An Interview And A Runaway Smile Countdown Deal
Reading With Your Kids Podcast I have another interview to share with you today, this one on the Reading With Your Kids Podcast. The interview was taken by the delightfully friendly and charming host, Jed Doherty. It lasts a little over 20' and was great fun to...
Creative Writing Competitions
Almond Press has come up with a great list of writing competitions currently running. Here is a selection: Writing Competitions: Upcoming Deadlines Words and Brushes Words and Brushes is a project that brings together writers and artists. Writers will write a short...
Is The Ebook Market Shrinking?
I was talking to the lawyer of a big publishing house the other day. We were discussing ebooks, and he made the claim that ebooks were just a fad, and one that is dying off at that. Obviously, this surprised me, so I asked him about his sources. "Sector publications,"...
Digitizing A 6-Feet-Tall Atlas
Are you looking for an impressive image to add to your blog? All you have to do is Google for it and it appears, as if by magic, on your screen—even if it's an image taken from a centuries-old book. Spare a thought, however, for the poor people who have been tasked...
Choose Your Own Adventure
In my search for reading material for the wee one, I came across a post by Sarah Laskow of Atlas Obscura on “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. These can feel like being lost in a maze and running through twists and turns only to find dead ends, switchbacks, and...
CreateSpace Stops Selling Books
I'm sure many of you will have received the email from CreateSpace (CS) that announces how their own eStore will cease to serve customers on October 31st. Instead, customers will be redirected to Amazon. CreateSpace explains that the move was made because of requests...
Two unmissable FREE romances set in Greece
Greek award-winning author, Effrosyni Moschoudi, is one of my closest author friends--and, it turns out, a distant cousin. She is now offering two of her books for FREE right now. Both are perfect choices for lovers of romance and all things Greek! What makes this...
Changing My Books’ Titles And Some News
Some News First There have been some interesting developments in my writing career, among which the fact I'm now Editor-in-chief for Azure Fire Publishing (AFP), a US-based non-profit promoting youth-friendly Fantasy and Science Fiction. Even though the position only...
The Soldiers’ Pocket Books That Legitimized Paperbacks
Even though pamphlets and softcover books have been available in Europe since the 16th century, US readers looked down on them until well into the 20th century. As a recent Atlas Obscura post by Cara Giaimo explains, without a mass-market distribution model in place,...
Emotional Beats: Weather, Skies, and Views
Back in September, I published Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings. As promised, I will be posting the book on my blog. So, here is the next installment, continuing Part 3 of the book: Other Beats. This chapter deals with:...
Are Deadlines Necessary For Writing?
This is a guest post by Corinne Ledling, a businesswoman who’s very passionate about her job. She’s a Content Manager at Bizstats.co.uk and in her free time, she loves to read mystery books and write short stories. When she suggested a post about deadlines, I just had...
Medieval-Style Doodles, Marginalia, and Manicules
Marginalia. That is the official name for the edges of pages in medieval manuscripts. These are filled with anything from intriguingly detailed illustrations to random doodles. And they are far more important than you may realize, as both tell us huge amounts about a...