by Destine Williams

Hey everybody! It’s Meditative Monday which means that it’s time for tea, coffee, thoughts, and me sounding more like a fortune cookie than usual.

Over the weekend, I had time to celebrate with friends and family, but also I’ve had time to reflect on becoming an author and now I think I can actually translate the feelings into some valuable things that I learned on writing.

Colonial America, in the United States, covers the history of European settlements, starting at the beginning of colonization and continuing until the incorporation of the United States. In the late 16^th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched the major colonization programs in the eastern part of North America. Early on, small attempts would often disappear, such as the Lost Colony of Roanoke from England. The death rate was very high among the first arrivals all over North America. Nevertheless, the successful colonies were established over several decades.

European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups as well. There were few aristocrats that permanently settled, but a number of adventurers, soldiers, farmers and tradesmen arrived. Diversity became an American characteristic, as settlers came to a new continent. Including the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of Pennsylvania…

I’m here to help stop the madness. You know the one. The insanity that accompanies the “fun” of writing a book blurb. Attacking is more like it . . . I could stab it upside the head if it had one. But alas. Don’t let my bitterness get to you. In fact, use it to rise above me . . . with my own help, ironically. So let’s just get straight to it:

What on earth is a book blurb and why do you need one?

A book blurb is an important tool in convincing your readers to buy your book. Essentially, it’s a sales pitch. And you want it to be KILLER.

A reader will browse the shelves (or Kindle), and will find themselves intrigued by that amazing book cover of yours. Yay! You caught their attention. But you need more than that. You need to make…

Writing dialogue is messy. Am I right?

It has so many rules, it makes me wish I’d gone with my original plan in life. I’d intended to become an all-in-one supermodel-psychologist/part-time medical researcher. What? I thought I wanted to save people, discover things, and change the world wearing a tiara and killer heels. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I just wanted to sit on my couch drinking coffee and writing all day while wearing no pants.

Plus, apparently my status as a supermodel got cut short (no pun intended) by my lack of height. And love of cake. Also, had I continued studying psychology, I’d have been forced to stop listening to the voices in my head . . . and that was SO not cool. The thing was . . . I didn’t know how to properly punctuate any of my internal…

Things I’ve learned since publishing my first book and this list isn’t all inclusive. 

1. Some vanity publishers and small presses don’t have your best interests at heart. Hence my first costly mistake and I mean thousands of dollars.

2. Most charge for editing, other packages, etc that many first time authors don’t have the money for. Yes – I paid them and in return I received unsalable books. Boxes of them. A lot of boxes.

3. Once burned (like I was) you may feel like giving up. Don’t do that! 

4. My first book, a memoir, When Angels Fly, is under revision number five, and from five different professional editors. With each successive editor I became more depressed as each one kept finding errors. This fifth time is the last one, the final edit, and my editor is a wonderful actress, voice coach, and screenwriter who lives in NYC, and she is…

Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.

Courtesy ofAdirondack Editing

Using the five senses

I love it when an author decides to use the senses in writing their descriptions. It’s so rarely done, it seems, that it keeps the story fresh and exciting for me. Let’s talk about some ways to incorporate each of them into your descriptions—without going overboard, of course! Nobody wants a blow-by-blow listing of everything your main character smelled in a day, especially if he’s a homicide detective in the morgue!

When using any of the senses in writing description, you want to remember “Show, don’t tell” to get the most effectiveness out of it.

• Taste

Your first cup of coffee in the morning—does anything taste better? Or, on the other hand, it can be your biggest…

RRBC BOOK & BLOG BLOCK PARTY!

Hi Everyone – and WELCOME to
Rave Reviews Book Club’s
BOOK & BLOG BLOCK PARTY on 4/27 
You are at Lynn Miclea’s blog “Dancing Leaves”
Coming to you from beautiful, sunny Los Angeles, California

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Enter today to win exciting prizes!!!

Here is What I’m Giving Away Today (4/27):
* $25 Amazon Gift Card
* $15 Starbucks Gift Card
* One (1) autographed paperback copy of
“Mending a Heart”

Winner may substitute any other of my books or in e-book format, if preferred
(hard copy in U.S. only, e-book to outside the U.S.)

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Number of Winners at this stop:  3!

Everyone is eligible to enter – simply leave a comment below on 4/27, and you will automatically be entered to win. Three prizes are guaranteed to be given away – the winners will be selected at random. You never know – you could…

Welcome to Story Empire, and our version of the Rave Reviews Book Club Book and Blog Block Party. According to the rules, we need to tell you where we are posting from. Well, that’s kind of hard to do, because there are six of us, and we’re scattered across the US plus one of us is in Europe. I guess we’ll say we’re coming to you from the northern hemisphere.

We also need to tell you about our prize right up front, so here you go—one lucky commenter will win a $30 Amazon gift card, so make sure you leave us a comment today, not tomorrow (although we’d love to hear from you anytime).

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Craig here, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about how we came into existence. It all started with Mae Clair and me discussing a bit of mutual promotion with a Halloween theme…

I’ve spoken on more than one occasion of the importance of music in my relationship with my late husband.  It was an integral part of our family life, and the value and meaning of certain songs and lyrics haven’t stopped simply because he’s not physically here to share the moments with me.

There are times when I’ll hear a new song, or finally, actually hear the lyrics of a song I’ve known forever, and the tears will flow because I truly believe A is communicating with me in a way that is certain to get my attention.  This morning was one of those occasions.

My commute was spent almost entirely in tears, mostly the steady, silent ones that seem to come out of nowhere and simply fall endlessly.  (To be honest, I prefer these to the ugly, sobbing cries that make driving a bit difficult…)  It started, strangely enough, with…