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The School of Don

I recently flew to Colorado to join friends for a long weekend in Denver. It was the first time I’d spent more than one night away from home in three years, and I had traveler’s remorse for leaving so much undone to take this spontaneous trip. I got over it once we arrived at our little cabin [...]

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Createspace vs. Lightning Source For Self-Published Print Books

Award-winning author Terri Giuliano Long originally wrote this article for me in October, 2011. The Huffington Post published her comprehensive update in 2013. Link here to read Paperback Distribution: Createspace vs. Lightning Source. Congratulations! You’ve decided to take the plunge and publish your book. Welcome to the indie revolution! In addition to the myriad design and marketing decisions you’re [...]

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Writers Are Readers Who Write, Right?

I’ve caught a couple articles via Twitter links advising writers of the need to cultivate readers in our genre, or be active on venues that are heavily used by readers alone. And hey, of course I understand the reasoning behind this instruction: Readers buy books. I hadn’t intended for it to be so, but it [...]

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0 – 4000 in a Snap! How to Build a Quality Twitter Following FAST

If you’re an author (or anyone else!) learning the social media ropes, your goal is probably to build alliances, draw readership to your blog and/or grow interest in your book. The pros tell us creating a twitter following is one of the best ways to drive blog traffic, and, hopefully, gain respect. So here you are. You have [...]

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Dance in the Rain

I relocated to the Southern Cali mountains in June, 1999. That summer our community saw a lot of rain – and thank goodness it did, because I’d rented a miniscule, 500-square-foot cabin without air conditioning and trust me, my friends, it gets hot here. That change of residence was the end result of planning started a [...]

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Digging Up Bones

When I was in high school I wanted to be an archaeologist. I laugh now, fully aware how unsuitable that particular choice was, how incompatible the career path would have been with my distinctly quirky personality. My teenage goal perfectly illustrated how poorly I understood myself. The part of the dream that fit was my [...]

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