Of Books, Storytelling, Marketing and More

We're approaching month #6 of living in the time of the pandemic.  Some of us are still sheltering in place, others not so much. But writers gotta write. Am I right? And they have to read. A librarian stayed busy assembling a special collection of books. You'll have to enlarge the photo but read them starting at the top left.

Locally, a lot of writing is going on. A tip of the hat to the following authors for their accomplishments:

• Congratulations to Bob Black who published two books in June. He tells me Age Successfully was published June 3, 2020, and Life 401 was published on June 15, 2020. He had been working on the books for some years and when he went on a 77-day cruise to South America, Antarctica, and the Amazon early January to late March he was able to finish both.
• Ancient City Chapter award-winning author Jeff Walton's second book has just been released by Sunbrook Publishing. Divine Return picks up where Final Departure left off.
• Nicholas A. Marziani Jr.'s sequel, Fool's Journey: The Showdown, was released on May 30 by WC Publishing. Journey picks up where Holy Fool, Holy Father left off.
• N.L. Quatrano and writing partner D.K. Ludas have a new Ebook out of short mystery stories, released on Jul 4 by Twisted Hair Publications.
• Harlan Rector, author of the recent Once Upon the Corner in Detroit, and Ed Mickolus, author of 36 books, are compiling a collection of micro-memoirs around the theme of Finding Meaning in Life at Any Age. This shared, limited autobiographic project is organized by incidents or periods of life such as childhood, elementary school, high school, adulthood, work experience, marriage/children, career, retirement. Each life period will feature 2-3 incidents or memories from a variety of people, of various ethnicities, ages, religious preferences, and economic pursuits, along with our own memories. Ed and Harlan are looking for contributions of one to five pages. For further information, please contact hrector234@aol.com or edmickolus@hotmail.com.
• And speaking of the prolific Mr. Mickolus, a former CIA operative, he's added book numbers 37 and 38 to his tally. More Stories from Langley: Another Glimpse Inside the CIA is available from Potomac Books, and America's Funniest Memes—Coronavirus Edition may be ordered from Amazon.
• Congratulations to Jacksonville author Kathryn Bain. Her novel, Fade to the Edge was selected as one of the finalists for the 2020 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards in the Suspense category. Also making the cut is area writer Maggie Toussaint for Dreamed It in the SF/Fantasy and Horror categories. You may see the complete list of finalists and vote for your favorites by clicking here.
• Patricia Daly-Lipe has published Miami's Yester'Years, Its Forgotten Founder, Locke Tiffin Highleyman, the story of the founding of Miami, and one man's vision of paradise in the early 1900s.
• Lucy Cortese reports that her writers group, known as TWINKYs, will launch a new children's book on August 4. Do You Know Me? Poems About the Sea is a book of playful poetry, imaginative illustrations, and science facts for children. It highlights sixteen animals to promote a child's curiosity about their natural world. The book will be available on Amazon and in local bookstores.

Our past Zoom writing workshops have been quite successful, with excellent presentations by Kristin Durfee, Jane Wood, and Charlene Edge. On Saturday, August 22, April O'Leary, the author of five books and founder of O'Leary Publishing, will present "Proven Social Media Book Launch Success Strategies (that cost nothing!)." During her presentation, April will show you exactly what she has done to launch six first time authors to #1 in their category on Amazon this past year. While there are no shortcuts to a successful career as a writer, this is one tool you'll want to have in your book marketing toolkit. Look for the Zoom registration link coming your way in the next few weeks.

I had planned to have another marketing workshop via Zoom, but Tara Alemany, the publisher of Emerald Lakes Books, had serious time constraints. Instead, she offered to share an interview she did with Dave Chesson, a book marketing pro and creator of Kindlepreneuer. In this 48-minute interview, Dave talks about how you can best use Amazon ads to improve your book sales. My thanks to Tara for sharing this interview. Click here to access the interview.

Don't forget FWA's 19th Annual Florida Writers Remote Conference, October 15-18. For only $57, you have access to four days of workshops, plus the Royal Palm Literary Awards Competition.

Here's one final item before I release you to return to your writing life. I will be doing a series of three Zoom workshops for the Jacksonville Public Library. A condensed version of my Novel in a Day workshop, they cover three consecutive Saturdays starting August 29 at 10AM. I've titled the sessions, Storytelling 101, and we'll cover the key elements of the novel, from plotting to characterization, to writing scenes, and more. The workshops are free but you need a JPL library card, which you can acquire online. I'll have more information soon.

Until then, keep in mind these choice suggestions from the Boy Scout Law and remain Helpful, Courteous, Kind, Clean, Cheerful, and Brave.

Cheers,
Vic

Vic DiGenti
FWA Regional Director

Tips of the Hat & Tips for Writers

It's been two months since my last FWA blog post. Although I've written direct emails to all the NE Florida writers on my list I thought it was time to post online again. As I sat down at my iMac to create this post my mind pulled up one of Willie Nelson's poignant songs, Funny How Times Slips Away. I'm sure you've heard it many times, but I Googled the lyrics and the first stanza seems to have been written for our time in the coronavirus bubble.

Hello there, my it's been a long time.

How am I doing? Well, I guess that I'm doing fine.

It's been so long now, but it seems now it was only yesterday.

Ain't it funny how time slips away.

That's enough maudlin introspection, let's get down to the writing business. The pandemic has closed libraries and prevented our FWA writers groups from meeting since February. In response, we had two Zoom presentations in June—one by Charlene Edge on memoir writing, and one by Jane Wood telling us how to market our books to schools. Both were excellent workshops and well attended.

You'll be happy to know I've scheduled another Zoom meeting for this month, and two more in August.

Some of you may remember Kristin Durfee, who presented a workshop on firearms at the Ponte Vedra Writers group several years ago. I invited Kristin to return and she has agreed to present a new workshop on plotting the novel. Register for Kristin's Zoom presentation, "A Novel Approach: Plotting Your Way to Success," which will be presented live on Saturday, July 18 at 10:30 a.m.

Kristin, who is the author of the Four Corners Trilogy as well as many short stories, describes the workshop this way:
"Plot like a pro and get that novel finished! Learn systematic tips and tricks to set yourself up for success. Attendees will learn how to incorporate outlining in their writing, what research can and should be done prior to starting your story, and some troubleshooting techniques to help if you get stuck. The presentation should leave you with a good framework for how to tackle and complete that first draft."

Here's the invitation to register for this meeting:

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Jul 18, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vc-qoqj8qHNSQt6468SY-Qni1H_sN7OSv
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

And as I mentioned above, in August we'll have two more Zoom meetings, both focusing on marketing; one using Facebook groups and the other using Amazon ads. Watch this space for more information.

I've heard from a few people who have used their time productively. A tip of the hat to:

• Ponte Vedra Beach writer Ken Overman. His new book, Intrusions, When God Shows Up in Your Life Unexpectedly has been picked up by CrossLink Publishing, a top U.S. traditional Christian publisher. The book will be out in about 7 months. Congratulations Ken.
• I also heard from Richard and Lucy Lipari, who decided to use their home alone time to jointly write a mystery novel. Rich wrote to tell me, "We decided to purchase Scrivener when the virus began and we knew we would be homebound. We learned about this software from meetings we attended in Ponte Vedra, and decided to give it a try. We found the program very user friendly and a great organizer. Since we had absolutely no distractions, we started jointly writing a mystery using the program. We began as pantsers but as we were going along, we evolved into plotters. Happy to report, since March we wrote over 75,000 words, 45 chapters, 275 pages. We’re excited now, as we know how the mystery will resolve, and it’s just a matter of writing it down." The novel is titled The Genghis Code. Congratulations to you both.
• Sharon Scholl has kept her poetry group active since the shutdown by also using Zoom meetings. She invites any and all poets "to join The Gathering's Zoom sessions, we will send the meeting data to whoever requests it at accidentals@comcast.net. Usually the first and third Thursdays of the month at 2 p.m."
• The Amelia Island Writers are also active. Group leader Marla McDaniel tells me that George Weinstein will be the virtual guest speaker on Saturday, July 25 at 3:30 p.m. Weinstein is a published author and coordinates the Atlanta Writers Group. He will talk about his writing journey and his latest thriller, Watch What You Say. Click here to register for that meeting.

Tell me what's gong on in your writing life, and I'll report it in the next FWA blog post. In the meantime, if you're looking for inspiration, guidance, or a way to productively pass the time, I've assembled a few online sites you might want to check out if you haven't seen them already.

1. The first is a fun exercise that purports to analyze your writing and tell you what famous writer you write like. I entered the first paragraph of my thriller, Hurricane Island, and was informed I write like Mario Puzo. Oh, to have been as successful as the author of The Godfather. Here's the link.
2. Stephen King is one of America's favorite (and wealthiest) writers based on the number of bestselling books and films and TV series that have come from his creative mind. CBS is curently remaking The Stand into a limited series. His latest offering, If It Bleeds, gives us four  novellas, including the title story featuring Holly Gibney, which picks up after the conclusion of The Outsider. The four stories are a mixed bag, but I expecially liked Rat, which deals with a writer struggling to write s novel. I thought you might like to watch this YouTube video with King talking about his writing. You can skip the ads after a few seconds, and if you search you'll find other King interviews and talks.
3. Check out this page if you're looking for writing tips from successful authors. In it you'll learn that John Irving always starts by writing the last sentence on a blackboard. Whatever works, right?
4. And finally, here's an oldie but goodie from The Writing-World.com listing the Top Ten Mistakes New Fiction Writers Make.

Until next time, stay involved and stay healthy. This thing is far from over. And don't forget to register for the July 18 Zoom workshop with Kristin Durfee.

Cheers,

Vic

Vic DiGenti

FWA Regional Director