Newsletter 027 – November 25th, 2022 Hi, About the image above: I’m already breaking my idea of using a simple newsletter header by showing you the image above. This is a picture of the original cover of my first published novel, The Jagged Man. At the end of this email I have a sample of …
Newsletter 026 – November 11th, 2022 Hi, Word Combinations: Actress Rosamund Pike, on the Graham Norton Show, wondered why “You can be underwhelmed, you can be overwhelmed, but you’re never just whelmed.” Writers constantly play with words. Some of the words they discussed on that British show, mostly in a funny sketch by stand-up comic …
Newsletter 025 – October 28th, 2022 Hi, About the image above: I’m going to start using it for the newsletter header. It occurred to me while I was writing the last few newsletters that I was spending more time rooting through old images from my travels than I was writing the newsletter (in order to …
It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo 2022, and I haven’t done much advance preparation for it. I do intend to participate in it this year, as I have every year since 2002. I’ll have to seriously consider being a pantser this year (see Newsletter # 23). It also occurred to me that I haven’t given NaNoWriMo …
In the previous post, I rambled on a bit about what types of music I generally listen to (when I can). This post (another ramble) is specifically about the music I do listen to as an aid to my writing, and under what circumstances. So, in full disclosure, I don’t listen to music very often …
Recently I was asked to interview for a member profile for a group I belong to, The Gutsy Great Novelist. Here’s a copy of it. Let’s begin with your origin story. When did you first realize you wanted to write a novel? Was there a particular person or experience that inspired you I think I’ve …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] For the past several years I’ve submitted queries (although not nearly often enough), and pitched my novels at conferences, with no success. Okay, I lied at least a couple of times in that first sentence. In 2002, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] A couple of weeks ago, a question was asked at the [now defunct] Fiction Writers and Editors Group at LinkedIn. It was simply, “What are you working on?” After I had responded, along with a hundred or so other writers, it occurred to me that …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] As a former actor, I understand the trials of marketing oneself (and accept them, begrudgingly). Many of the things we do in life are contests of a sort. Job interviews are a competition against others to see who will win the prize of being hired. …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] Yes, I know. I’m crazy. The idea of the 3-Day Novel Contest is to start writing at midnight when the Labor Day weekend begins (five days from now), and finish and upload your novel for judging before midnight on September 3rd. It’s like writing a …