#WriterWednesday 16-12-20; Being Featured + Writerly Links

Sally Cronin has been featuring other authors in her Cafe And Bookstore on her blog again, where she's been doing a Christmas book fair to recommend some books you might like to pick up as Christmas presents.  I was featured in one of her posts, which can be found here in case you want to check that out.  In fact, you might want to check out all her Cafe And Bookstore Christmas Book Fair posts, especially if you still need to pick up a present for a book lover who's on your Christmas list. 

     

Lilie and I were also featured in Sally's 2020 Christmas party - which was a virtual pet Christmas party.  That was this past weekend, and you can see the post we feature in for that by going here. 

      

*~* 

     

In other news: I found my computer to modem cable in time to get a decent chunk of computer time, and I've gathered some posts and articles for you - which I hope you'll find interesting - from among the stack of ones that have arrived in my inbox since the last time I did a writer Wednesday post that contained links.  So, let's see what I've got to share with you today, shall we? 

    

The writing process, and writing life in general:

7 tips to being the author you were meant to be 

How to restart stalled creativity the easy way 

How to cultivate writing inspiration 

NaNoWriMo:

I finished NaNoWriMo: now what? 

Characters:

7 tips for creating awesome characters 

5 dos and don'ts of a good sidekick 

Five things your characters need 

Random writing tips:

Is weather important to stories? 

Leftovers anyone? 

Three literary elements: subject 

The challenge of persuasive speech 

Crossing genres: fantasy and romance 

Crossing genres: fantasy and horror

Story tropes: to avoid or not to avoid? 

Plants and payoffs 

Editing:

What's in an edit? 

Clear out the clutter around your verbs 

Publishing:

How long should your novel be? 

How to publish with KDP, part 20: How to create your Amazon Author page and using Author Central 

The business side of writing:

Writing, editing, formatting, and promotional services 

#Quotes About Creativity, The Arts, And #Writing

“Every one of us is chosen to be a creator by virtue of being human. If you’re not convinced of this, just step into any preschool and observe the unbridled creative energy of kids as they immerse themselves in fingerpainting, telling wild stories, banging on drums, and dancing just to dance. They’re creative types because they breathe.”

~Grant Faulkner

 

***~~~***

 

“The creative adult is the child who has survived.”

~Ursula K.         Le Guin

  

***~~~***

 

"Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it, that is your punishment, but if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, writer – I am a person who does things. I write, I act, and I never know what I am going to do next. Think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun."

~Stephen Fry'

  

***~~~***

 

“Get the writing done first, then be the person I want to be in other ways after that.”
~John Edgar Wideman

  

***~~~***

 

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”
~Ann Patchett

 

Artemis The #Tortoise In #Space + Artemis Turns 1 + Random Artemis #Photos

 Hi everyone.  This is Artemis the tortoise.

       

 

    

 

Those three photos are just random ones of me trying to warm up below the heat lamp one morning a couple of weeks ago.  They were trying to get a shot of a thing I do where I stretch my front end up towards the lamp, but I wouldn't do it when they pointed the flashy thing at me, so they just got me in the corner there hanging out under the lamp.  But I figured you might want to see them anyhow, so there you go.

 

Here are three more photos of me, which were taken a couple of days ago while I was supervising Mummy's computer use from on top of her speaker, where I climbed after using her arm as a ladder when I was playing on her desk while she sorted some eMails:

 

      

More importantly though...

 

I had my very first hatchday on Sunday, as Mummy told you in this post.

  

I have decided I like hatchdays, because they appear to involve extra big helpings of fruit (in this case raspberries, as you'll know if you read Mummy's post and check out the photos and video in it). which is really yummy! I love fruit!

  

Mummy is normally terrible for not giving me much fruit, but I got a big helping on Sunday.  So much I had to sleep a lot of the rest of the day to digest it.  Ah, it was a great hatchday! I hope they're all like that.

 

In other news:

     

Remember those colouring books featuring me that Mummy and I both posted about a couple of months ago? If not, you might want to check out this post (it's the one Mummy did).  Either way, the people at Praise My Pet also did a special pet portrait for me in any theme Mummy wanted (well, she had to pick from a theme list, but still).  Anyway, she picked space, so here I am posing beside the portrait after it arrived:

     

     

Thought you'd like to see it.  Now, I'm off on a space adventure!

     

 Artemis the tortoise astronaut

#WriterWednesday: #Pet Themed #Book News + A #Sale Reminder + Writerly #Quotes And Links - #AmWriting 15-07-20

It's been an eventful couple of weeks in many ways, and I've got plenty of book news to share with you today.

 

The "Magnificent Pets" colouring books featuring my Hermann's Tortoise, Artemis, are - as you'll know if you saw my post about it on July 1st - now available to purchase, regardless of whether you want to buy the children's edition, the mandala version for adults, or both.

 

Also, the paperback version of my new release, "Snowlilie's Brother" - the story about Lilie the Westie and Logan the Cavapoo, based on events surrounding Logan joining our family last year - is now available too, as you'll know if you saw my post about it from June 24th.  Plus, I've chosen a narrator for the audio version, so my chosen narrator, Claire Golden Drake,is currently working on producing the audio version.  In fact, she's had the contract long enough, and is doing such a great job, that it won't be much longer before it becomes available too.

 

But that's not all!

 

It's July, which means the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale is now on, and my books are enrolled at various levels of discount, from 50% off to 100% off.  So either pop over to my Smashwords author page and grab yourself copies of my books - yes, I have included "Snowlilie's Brother" in the sale - at discounted prices, or check out my post from July 8th for full details.

 

“There's nothing more mine than my writing.”

~Fran Lebowitz

 

~

 

OK.  That's enough to be getting on with for now as regards my own writing, so let's take a look at what I've gathered over the past couple of weeks to share with you this time around, in hopes some of the links I have for you today will help with your own writing.  I have several, so make  yourself comfortable.

 

The writing process, and writing life in general:

Why you haven't been feeling inspired to write lately (and why that's okay)

The 10 habits you must develop before you can finish writing a book

The art of authoring

Trying to be everything

Why you need to start a self care routine

10 signs you are ready to start writing your book

Read what inspires you to write

Start writing a story that wakes you up

The stories that call your name

How to prioritize your writing ideas

10 reasons to write even when it feels like no one's listening

10 essential mantras to get you through a difficult writing session

Why writers must make mistakes

Top 5 mistakes new authors make and how to avoid them

Your writing will never make every reader happy

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.”

~Junot Diaz

 

Characters:

Shy characters don't have to be passive

4 tips for creating the right impression of our characters

7 tips to writing underdog heroes

 

Random writing tips:

Turmoil

This happened... And then this happened: the dangers of anecdotal writing

7 tips to using curses in fiction

Psychological curses.  Are they there or not?

7 tips to writing underwater adventures

Using ships in fiction

 

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”

~Bruce Lee

 

Poetry writing:

Poetry writing exercises: using connotation to find the perfect word

 

"To write you have to have stories you want to tell, you have to keep your mind alive, and work hard."
~Tracy Kidder
 

Using photographs in blogging and publishing:

Books, blogs, and photographs

 

"You never need to say you're an aspiring artist. You're not aspiring.  You're creating right now.”

~Stephen Chbosky

 

Publishing:

Pen names: the good, the bad, the ugly

How to publish with KDP, part 11: previewing your eBook

Smashwords: post-pandemic publishing for indie authors

 

"A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world."

~Susan Sontag

 

Marketing:

A deeper look at reader guides

Cultivate your audience with this tip