Monday, March 16, 2015

Does wounded love deserve Another Chance?


How many of you have ever been in love and it ended and left you heartbroken and you thought you couldn't feel any worse? You thought  the pain would never go away. 

Love is a tricky thing. You give your love to someone, they take and they take and the next thing you know, they crush it like a bug and you are left trying to pick up the pieces of your broken heart and working desperately to get back to your "old" self. And wondering how to find happiness again. Sound familiar? But, it doesn't have to be like that.  

In Another Chance find out what happens when a broken heart, "empty-nest" syndrome and an airplane crash collide, literally.

TWITTER

I started a twitter account last week. During my continual research of all things on how to reach people through social media. I was a little apprehensive of jumping in to tweet something. Its like when you are merging onto the highway with all of these cars coming at once, the internet super highway, if you will. My first tweet was an introduction of my brand and I got to use # (hashtag). The next tweet was about my tagline "Does wounded love deserve #AnotherChance" and the beginning of my synopsis. I just did another tweet this morning, just to get in the habit of tweeting. This is very interesting to find out what is going on in the world. I look to see what everyone else is tweeting about and to see if I can find someone else I know on twitter. They tell you to "follow" other people, businesses, etc. and they even suggest who to follow based on who you are following. I am up to 90 who I am following. I see where other people are following thousands, but I can't say that I can to all of that. I would, however like for thousands to follow me. You  can even find out about things on twitter before you do on the news. This twitter thing may not be that bad after all.

Its your turn, what do you think about Twitter?

Monday, March 9, 2015

Someone to Love You


This was the song I listened to when I was writing my book Another Chance.



My Inspiration





We started this 28 years ago. I knew that you were going to be my best friend and my inspiration. I think back when you were learning how to walk, you wanted to do it yourself, no one to teach you. I marveled at your persistence and your need to always do things yourself, on your own terms. I held your hand from daycare through college. You are now a talented artist and you encouraged me to finally become a writer. It has been my pleasure being your mother as you have given me the greatest joy in my life.  You are still my best friend and my inspiration. 


Friday, March 6, 2015

Traditional publish or Self-publish


Traditional publish or Self-publish

I have been researching the difference between going the traditional publishing route or sticking with self-publishing. I have the query letter and all, however during some of my research I have come to understand that I would have to give up my first born child in order to get any real response from a literary agent. I find that it will take upwards of one year to finally get my novels anywhere. Only then, you are given royalties, and I have been the route of getting only royalties as it is based on what I sold. I have learned that royalties aren't that great anyway and you have to wait to get paid quarterly. Seeing my name in big bold letters in some famous newspaper would be fantastic, however I do not think that I would want to give blood just for that purpose. The idea of jumping through hoops, (i.e., a perfect query letter) rattles my nerves. My editor told me that I have a wonderful letter put together though. I started to think about how many letters must I send out, ultimately receiving rejection letters, and still waiting for someone to finally tell me that I have a good book and they think that they can get it to one of the publishing houses.

With self-publishing I am in control of my destination. I can sell as many books as I can get out to my readers. I can even control what my book cover looks like, as my personal cover designer is my artist son, who got his bachelor's degree in art school, so why would I want to give up control of something so important as that, since the publishing houses control that aspect anyway. I realize that I have to do all of the leg work, but I feel that it would be more rewarding that I was able to put out this wonderful idea that I had on paper and then tell people what the story is about. Also, with self-publishing their is no pressure on how many books I write and having a deadline.

I think for right now I will stick to what I know best and try to get my voice heard my way. Maybe later on I may decide to change my mind.

Until next time.......

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A Farewell Letter to Teddy



     I have started my next book, a tribute to my late older brother. I have been remembering the great times we had when we were younger. He was six years older than me, but he always treated me as if I were his age. It has been a few months since his passing, but I still can hear his voice and the crazy things we would say to each other. We continued to tease each other even when he was on his deathbed.

    Teddy knew how important it was for me to finally become a successful writer and he told me that he knew that I would do well and to go for it. I didn't think at first that I would be able to write a story about him, as it is still sad. But knowing him, he would not want me to let that stop me.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Flow Conference


     I went to the Richmond Film Festival FLOW Conference yesterday. I did my networking and met a lot of people. Not knowing what to expect I took a backpack full of copies of my book Another Chance. On hand was 24 time Emmy Award winning Director Jesse Vaughan (Juwanna Man, The Last Punch, In Living Color, etc.), David Baldacci - International Best Selling Author and Producer, Jeffrey Blount - Author and Director of NBC Nightly News, Kym Grinnage - Vice President and General Manager at WWBT/News 12, Johnny Newman - Former NBA player, Jeanne Meserve - Former Anchor for CNN and ABC News, and a host of other panelists. I was so pleased that I was able to get a copy of my book into the hands of  a lot of these people. I also met a very delightful young lady, Kyle Grinnage, who really stayed on me to make sure that I was doing all I needed to do to make people aware of my book. Social media had never been my forte, however Kyle made me understand the necessity of learning how to navigate through social media and making it my "friend".
Sometimes people are put in your life for a reason and I guess I needed her to set me straight.

     So,  I will continue on my journey. Until next time....