Here's today's writing prompt

Writing Prompt for 11/30:  Spontaneous combustion.

Post your writing as a comment.

For instructions, please click this link, "Writing Prompts to Build a Community".

Indie writers, let's go to the market!

As all Indie writers know, marketing and networking is key! Because we don't have the connections and clout of big publishing companies, we have to market ourselves so people will know that our books are out there, so our stories will be shared, get reviews, get sells and try and make some money.

I'm excited that I enjoy this process, even with its frustrations and how it gobbles up my time. I've published an article on my experience and what it took for me to accept myself as a writer. I hope you check it out: http://publishmyself.net/the-woes-fears-and-promises-of-an-expectant-writer

Publishmyself is a great site for Indie writers to get a start on populating their resumés. I enjoy reading the articles on that site, and feel proud to say I have an article that's been published.

Another bit of news is that, now that I've been able to read through my printed book, I have made corrections to formatting and typos. It's great, because since I hadn't actually sat down and read a book in quite a while (except for the Bible) because I'm addicted to audiobooks or I read on the computer, my book's formatting was off. I had the text double spaced! It's easier on the eyes, but I guess I was so focused on editing, that double spacing didn't seem weird to me until someone said, "Oh, I like that it's double spaced. I can read it!" Funny.

I also added a forward and an author's bio. Things that never occurred to me. Thank God for outspoken family! It'll take a few days for CreateSpace to accept the changes and finalize the book. I can't order new ones anyway for at least a couple of months. No mulla. The harder part will be updating the eBook versions, because the formatting is different for eBooks. Smashwords is the most difficult because I'd like to keep the book in their Premium Distribution list. The formatting for that is killer.

Well, just wanted to get this info out, in case someone wanted to purchase my book. I'd say wait about a week so you can get the updated version. There weren't a whole lot of typos, but you know how you'd like to get it as perfect as you can, because no matter what, there'll still be errors you didn't catch.

Until tomorrow's writing prompt. Sleep well and God bless.

A Writing Prompt to Die For

Writing Prompt for 11/29:  You are dying! But it's up to you why and how. Are you dying with joy, dying for real, dying with anticipation? Whatever it is, you are dying and you've got to write about it!

Post your writing as a comment.

For instructions, please click this link, "Writing Prompts to Build a Community".

Today's Writing Prompt & Congrats to book giveaway winners!

Write up to 300 words (yes, I 've increased it) based on the prompt below and post as a comment. For more details, see "Writing Prompts to Build a Community" in the "Daily Writing Prompts" label to the left.

Writing Prompt for 11/28/12:  Certainly winning is a good feeling.


Results of Book Giveaway for Anticipation of the Penitent

I want to thank everyone who entered the book giveaway by joining my blog and on Goodreads. On Goodreads, 435 people entered and I've received the notifications of the winners.

Of the 25 people who joined my blog, the winners who were randomly selected are:

1. Livia      2. Elise Fallson   3. Judith Kerrian Ribbens
4. Tavinor  5. Doesn't Matter

Messages to these winners will be sent out today, and the books will be sent out within the week. If someone doesn't respond to my message by 12/14/12, I'll select another name.

Again thanks for joining, and enjoy today's writing prompt.

A few more hours before Book Giveaway is over!

The Goodreads book giveaway for Anticipation of the Penitent is over! But if you join this blog using the "Join this site" button before midnight PST, then you still have a chance to win a signed paperback copy of this literary Christian speculative novel.

The winners will be randomly selected tomorrow and contacted by google message so I can know how to send out your book.

Join now and good luck!

Today's Writing Prompt

Write up to 300 words (yes, I 've increased it) based on the prompt below and post as a comment. For more details, see "Writing Prompts to Build a Community" in the "Daily Writing Prompts" label to the left.

Writing Prompt # 5:

"Can't say I've ever done that."

Marketing Updates and - Ahhg!

Ahhg!!!  I’m going to be off-duty officer again. Pray that I hear the phone ring. Please. The person scheduled had an emergency and I was asked to fill in. I could use the extra money. (If you don’t know this story, you can read the post, “The Week of Favor and Lesson Learned” under the label “Ideas.”)

Other than relaying that bit of info and petitioning prayers, I wanted to give updates on marketing and networking. I’m still researching and consider myself to be a novice, but here’s what I’ve been looking into:

1.                  Author Marketing Club. This is a free site where you can announce your book to other authors and also readers; ask for reviews; post your book trailer; try and get your book highlighted; take part in blog exchanges; and engage in “tagging,” where everyone in the forum confirms each others' tags for their books on Amazon.com and likes it. Tags are search descriptors of your book. Supposedly the more tags and likes you have, the more your book shows up in searches. It’s a free site, so it’s worth giving it a try.

2.                  The Kindle Board blog. Here, you can announce your free book giveaways from Amazon.com, or if your book is being sold for very cheap, like .99 or something like that. I’ve barely taken a peak at the site and am unsure of what all could be done.

3.                  Pinterest. Someone on LinkedIn showed where she used her Pinterest account to show her book trailer (I didn’t know you could do that ), add writing samples, and anything else related to her as a writer. She has a separate board for each of her books. I guess that’s another site where I need to hunt for followers and likes! I’ve added my trailer and samples, and need to work on building the board. Here’s my link: http://pinterest.com/chancelet/

4.                  Other Blogs. Connecting with other blogs that have your interests is another way of marketing and networking. Some people are just for numbers and their own blogs. But some like making connections and supporting other bloggers. They may do a write-up on your blog or book and link the info to your sites. When Julie Luek of the blog A Thought Grows wrote something about my blog and book, I received the most traffic after that and got a few more members. I believe I will make another connection soon too. I suggest you do this only for blogs that you really like, otherwise you’ll be suffering through the posts of those blogs. That has not been a problem for me yet!

5.                  LinkedIn. I believe I’ve mentioned this before. But there are a lot of groups you can join, announcements you can make and ways to try and get people to be interested in you and what you have to say. I’ve received the most blog traffic from LinkedIn.

6.                  Twitter. Okay, I’m still confused about twitter. I thought it was all about numbers – trying to get lots of followers. But people have been “retweeting” my tweets, which is a way of getting your tweets to more people, because the people retweeting me have many more followers than I do. On occasion, I read tweets, but I’ve been so busy with researching, I haven’t done much lately. I need to so hopefully people will know that I’m grateful for their retweeting me.

7.                  CNN iReport. I finally figured out how to directly upload my book trailer to different sites using my Mac. This is my first Mac and the differences from Windows got me a bit behind. Anyway, I came across iCNN, where I uploaded my trailer to, and found out you can have a profile there and post info. They have stories you can submit to, I believe via video only, and try and get your name out there. I plan on doing a story on the topic, “Being Black in American.” I’ve written out the script and need to try and do the no-more-than-30-second video. This is totally new to me! I’ll let you know what happens. Here's my profile: http://ireport.cnn.com/people/Chancelet

If you have other ideas, wish to add some info on the links above, or to set me straight about something, please feel free to leave a comment. God bless and have a wonderful week. 

Until the next writing prompt tomorrow!

4th time's the charm for these exercises

Write 200 words (yes, I've doubled it. I think 100 might be too few for many) in the format of fiction, poetry or memoir and post it as a comment. One weekly piece will be selected to highlight. You may include a link to your website, blog, or book for sale. If your unsure what to do, read the post, "Writing Prompts to Build a Community" - just click the "Daily Writing Prompts" label to the left, and it's the bottom post.

Writing Prompt # 4:  Holding back.

Daily Wring Prompt

Write 200 words (yes, I've doubled it. I think 100 might be too few for many) in the format of fiction, poetry or memoir and post it as a comment. One weekly piece will be selected to highlight. You may include a link to your website, blog, or book for sale. If your unsure what to do, read the post, "Writing Prompts to Build a Community" - just click the "Daily Writing Prompts" label to the left, and it's the bottom post.

Prompt # 3: Sandstorm

Exercise No. 2: Let's Write!

Write 200 words (yes, I've doubled it. I think 100 might be too few for many) in the format of fiction, poetry or memoir and post it as a comment. One weekly piece will be selected to highlight. You may include a link to your website, blog, or book for sale. Please read qualifiers and intent in the post "Writing Prompts to Build a Community" - just click the "Daily Writing Prompts" label to the left, and it's the bottom post.

Prompt # 2:  Lazy Saturday morning and you are sleeping in, until you realize that the most important thing is supposed to happen today.

For the First Daily Writing Prompt

Again, write 200 words (yes, I've doubled it. I think 100 might be too few for many) in the format of fiction, poetry or memoir and post it as a comment. One weekly piece will be selected to highlight. You may include a link to your website, blog, or book for sale. Please read qualifiers and intent in the post "Writing Prompts to Build a Community".

The Prompt:  You're staring at a completely set Thanksgiving table loaded with the most amazing feast in a room that's decked out in fine celebration style, but you are the only one there.

Writing Prompts to Build a Community

Write a story, poem, memoir or whatever else you'd like to write (even if it's not complete) of no more than 300 words using daily prompts to share on this blog as a comment. Writing prompts are a good way to keep your creative juices flowing and to practice writing skills – such as descriptions, dialogue, scene, monologues, etc.

The way writing prompts work is the prompt sentence, phrase or word must be either used in the piece or be a theme of the piece and is completed in one sitting. You should be done in no more than five minutes. Editing can be done after the initial write. A new prompt will be posted daily starting November 23, 2012.

The criteria:

1.     No more than 300 words

2.     Fiction, poetry, memoir, or whatever else you feel like writing

3.     No explicit sex

4.     No constant profanity

5.     Must be the original work of the person posting

6.     Be open to honest critique

Anything not following the above criteria will not be posted or will be deleted.

The intent for this:

1.     To practice writing with short and continual exercises

2.     To meet other writers

3.     Possibly get critiqued

4.     You may include a link to your blog, webpage or book for sale

5.     300 words is enough to keep you fresh without bogging you down

6.     Building a gracious writing community is a beautiful thing

Once a week or every other week, depending on how busy things are, I will choose a winning piece to highlight. If the winner has a webpage, blog or book, and if they so desire, a write-up will be posted along with the winning piece.

Let's keep writing and sharing to build this community!