Monthly Archives: March 2011

Inspiration / Publishing

Excerpt: Moonlight and Oranges

This is the excerpt for my novel Moonlight and Oranges, currently a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.  After reading this, go to the Amazon page and review it. Thank you so much! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER ONE:  Orange and Vodka 1)      Find a guy. 2)      Strike up a witty conversation. If she could get that far.  Lorona swallowed her bravado and felt sick.  She was beginning…

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March 28, 2011
Publishing

One Reason to Learn Marketing

Marketing myself as a writer is a lesson I've been gradually learning over the past few moths.  Usually I'd grit my teeth about this.  Many writers absolutely hate marketing.  It feels uncreative, its exhausting, it feels like bragging, etc. But it teaches us how to talk to others about our writing.  That's essentially what marketing is--a way to clearly communicate what we're about to the greater world.  The time the…

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March 28, 2011
Uncategorized

The Synopsis: A Powerful Tool

A synopsis distills the key messages, themes, and direction of a story.  Have you ever tried to condense the plot of a novel into one page?  How about one or two sentences?  It's hard.  Really hard.  The first time I tried to write a one page synopsis for Moonlight and Oranges, my novel manuscript, I almost went crazy.  Cut, revise, rewrite, condense.  Delete reference to non-vital scene.  Include…

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March 21, 2011
Book Reviews

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Review

*SPOILER ALERT!  PLOT AND KEY POINTS IN THIS REVIEW* Cross cultural, forbidden, young love, set against the painful backdrop of World War II and the Japanese internment camps. Henry's family proudly identified themselves as Chinese.  Keiko's family proudly identified themselves as Americans.  Keiko's English was flawless, learned from birth.  Henry still had trouble with many of his words.  They strike up a friendship because they're both…

6 Comments
March 14, 2011
Inspiration

Should Writing Have a WARNING Label?

A philosophical thought... A friend of mine brought up this probing question-Is writing dangerous?-yesterday while we sat in a circle of poets, lyricists, fiction and nonfiction prose writers.  The thought hadn't really occurred to me to ponder until that moment.  And so we did ponder it, over frozen yogurt in honor of spring's warmth. Is it dangerous to spend so much time writing?  Hours and hours spent creating,…

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March 7, 2011

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