Shoot Me Now

So I had to get head shots. Let me just say that the idea of head shots appeals to me about as much as a root canal, since most of the time I look at pictures of myself and wonder how long that puffer fish has been stealing from my closet. Seriously, ugh. But a book is coming out and I have to be serious about the writing and promo and although Mr. Man is wonderful and fabulous, it’s not...
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RWA National: So You’ve Written a Book – What’s Next?

In this session, authors Jennifer Blackwood, Brenda St. John Brown, Chanel Cleeton, Megan Erickson, AJ Pine, and Lia Riley discussed ways to increase and enhance their online profiles through social media.  I was taking notes as fast as I could, so I’ll just clean them up a bit. TWITTER Create a profile for author you, interact as author self. Streamline everything. Make banners, etc. that...
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RWA National: Finding Your Voice and Making It Yours

Friends and critique partners Jeannie Lin and Bria Quinlan led this session on identifying the elements of your writer voice and how to develop it. True voice is unique to each writer; you know you’ve found your distinctive voice when people either love it or hate it. Consider the following non-romance authors John Grisham, Jon Krakauer, and Stephen King—there’s no way you would...
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RWA National: Putting the Real You into Your Author Brand

Kaira Rouda has spent most of her professional career in business, marketing, and advertising. The founder of the real estate magazine Real Living, she considers herself a woman entrepreneur, especially now that she’s a full-time writer. She has published four titles with Tule Publishing, with more in the pipeline. In this workshop, Kaira focused on the principles found in her...
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Feeling Like a 900-Year-Old Woman

As a good friend of mine says, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. In my case, that means I went from what I thought was really impressive heartburn (something totally normal for teacher types with too much to do and too little time to do it in) to an inflamed gall bladder. There’s nothing like “gall bladder surgery” to make you feel like a 900-year-old woman. Seriously,...
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