It was a pretty hairy Thanksgiving holiday! Guests started arriving on Tuesday night, and left on Saturday. Ali and her boyfriend, both professional chefs, served up a five-star gourmet feast and we all later pushed back our chairs in gleeful, gluttonous agony.
We also played some rowdy games of Rock Band for two nights in a row and that was a hoot! I had no idea how many talented singers we have in the family!
Hi Angela,
I’ve been a WritersWeekly subscriber for a few years now and we have corresponded.
As I sit on the brink of self publishing my first book, I have to take a moment to reach out to you today to say thank you and here’s why. I’ve watched and listened. I’ve seen how cut throat this industry can be. I’ve seen people who offer help at exorbitant prices and then don’t deliver. I’ve seen people who prefer to watch others struggle than to offer advice or give direction. I guess it’s the nature of business…
And then there is you. We don’t know one another personally, but I can tell from WritersWeekly and Booklocker and your responses to my random panicked emails that you genuinely care about helping the writer succeed. That is so rare. In fact, you are one of two people I have come across in the publishing industry with this kind of heart [the other is my favorite author, Marita Golden]. Heading in to Thanksgiving and Christmas – if no one else tells you, I want you to know very appreciated you are.
Sorry to be so long winded about it, buy hey, I’m a writer – anyone can just say “thanks!”
You and your family have a wonderful holiday season and you will be hearing from me in the next couple months via BookLocker.
Yours in writing,
Isunji
Blog: https://www.isunjiisat.blogspot.com
The key for both engaging historical fiction and history is that they both should be about people so that readers have someone to identify with…
What began as a hunt for work as a yoga instructor six years ago has continued as a career path in writing. A simple search on CraigsList.org with the key word YOGA pulled up a website looking for writers. Within 2 weeks I was a paid writer for a spiritual website…
Angela is running around like a turkey about to be plucked, hosting a crowd of 20 for the Thanksgiving holiday week. News From the Home Office will return next week.
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HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY! by Angela Hoy
Using Angela’s MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years, and record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook. Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography! **Also works for biographies and memoirs.**
Someone who read my book asked me to do a booksigning at the local high school craft fair. I read what you wrote about this, and decided to give away cinnamon cake with the recipe since there is a chapter in my book about cinnamon cake. The recipe contained an excerpt from the book with the title and info. as to where to buy, etc. This worked as people stopped for the free cake and, in doing so, read about my book and talked to me. The local paper, hearing of the booksigning, called me to do an article.
Sincerely,
Jane Reville
The Plaid Robe
A memoir of a Baltimore girl who transitions from blissful innocence to austere realism. The upheavals of the sixties merge with her journey from an innocent fifties childhood.
I want to share a secret with you. A secret that will help you make your reputation as a writer and land repeat assignments with editors in every field…
Next week, relatives from three different states will be converging on our home. We are VERY excited because chefs Ali and Mikey will be cooking us a five-star gourmet Thanksgiving feast!
Back in 2009, we published THIS ARTICLE, which featured numerous complaints about Lulu, posted directly to Lulu’s forum by Lulu’s own authors.
I recently surfed back to their forum to see if things have improved. Apparently, they have not. Below are quotes taken directly from Lulu’s own author forum…
Hi Angela:
I read your piece about using email addresses, trademarks, etc. in books, and wanted to add something.
First of all, it seems like it would be more trouble than it’s worth to put email addresses in a book. If the writer is going to put the text of an email in a book, why not just have the characters’ names in the From and To fields? Or, if the character is described finding an email address that’s key to the story, why not just say something like “He came across an email address that was also used by so-and-so” rather than say “He came across xyz@someisp.com, which was also used by so-and-so”?
Second, if an actual email address must be used, writers should realize that addresses with Yahoo, Google, etc. can become defunct if they’re not accessed for a long time, so they’ll end up having to log into those accounts every six months or so just to keep them active, which would be a hassle. An easier solution might be to register one or more domain addresses and just use email addresses associated with them. That way, they only need to keep the domains active, which is fairly cheap to do, to ensure that no one else will get those addresses in the future. They can even establish that said domain is a provider of free email accounts, a la Yahoo or Google, in the story world, so multiple characters could have those accounts. (Or the domain could be a pretend business in the book, etc.)
As always, I appreciate the good info in your newsletter. Keep up the great work.
Brad Cook, Writer/Editor
AIM/Twitter: bradcwriter
~~~
Dear Angela,
Thank you for reminding writers to check for “fictitious” business names they use in their stories and novels.
When beginning a mystery about a fictitious product manufactured by a fictitious company, I searched the Google and U.S. Trademark websites for the names and also the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website for the product. Many of the names I initially selected for the company were already listed as real organizations and it took about twelve tries before I found a truly fictitious name.
As a former FDA investigator, I periodically scan the website. Imagine my surprise a year later when I spotted a recall alert for a non-drug product with the same name as the drug product in my story. At the time, I was editing the second draft and had to change the product name.
It is not only important to check for fictitious names when starting to craft your manuscript, but double-check them before publishing as well.
Barbara-Helene Smith
Mystery Writer
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