story than meets the eye. For readers, a short story is a brief vacation from reality. For authors, it is so much more. A short story is a vehicle for introducing your writing to new readers, readers who might not commit to an entire novel but would certainly give a short story a chance. With so many books out there vying for attention, readers have more choice than ever before. Digital books, self-publishing, and expanded venues are all factors that combine t...

Tell us something about your novel.

Lily Steps Out is a middle-age coming-of-age about a woman who is sick of making beds and cooking meals and decides to “step out” of the comfortable life she knows and goes out and gets a job. 

Is the novel autobiographical?

        There is that one nugget of truth in the novel, in that before I became an author I was a wife and mother. But unlike Lily, who waits till she’s fifty five to make that life-altering change, I stepped out of that rol...

A guest post by Claude Nougat

Never heard of Boomer lit? It all began at the end of last year. On 5 December 2012, Boomer Café published an article predicting that Boomer Lit would be The Next Big Genre aimed at boomers – all 77.5 million of them in the US alone, many more if you counted in the rest of the world. The article was picked up by major, highly trafficked websites like The Passive Voice and Gawker Media, and within a week, it went viral. Sure, some people were unhappy at the...

-A guest post by Ken Myers

Teaching an online writing course has its benefits but the one thing that instructors often run into is their ability to make time to really sit down and work on the course. Other courses and life seem to get in the way, so here are some tips to help you make the time:

Prepare: Before you sit down to log onto your online course make sure that you are prepared mentally and that you have all the right tools to complete your tasks as the instructor. Chances are...

A while back, I saw an author of adult fiction tweeting about how hard it was for her to go from writing for adults to young adults. I thought back to when I had written Messages from Henry, a novella for young adults.  That story began as a 1500 word short story for a short story contest. I didn’t win, but I decided to expand the story anyway.  It’s a story about a homing pigeon, Henry. He has special abilities.

At that time, I didn’t have internet service in my home. I would take ...

What was it that turned me and made me decide to give writing a try? Let me see if I can get this story started.

In the beginning…no...wait, that has already been done, start over.

Once upon a time…no, no, that is just crazy, what are you trying to do?

There once was a …*sigh* this is not working. Just try again.

*tapping chin with fingertip* Oh, okay, I think I have it.

Hey, welcome, come meet the voices in my head.  Yep that about sums it up.

I have always been hooked on...

We hadn’t originally planned to do a sequel to our novel, Zeke. However, the response we received from a number of readers indicated that a sequel was in order. And we, too, wondered how Sue would recover from the damage Zeke inflicted upon her, both physically and emotionally. So, we set to work writing the aftermath of her ordeal with Zeke. It was a good experience for us. When writing Zeke, we disliked his character so much, we often procrastinated working on the book. We did not have ...

1: Why did you join the social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook?

Rebecca: I obtained my very first computer two and a half years ago because I had handwritten a novel. I knew I needed help with it, but didn’t know where to turn. I knew how to work a computer a little bit at the time, but it’s been a struggle. I pestered many authors on Twitter and Facebook for help. I feel bad about this, but I love to read and figured if I read enough of their books, wrote reviews, and tweeted a...