Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 46

Decisions, Decisions: What Should We Write Next?

Me:0. Poor planning: 1

Before I left for the Romance Writers of America conference, I ran a Bonus Contest using comments with blog post ideas as the way to enter. Great! I’m always on the lookout for suggestions, and even though I haven’t run out of ideas after six years of solid blogging, I still fear the possibility. *smile*

But then—as what always happens when I attend a writing conference—I came back from San Diego with a ton of ideas for posts as well. So now I’m drowning in ideas and s...

Conference Recap & Bonus Contest Winner!

I’m back from beautiful San Diego and the Romance Writers of America National Conference exhausted but happy. I want to thank Devika Fernando for filling in for me while I was gone with her post about writing multicultural stories. Be sure to check it out!

I’m going to try to make this a short post because I got only 3-4 hours of sleep each night of the conference, and I’m still struggling with my surgery recovery too. So that brings me to my quick recap of the past week…

The Bad…

Before I l...

Writing Multicultural Stories: The Pros and Cons — Guest: Devika Fernando

Sometimes we can burn out on a certain genre or type of story as either a writer or a reader. Maybe in a series, we struggle to come up with new concepts that we haven’t already explored in other books of the series.

Or as a reader, maybe we’ve read so many of one type of story that the plots and characters all start to blend together. Whole parodies (and Twitter accounts) have grown up around the many dystopian young adult books. I tend to binge-read series, which exacerbates this problem a...

Blogiversary Winners & a Bonus Contest!

Woo hoo! I officially made it to the six-year mark on my blog, and now I’m looking forward to another year with all of you. *smile*

On my post announcing my annual Blogiversary Contest, we had enough comments to earn three winners. In fact, we were just a couple of comments away from earning four winners.

So. Close. *sigh*

I always struggle with the part where random.org selects the winners because I wish I could give everyone a prize. And this year, when we were so close to earning another...

Self Publishing? What’s Your Plan to Keep Readers? — Part Five

It’s time once again for my monthly guest post over at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University. We’ve been exploring the choices for what path we want to follow in our indie publishing career, and today, we’re digging even deeper into how to walk our chosen path.

My series about Indie Publishing Paths at Fiction University has highlighted some of the choices we have to make and given us a few guidelines for figuring out how to make the best decisions for us.

We started off talkingabout knowing our...

The Ultimate #RWA16 Conference Packing List

Those of you who follow my blog know that I’ve struggled with various health issues this year. Despite that, I’m leaving next week to attend theRomance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference, which is meeting in San Diego, California, this year.

(Blame my stubborn determination to stick to my every-other-year attendance schedule and the fact that I had to register months ago—when I was more optimistic for quick medical solutions. *shrug*)

Yep, I’ll be there in foot/ankle braces (for nerv...

Strengthen Your Writing with Rhetorical Devices

Some in the literary community assume that genre writers don’t care about the deeper aspects of writing craft. While it’s true that literary fiction is more well-known for its use of figurative and lyrical language, genre fiction can use the same literary tools.

Now, if you’re anything like me, and your English or grammar instruction was less than ideal, you might not be familiar with the term rhetorical devices. I certainly wasn’t.

When I first heard the term, I assumed it had something to...

6th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

It’s that time of year again. My six-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th. Holy cow. Six years? Really?

I think it’s now official that I’ve been blogging for forever. Or maybe after this past year’s publication schedule and health issues, it just feels that way. *smile*

Once again, I’m amazed I found that much to blog about, not just in the number of posts (over 600!) but the length of my posts. (I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve come up with a blog topic and said, “Oh,...

4 Steps to Break Grammar Rules with Style — Guest: Julie Glover

I’ve mentioned before that my schooling was…let’s say, lacking in the grammar department. So when I started down the writing path, I played catch up by checking out every grammar book I could from the library.

However, soon after my new infusion of knowledge, a published author beta read my (now stored under a metaphorical bed) work in progress. She pointed out that my strict adherence to the grammar rules was strangling my voice.

What? I didn’t want to believe her. How would people know how...

Why Is “Unlikable” Often a Deal-Breaker for Readers?

I’m back from my vacation(which was awesome and wonderful), but I hope you all enjoyed my guest posters while I was gone. A huge Thank You! shout-out to Renee, Davonne, Becca, and Marcy for filling in for me.

If you missed any of their posts, I encourage you to check them out. They shared their expertise on entrepreneurship, Tumblr, using setting to enhance a mood, and empowering description with contrast.

I have surgery scheduled for later this week, so I’ll be running another guest post on...