Today I went for a run. No big deal, I hear you say. People run all the time. The thing is: I haven’t gone running for 18 months. Not since I was in Hanoi. This pandemic (or rather, the government’s response to the pandemic) has sucked the productivity right out of me. I’ve had no goals and no direction because there’s so much uncertainty, particularly in Australia. Our leaders are drunk on power and – in their relentless and destructive pursuit of zero COVID – love to “snap” lock Australian borders and cities because of one freaking case, with the
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Kevin Casey is The Jet-setting Copywriter—a global wilderness explorer and part-time digital nomad who pays for all his overseas adventures through freelance writing. Born in California, he now lives in Brisbane, Australia. Kevin’s passion is exploring wild, untouched rivers around the globe. He has ventured up pristine tributaries in the Guyana jungle, searched for Kermode bears in British Columbia, discovered unknown waterfalls in Australia’s Kimberley region, shared antelope stew with pygmies in Gabon and tracked jaguars in Bolivia. As the Remote River Man, Kevin has been self-filming his journeys since 2004, producing several full-length DVDs. Articles about Kevin’s epic (and normally solitary)
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Free to download during national novel writing month! As far as I am concerned—if you register and write—you win NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) even if you don’t make 50,000 words. No questions asked! And I say that because I know writing is one of the most difficult things anyone can do. Life—and all that that entails—often gets in the way. Children, family, work, sport, a social life, other books, Facebook and A Game Of Thrones all conspire against you for writing time. That’s what The Secret Lives of Writers is free to download for NaNoWriMo. No email address required! It’s my gift to
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Melinda Kovac is a writer of short stories, historical fiction, young adult novels and memoir who is working on her first novel. She has been blogging for a number of years, with her newest blog now at melindakovac.com. She also has her own copywriting, editing and proofreading business, MKK Communications, should you need any of those services. Writing: find what works for you A year ago when I offered to write a guest blog post about how writers juggle art and life I naively thought I’d have it all figured out by now. People seem to do this all the
Continue reading...An award for me? Aw, shucks Recently, I was nominated for a Liebster Award by the fabulous Laura Roberts from Buttontapper Press—who was one of my first Secret Lives of Writers guest bloggers—and has become a firm favourite of mine on Facebook. A big, huge thank you, Laura, for nominating me! I have nominated five more bloggers (see below), and for nominated bloggers, these are the guidelines to keep the award going if you choose to accept it: Display an image of the award and write about your nomination. Thank and link the person who nominated you for this award. Answer the 11
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Dorothy Distefano has loved to read since discovering the power of words at four-and-a-half years old with the book, “Ann Likes Red.” Moving to writing was a natural progression, though she took a circuitous route to get there. She has been, in no particular order, a wife, mother, psychiatric RN, gastroenterological nurse, substitute teacher, family book club creator, PTA president, and soap opera critic. She is finally living her dream. Random facts: her children can tell what kind of day she’s having by looking at her hair; her favorite word is lollygag; she loves Kindle so she can carry 3,000
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Photo via Visual Hunt. Used with permission. Someone asked me recently, knowing that I was a writer and knowing I wrote mostly non-fiction and knowing that I often wrote about difficult things, whether I wrote for healing. As in, was writing a cathartic way of lancing a few boils? I responded in the negative. And it got me thinking. Why do I write? Hell, why does anyone write? It’s not like I have a huge audience of a gazillion people champing at the bit to digest every word I write. It’s not for money, because I don’t earn a living from
Continue reading...Kristen Torgerson is a DIY-er at heart and can be found dreaming up her latest projects in Frisco, Texas with her sidekick mutt, Chewy Bear. Her favorite things include dark chocolate, long naps on the beach, and watching documentaries. Her first book, The Juice Junkie: Real Life Tips and Tricks for Juicing, shares the health benefits of juicing and her best tips to become a successful juicer. When she isn’t busy juicing and trying to become a doggy stage mom, you can find her blogging at JuiceJunkieWeb.com, and interviewing authors at AllBookCandy.com. Down the self publishing rabbit hole… Dear readers, let
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Cassie Newell dons her cape professionally in the pharmaceutical industry and in her spare time she is a blogger, an author of several short stories, and writes under the pen name, Mira Monroe. She is in the throes of editing her first young adult novel, Unwanted Magick, set to publish under her imprint eBook Me Up later this year. Cassie is an avid reader and enjoys supporting her fellow indie authors. You can find Cassie at her blog My Etch-A-Sketch Life, on Twitter and Pinterest. Professional or hobby: marrying multiple creative personalities Do your professional career and your hobbies veer to
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Aniko Carmean is a Virginia girl living in Austin, Texas. She writes stories and novels in a variety of genres, including horror, science fiction, and literary-artsy. Her definition of success involves stickers, giving away free versions of everything she writes, and dwelling in the beauty of the literary community rather than the anxiety of selfish grasping. You can find links to free downloads of all Aniko’s published works at Odd Sky Books. The surprising benefits of being your own patron I began writing in October of 2005. Oh, there were some stories written in high school, and a few tender, overly
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I knew nothing about self publishing when I decided to book this blog and publish it as the Love & Other Brave Acts. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Actually, that’s not true. I knew nothing about self publishing (other than: I’m quite IT savvy so how hard could it be?) and a bit about publishing (as in: I’ve been rejected by both major and minor publishers alike, and I read published books). What I did know was that I wanted to publish and more importantly, with the tools that are currently available, could publish. And publish I did. Two books down and
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Did you know that I’m a judge for a short story competition, specifically for eBook Me Up’s Short Story Competition? No? Well, you do now. I met Cassie—the bright spark behind the competition—during my KindleIn30 Challenge. She was also one of my beta readers for Broken Heart Stuff. Cassie had the idea of using participants from the Challenge as judges and when she did a call-out, I raised my hand. After all, I’ve never been a judge—unless you count my teaching days where I judged all my students’ work! Anyway, I’ll let Cassie explain what it’s all about: Why have
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