In February, my article, Six Lenten Pitfalls, was featured in St. Anthony Messenger magazine. (If you missed it, it can be found on the St. Anthony Messenger blog at www.FranciscanMedia.org) This was followed by a mention in the back cover column by editor John Feister in April. In the column Feister wrote about the attention to […]
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The main criticism I’ve heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is that it encourages quantity over quality in writing. Writers are spurred on to spew out words as quickly as possible without regard for the value behind the words. And then, thanks to the ease of self-publishing, there is a glut of poorly written […]
Read MoreI’m looking for some very special people–beta readers. These are people who, out of the kindness of their heart and their love of reading, will read a manuscript in process without pay and give you feedback. They are an essential part of the writing process. There comes a point with any large writing process where […]
Read More“I spent the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon removing it.” Gustave Flaubert Or in my case, I spent the morning peering at my back cover and deciding to change one word in a quote from my book. I sent this request to my cover designer in the morning, then looked again at […]
Read MoreCheck out my recent guest post on Reality Check, SheWrites.com: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/reality-check-what-if-your-whole-book-is-a-darling-by-patricia Maybe you can relate. If so, I would love to hear from you. And for those following my posts on my Summer Work in Progress – Yes, this is the same book.
Read MoreFamilies throughout the country are preparing for back to school. Continuing with my birthing a book and raising it to adulthood theme, I’m now preparing my book for school. One of the first things you do when you have a baby is name it. I had a working title, My Father’s Desk, but I wasn’t […]
Read MoreI woke up last Friday thinking, “This is terrible. It doesn’t work. I should just pitch it and cut my losses.” But since I was so close to finishing the first draft, I figured I had to bear down and get it over with. I could throw it out later. So, I pushed through the […]
Read More(Picture from Flickr, Tatiana Vdb) Last week I dreamed I had this bulging belly. When I realized I wasn’t fat, just pregnant, I thought, good, now I can eat all of the Doritos I want! Now why I would chose Doritos as my food of choice, I don’t know. I’m much more of a chocolate […]
Read MoreWhen it comes to marketing, I sometimes feel like I’m doing things every which way but right! And when it comes to that all important book launch, I’ve got the market on doing it the wrong way. Marketing experts stress the importance of a well-planned book launch. It starts well before you have your finished […]
Read MoreOkay, I can hear it already. What was she thinking? Why would anyone make a cover using CreateSpace cover maker, and even worse, she used the same image used on the template. Anyone familiar with CreateSpace cover maker would recognize this as the journey theme. So why did I do this? I happen to like […]
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