Guest Blogger Ruth Harris writes about the realities of trying to write while sheltered in place. You might have thought because you’re staying at home that you’d have more free time to start/finish a book or take an on-line yoga class. But in reality, because we’re all spending so much time at home, much of that time is consumed by eating which means food prep and cooking (which means there’s a kitchen to clean and dishes to be washed), bathrooms to be cleaned and tidied plus, of course, more toilet paper to be purchased (if we can even scrounge up a few rolls somewhere), laundry duty, garbage and trash removal, dusting, vacuuming and, of course, sanitizing. As one day melts seamlessly into the next, and we can’t tell Sunday from Tuesday, weekdays from weekends. Our moods whiplash between “This sucks” and “It could be worse.” We’re bored, anxious, and tired….
Tag: Ruth Harris
Anne R. Allen & Indie Publishing
The following is an excerpt from Anne R. Allen’s December 22, 2019 blog post. You, too, can be an indie-author. It helps to be informed with willingness to do the work. From Anne: In a few days we’ll be leaving the twenty-teens to enter the 2020s. We’ll be saying goodbye to a decade of wild upheaval in the publishing industry. It’s been quite a ride. On January 5th, [we hosted] agent Laurie McLean from Fuse Literary Agency, for her annual “Crystal Ball” predictions for publishing in 2020. But today I’m thinking about the decade that’s passing, and how it disrupted and radically changed the way authors approach publication. A lot of us got to behave like teens—experimenting with radical publishing ideas and trying on lots of new writing venues for size. Amazon’s Kindle had the right name. It fired up the writing community in a major way. Self-publishing became a…
Short essays can be a goldmine.
Today’s guest blog post is excerpted from Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris. Writing about writing. Mostly. Book length memoir is a hard sell, but short essays can be a goldmine. Memoir is the most popular genre at any writers’ conference. Unfortunately, it’s the hardest to write well—and the least likely to be successful if you’re an unknown newbie writer. That’s because book-length memoir isn’t likely to become a bestseller unless people already know who you are. So how do you get people to know you? You could become a reality TV star, run for political office, or be related to somebody who marries into the British royal family of course, but not everybody has that option. You can also work to get yourself known through social media, which I recommend for all memoirists. Start a blog, podcast, or vlog on the subject or setting of your memoir and…