On Social Networking and Writers...

My guest post today for A Good Blog is Hard to Find:

Welcome to the Shiny Happy Digital Age*

by Mindy Friddle

* This title is not ironic. I really believe our new digital age is full of opportunity.

A few years ago, it was considered "quaint" for an author to have a website. Now, it's a must. The "planks" of our author platforms aren't just our published works, newspaper columns, radio gigs--they're Facebook, Twitter, blogs...social networking.

Take Twitter, for example. Yeah, I hear you groaning. Some of you, anyway. Twitter is a little hard to get used to at first. "Why should I Tweet that I just ordered a pizza?" a friend of mine asked. "Who cares?" Well, nobody. But if your Tweet is "The pizza delivery guy is a dead ringer for Brad Pitt. The green mohawk is a poor disguise." That's a little more interesting. READ MORE

On Handling Criticism...

My guest post on the assigned topic of "criticism" at A Good Blog is Hard to Find:

Criticism?

Avoid looking for it.

Stop Googling yourself! Especially late at night when you think no one is looking. You won’t go blind or grow hair on your palms—well, probably not—but it’s habit forming…and after a while, the thrill is gone, anyway. Save your blocks of isolation for writing--not reading about your writing. ...CONTINUE READING...

Butterfly Weed...my favorite "weed" of the day. A little on the garish side color-wise, but otherwise unassuming...and rich in nectar.

I have a guest post today, Book Signings that Rock, over at A Good Blog is Hard to Find. Drop on by!

And tonight-- a Writing Room workshop kicks off at Earth Fare: $5 bucks, two hours of writing. Details here.

Dispatches from the Road

I'm guest blogging today over at A Good Blog is Hard to Find. Come on over, ya'll...


These days, a book tour is real...and virtual.
As an author, I've learned publicity goes with the job description. Book touring, blog touring, book clubbing, Facebooking, Tweeting, Skyping, e-newsletters, contests...I'm game. But I've also learned that the publicity part takes a whole different set of muscles from toiling in isolation at your desk with your gin & tonic.

For six weeks now, I've been on the Bootylicious Book Tour for SECRET KEEPERS, my second novel. I've visited brick-and-mortar indie bookstores--where I left boot planters behind to be raffled off or displayed. I hit the virtual road with a WOW-sponsored blog tour-- guest posting or being interviewed at dozens of blogs for the month of June. Topics for my guest posts have covered not just writing and books, but the importance of book covers, photography as a stress-reliever, travel, to-do and to-be lists, and how to certify your yard as a wildlife habitat. In a word--whew! CONTINUE READING

Contest: Secret Keepers & Seedy Characters

Tongue Orchids. Love-Lies-Bleeding. Soul Shines. Secret Keepers. Read all about it on A Good Blog is Hard to Find where I'm guest blogging today.
"The call," by the way, is an assigned topic for the month-- how writers found out their first novel was going to be published.
And freebies! Find out how to win your free signed copy of Secret Keepers and a package of my favorite seedy characters.

How I got the call? Funny you should ask. I'll tell you...a few paragraphs down. You can also find out how to win a "seedy character" package and a free signed copy of Secret Keepers. Scroll on if you like. Or take your time and read about the inspiration behind Secret Keepers, my second novel, just out this week from St. Martin's Press... continue reading.

Every family has one. A little embarrassing perhaps, baffling to outsiders, but it persists nonetheless.

In my family it is pink and cold.

Read the rest over at A Good Blog is Hard to Find, where' I'm guest blogging. Happy weekend.

A Good Blog is Hard to Find

I'm guest blogger today over on A Good Blog is Hard to Find:

Today marks 40th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Although I was just a three-year-old kid in South Carolina when he was shot and killed in Memphis, I grew up--like most of us-- learning more and more about the incredible impact he had on the South, on the country, on the world...

read the whole thing here at A Good Blog is Hard to Find.

Shout Out for Bulls Island

There's an interview with NY Times Bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank up on A Good Blog Is Hard to Find about her latest novel, Bulls Island. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Bulls Island is one of the few protected, pristine barrier islands left on the SC coast:

Q. What was the inspiration for Bulls Island?

A. Inspiration for BULLS ISLAND arrived the same as it did for my otherbooks - it's that little voice in your head that says What if? I wasreading something in the NY Times about protected islands beingdecommissioned and made available for public use and I thought well,
that could never happen to Bulls Island. Or what if it did? And how
could that actually unfold?

Then I started thinking about the story and knew it should be a struggle
to save it, to preserve its pristine habitats, and that the struggle
should expand to the people determined to develop it versus the people
to whom it was unclear if this was a sound idea - was it environmentally
ethical? Or was it just another case of greed? And what if those opposing teams were comprised of star crossed lovers, long separated and perhaps by a tragedy? What if they happened to bump into each other across a conference table?

And what if every character in the story had a secret - some bull they
were hiding and on the bull scale it could go from zero to a billion?

That's how the process starts . . .

Read the full interview here.