Guest Bloggers

Amanda McTigue Untethered

Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue . . . I’ll confess with some dismay that contrary to the many uplifting articles and memoirs I have read about the serenity of older age, it continues to elude me. Serenity, that is, not the march of years across my face, kneecaps and pelvic floor muscles. I’m looking forward to any later-in-life serenity that may come my way. Indeed, I practice all kinds of meditations and mantras and daily exercises, etc., to invite it in. But my emotional set point tends to be what it’s always been: low-level (self)doubt. That’s the place whence I write. If that’s true for you, let me offer some slant wisdom here from some fellow artists. Take Tatiana Maslany. You may have seen her in a futuristic TV show called “Orphan Black” in which she plays (gorgeously!) multiple clones of herself. She’s a hell of a young actor, and here…

Guest Bloggers

Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue talks about marketing your book

So, you’ve got your book written, or almost written, or you have an idea for a book, but you’re stuck dead in your tracks because you detest the marketing aspect of the book business Amanda McTigue says, “No doubt about it: we writers love to write, hate to sell. How could it be otherwise? We’re the odd balls who’d rather spend vast quantities of time alone in our imaginations. And yet these days, we’re told not only must we craft (and sometimes publish) our works, but also find readers to read them: a daunting challenge compounded by our own dread. What’s a writer to do?” Amanda shares resources on one of our least favorite challenges: marketing yourself and your book. “The Psychology of Writer Promotion. How to Promote Yourself,” Chuck Wendig “Book Marketing 101,” Jane Friedman “Five Mistakes You’ll Make on the Way to Publishing Success,” Carmen Amato via Jane…

Book Reviews

Going to Solace by Amanda McTigue

In Going to Solace, Amanda McTigue deftly portrays the lives of three families, their caretakers, their hospice workers and their experiences with Solace, a hospice community. Amanda handles the subject of end-of-life with sensitivity and tender care. So well- written. Amanda writes about the Blue Ridge Mountains with such loving detail, I felt like I was there. Amanda’s characters are honest, lively and intriguing. Going to Solace is a lesson in the human spirit, filled with emotional twangs, and a satisfying place to be.  

Guest Bloggers

Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue — The Power of Place

Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue — The Power of Place Writing is setting. Indeed, to write is to place (that’s “place” as a verb). We writers place readers in worlds. We set them into circumstances, stories, imagery, facts, memories, actions, fantasies, and so on. Setting in this sense isn’t mere background. It’s the sum total of every last word we write. And yet, so often we think of place as scenery. What a mistake! Place shapes voice. I’m not talking dialect here. I’m saying the ways we writers situate ourselves in imagined (or remembered) worlds give rise to the ways we convey those worlds to others. Our first task, then, is to place ourselves so fully that our readers go with us. “All well and good,” you say, “but how can we interrupt our action-packed, conflict=drama, page-turning flow to squeeze in some detail of setting? We’re writing to keep readers reading!…