I’m not a Pollyanna. True to an Aquarian born in the year of the Dragon, I’m incredibly impatient, impulsive, emotional, irrational and irritable. And those are my good points. But with that said, I’ve learned to hang tough. I write those words to my friends struggling to sell, struggling to believe, struggling to hang in […]
On my many trips to Atlanta with the family, I drive through the night. The main reason is to avoid hearing the repeated whines of ‘Are we there yet?’ Instead, everyone awakens when I’m about an hour away from my brother’s house, for which I only have to hear it once. This tactic guarantees that […]
Article posted by Nina Davies with the permission of Cheryl Kaye Tardif. During a recent discussion in one of my writer’s groups, the topic of book signings, marketing, shyness and belief came up. Some authors expressed that they find signings or sales to be difficult, ’embarrassing’, nerve wracking experiences. They don’t like them or don’t […]
The new year rolled in with fireworks and champagne popping. Resolutions, goals, selling of souls were thrown out to the universe with quiet desperation. Despite the high percentage of drop outs from this bunch by the first quarter of the year, we undergo the experience without fail at the beginning of each year. My resolutions, […]
I was recently asked during one of the classes on my online writing group what to do when the doubt devils that plague most writers are validated. Like when you’re doubting your ability to ever write a publishable book and get three rejections from different publishers in one day. I’m very familiar with that scenario […]
I did something amazing today. I mailed a contest entry. “Ho hum, so what,” you might say. Well, putting a stamp on that envelope and popping it into the mailbox isn’t dull routine. It isn’t ordinary at all. I’ve just submitted my manuscript to a contest where several writers are going to give me their […]
Something sent me to my old file drawer today; I was looking for an address of an agent for a friend, and I knew I’d queried that agent in the past. In my files, I pulled out a dog-eared, overstuffed, tear-stained file folder. I remember creating that file, when I sent out my initial three […]
I’m a wuss. Until recently, I routinely cracked under pressure. Rejections decimated me. Revisions terrified me. Getting a bad review meant a week of sleepless nights (okay, there were some really bad reviews). You’d think I’d be tougher, considering it “only” took me fifteen years to sell my first book, and in that time I […]
Go Forward… It’s not as easy as it sounds. For some it means putting down a manuscript we’ve revised (until even we’re sick of our characters) and beginning something new. For others it means stepping out of the familiar (for example changing from the historical to the contemporary genre or visa versa). For all of […]
Hmm — What else to say with the final chapter of my Tough Love series? I recently held a workshop on finding the time to write. I shared my experience, duly providing tips and solutions to conquer apathy and other bad habits. One tip in particular concerns the destructive force called negative energy. This ball […]