This Is Why I Blocked You From Facebook

Humorous truth! 😀 Had to reblog this!

mylifeiswear.com

It has taken me most of my adult life to get to the point where my three teenage sons have accepted my friend requests on Facebook.

I’m not sure if this is a major victory or a daily reminder of my greatest defeat. Tonight my son Rocky posted a heartfelt message that went something like this:

“Idk how people can just kick friends and family out of there life’s over stupid things. I fear losing the people around me more than I fear death.  I could never do it.”

To which I replied on his Facebook page.

It’s their lives, not there life’s. Just sayin.

Rocky immediately sent me a private message:

“This is why I block you from my Facebook.” 

What can I say? I am a writer and I want my children to learn proper grammar. Is that too much to ask?

Maybe so.

Actually, there are plenty…

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10 Writing Memes That Spoke to Me

The Long and Short Stories of Life

Yes, Idris Elba, I should. And I will as soon as I’m done mooning over you. Maybe I’ll make you the hero in my next book and then I can stare at this pic and think of you ALL the time!

Memes are silly, funny, and inspiring. I spent a good part of Easter Sunday evening surfing the net, looking for ideas on my designated day off, and I stumbled upon these memes about writing and writers. I began to talk back to them and I decided to share my conversations with you. Sorry, I can’t tell you everything I said to Mr. Elba.

Don’t make me trade Idris for you Ryan Gosling, but what you say is so true. There was that time I’d written the best scene ever in my book, The Neon Houses. Since my Mac Book backs up automatically, I kept working for a good little while. Finally, punch drunk with fatigue, I decided to…

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How Being Patient Improved My Writing

Patience.

Book Reviewers Can be Jerks

Nothing beats a boost in motivation than the hard, cold truth. I enjoyed reading this post. 🙂

Larry Kahaner

Book Reviewers Can be Jerks

By Larry Kahaner

Whether you are a seasoned author or just published your first book, reviews play tricks on your self-confidence as a writer. Like everything else in life, some people like your stuff and some people hate it (thanks, Captain Obvious) and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Every book has its supporters and detractors, and if your head isn’t screwed on, it can be a career killer.

Let me stipulate up front that most reviewers, indeed, the vast majority of reviewers are writing honest, objective reviews. This blog is about the other ones.

I offer some points to remember if you decide to read your reviews. I say ‘if’ because many successful authors never read reviews. I used to think this was BS, but it’s true. These folks understand the reality of reviews.

And here they are:

• Reviews are supposed to be…

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Had I But Known . . . Or, You Wrote it, Now Sell It!

According to Mr. Wikipedia, "'Had I but known' is a form of foreshadowing that hints at some looming disaster in which the main character laments his or her course of action that came before some other series of unfortunate events or actions and classically, the narrator never makes explicit the nature of the mistake until both the narrator …

Books Transmit Values

I just learned about this event today and wish I could have attended. The above quote by Walter Dean Myers, a children's book author and best known for young adult literature reveals a lot about the way I started to feel when I realized that a lot of the books I read didn't reflect me in …

The Author Takeover

Author takeovers can be absolutely fabulous! 🙂 It’s all about organization and presentation. This blog post does a great job at setting the mood, purpose, and tone.

Nouns, Verbs, & Memories

Becoming an author with aspirations to make it my life’s work comes with a quite a bit of internal drive, research skills, social media savvy, networking, time, and a lot of patience.  In the last month I have realize how new I am to all of this by researching how to do an author takeover, what a street team is, and unfortunately being one of many authors and sponsors scammed by the hopes of a author signing  event in Richmond, Virginia.  I am happy to report that the event was thankfully raised from the ashes by some determined, and heart broken authors.

If you are anything like the me from last month, you may be asking what in the world an author takeovers or a street teams are anyhow.  Well you are in luck!  I finally feel educated enough to share my knowledge in hopes of helping other budding authors, and to spread…

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B2BCyCon SciFan & LitRPG Blog Hop—Stop #1: The Insider’s Guide to A Wizard’s Forge: Influences and Themes

A Blog Hop is going on! And if you love fantasy with thought-provoking themes, consider purchasing Justice’s “A Wizard’s Forge”! 🙂 #Fridayreads

AM Justice

Congratulations! You just stumbled across the next stop in the B2BCyCon SciFan & LitRPG Blog Hop. Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out my novel A Wizard’s Forge.

A Wizard’s Forge is the first in a series called The Woern Saga, and it’s an onion, with a lot of layers of a plot that developed over a lot of years. The tone is dark; the story thought-provoking. If you read it in a book club, Vic’s troubles and how she deals with them should inspire some rousing debate. In fact, I hope you will read and discuss it with a group of friends. So go ahead and prepare the cheese plate and chill the wine, and to prepare yourself, here is some cool intel to drop on your friends.

Inspirations

1. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern. Knownearth and Pern are a lot alike in terms of climate and ecology (minus the deadly Thread) as…

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Guest Post: The Dos and Don’ts of Dialogue Tags by Ryan Lanz

🙂

Kate M. Colby

Today, I’m pleased to host author and blogger extraordinaire Ryan Lanz. His article is packed with tips on how to correctly use dialogue tags. As someone who struggled with this as a beginning writer, trust me when I say: this is great stuff, and I wish he had written this post years ago! Over to Ryan …

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Writers use dialogue tags constantly. In fact, we use them so often that readers all but gloss over them. They should be invisible. However, there are ways to misuse them and make them stand out.

In an effort to avoid that, let’s take a closer look at dialogue tags. Toward the end of “Tag travesties” is something I sorely wish someone had told me before I started writing.

Why do we use dialogue tags?

The simple answer is that we use them to indicate who’s speaking. In visual media, such as movies or…

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Why You Should Be Reading Flash Fiction

Flash fiction!

A Writer's Path

by Kyle Massa

Just like the name implies, flash fiction is short enough to read in an instant. But if you’re not reading it, here’s why you should be.

Opinions vary on how long a flash fiction piece should be. Some markets say 300 words max, some say 500, others say 1,000. Whatever the case may be, flash fiction has to be really short—which is not to say incomplete. Rather, many flash pieces still have the elements of traditional literature (character, plot, conflict, setting), only they’re condensed. Think of them like shorter short stories.

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