Of Ink and Quille

A bit of wisdom that I thought would be good to share with you is something I learned while working on my manuscripts. For every research page you use, for every detail that you pick out, keep a record. Sooner rather than later you're going to have binders full of research and notes. Keeping them organized is thekey. Now, I'd be the first to admit I'm what is known as a disaster organizational person. By that I mean, my office is a disaster area. It looks like a cyclone or volano exploded in it. Yet for each page, each pile, book, or scrap of paper I know what it is. I know what the use is for, and truthfully I'd like to reorganize it. I'd love to have that office you see in magazines. You know the one with the beautiful desk that's clean, and uncluttered, the filing cabinets, the bookshelves lined with books and everything so neat that you could see an earring back on the floor...this however is not about to happen. Why you ask? Well, my office is also the fami...

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back. As true an old saying as there is. Recently in my quest for more information for my second manuscript I emailed someone to ask for permission to print and use some of his valuable research in my work, both for the fiction and possible non-fiction aspect. You can well imagine my surprise when he not only agreed to let me use it, but said that when I was finished, and the book had come out to contact him and let him know so he could purchase a copy! It floored me. I've gotten permission many, many times before and have always had a warm and open business relationship with those who I've contacted. However, this time I was shocked not only about the permission, but about the interest in where his work was going. Usually the agreement is a quick yes or no with a request to be credited and they leave it at that. These are things that I would normally and naturally do out of respect for the author and researcher wh...

You're written a manuscript, spent hours researching on line, or in the library to be sure you have accurate information before you send it to the editor. Now that the book is finished, and sent away what can you do with all the information that you'e accumulated. Regardless of what genre you write in if you've done research you should always document it. Do up a list of books, contacts, internet links, etc because if there is a question then you can always go back and say I got this piece of information from this source. Still it would be nice to do something with the piles of notes and copy that you've managed to create to write a work of fiction. There is a huge market out there for extended essays that are complete nonfiction works. If you're willing to do the extra bit of polishing and work and have a good data system with the links, books etc why not put it all together and submit it? I know there are publishers out there who take nonfiction and want you to ha...

For many of us who write part time, time is the biggest enemy we have. Still others its grammar and sintext. After all if you're writing 9th century druids how do you stay within the sintax of the era without having been there. Research is the key. I spent more hours reading about Ireland and Viking history than I did doing anything else. It took me months to get the information I needed and even then not all of it was correct. There was contradictory information, vague half details, and enough road blocks that more than once I thought about switching time periods. I stuck with it and am happy with the end results. Of course beyond the syntax of the story there were other challenges. Challenges that I don't really understand because lets face it English is not the easiest language to speak or write. Now you're saying, yeah right. It is so. Nope, I've got friends all over the place that speak and writing in a variety of languages and more than once they've asked me a...

Happy belated Easter to everyone. Long weekends are typically for kicking back and doing nothing - except soaking up the sun. However, this weekend shall go down in the anal's of history for me because I got a reply from the publisher! Yes, you heard me. I wasn't expecting anything back until early April but there it was Saturday night when I opened my email. She read my partial with interest and wanted the full manuscript at my earliest convenience. My husband looked at me funny and said what's up so I told him...typically he didn't give much of a response but that's okay, everyone I promptly phone and told was jumping for joy with me. So much work was done on my manuscript and now its like yes, yes yes!!! I've got a final read over from my beta and then I'll shoot it off. Hopefully she'll email me back in a few weeks and say Here's a contract, sign it! Easter...its now become one of my favorite long weekends of all time - besides Christmas and my ...

This week, I've spoken about critique partners, my two honored guests have spoken their opinions about them and shared a lot of information. Its a difficult call to make. If you're working on deadlines that don't give you a lot of time to really depend upon someone else to catch an error then you've got to learn to do it yourself. A task I'll touch on another time. For some it's an easy task to critique and edit their own work. We could do it in our sleep. Yet, for others its a massive undertaking that at times can suck the very life out of us. I know, I'm one of those people that doesn't see the things other people see. I look for them, I read and reread, but I don't find them. That's one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of critique and beta partners. The ones I have I've looked long and hard for, and we work well together. All of us work at the same speed, we communicate openly and honestly and the biggest thing is that we don't fl...

Fellow author Jax Cassidy has a new release and she's promoting it! Drop her a line and enter to win a chance at a delightful prize. Details below! My book The Lotus Blossom Chronicles was released Monday, March 17th...St. Patty's Day... Win Sensual Escape gift box and an autographed book by emailing jaxcassidy@gmail.com and I will put you in my drawing.Winners will be announced April 1st!