Alison Kent's Blog, page 31

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES FOR AUTHORS

by guest blogger LaConnie Taylor-Jones

[image error]"Beatitude is a possession of all things held to be good, from which nothing is absent that a good desire may want. Perhaps the meaning of beatitude may become clearer to us if it is compared with its opposite. Now the opposite of beatitude is misery. Misery means being afflicted unwillingly with painful sufferings." – St. Gregory of Nyssa

Blessed is the author who enjoys the present. Yesterday is gone. We can't change the mistakes of the past, but we...

Good writing craft linkage

I've recently bookmarked a few writing articles to share, and since I'm determined not to fall behind in my daily word count – and I haven't yet, whew, at least not without making it up the next day – this is all the blogging time I have at the moment!

1.) How to write a scene in a novel

Imagine a lustrous string of pearls. The first gemstone compliments the next which balances with the rest and strung together they lay upon a woman's neckline to bring forth her natural beauty and give her a...

A variety of book buying, shelving, collecting habits

Last week there was a conversation on a reader's blog about a highly anticipated story in an author's ongoing series coming out in hardcover when the previous installments had come out in trade before being reprinted as mass market paperbacks.

There was much said about the different sizes messing up bookshelves, and being a rather OCD person about many things, like the way the paragraphs in my manuscripts line up, I get that. But it doesn't bother me when it comes to shelving books. Here are ...

Red Letter Nights redux

I'm happy to announce that RED LETTER NIGHTS, the prequel to GOES DOWN EASY is now available for pre-order in electronic format. It'll be out on March 15th (but I'm posting now because it's on my mind, and pre-ordering is awesome!)

You can get it for the Kindle here, and if you don't have a Kindle or an iPhone or iPod Touch with the Kindle app, you can get the free Kindle for the PC software here, and read on whatever computer got you here!

If you missed this one but read FOUR MEN & A LADY...

Some foods

Here are some things I've cooked recently and can recommend:

Roman-style chicken

I made this because I happened to have both red and yellow (and orange) peppers on hand. Very good, but not . . . hefty (?) enough? I'll give it a solid B.

Baked Meatballs

I didn't have lamb, duh, or pork that wasn't sausage, so I used one pound of ground beef and a half pound of smokehouse pork sausage. Let me just say OMG these were good. Big fat A+.

Basic Drip Beef
I halved this as I'd split (and frozen) one of...

Figuring daily word counts

Yesterday in a blog comment, Janet said in response to my word count on Sam Day:

I've often wondered how many words a day authors have to write to hone their craft. Obviously 40 is not enough? lol

You know, the necessary number depends on so many things, though the number one consideration is having a contracted deadline. Some authors calculate their daily word count based on writing seven days a week. Others write M – F and take off weekends to recharge and have family time. Some work all...

Word count and tracking spreadsheet

I know everyone has been dying to know how many words I wrote last Thursday while Sam was here. Not that you really want to know the tally as much as who won the Amazon GC, LOL, but the answer is FORTY. Yes, I wrote FORTY words that day, meaning the winner is: Elaine R who said "under a hundred words." So, yes. I deserve forty licks for only getting done forty words. I'm sure if I had a little one underfoot on a regular basis, I'd do more. Or at least be more disciplined about the whole...

If you like . . . readers weigh in, please (aka HELP)!

You know how All About Romance has their If You Like recommendations? And how Netflix will recommend movies viewers might like based on their previous rentals?

Well, HCI Books, needs to do something similar with those of us launching the Vows line, so . . . help? What books (specific titles are welcome) or authors would you say are similar to titles of mine, or my writing, stuff like that.

It's the first of the month, and that means …

The Olympics are finally over. I wasn't into them this year the way I've been in the past. Maybe because I had a lot of stuff going on and couldn't spare the emotional involvement, but I did watch some speed skating, some ski jumping, some downhill and bobsled. Caught all of Lindsey Vonn's wipeouts. Have to say I'm glad to have my evening programming back. Kinda threw me off, not having my shows to watch to wind down at the end of the day, but it resulted in a lot of work getting done, so...

My admiration for writing mothers (and a giveaway)

Yes, I wrote when my kids were young, but I started in 1989 and they were 10, 8 and 5, and in grade school. They were not a month shy of being 3 and enamored of Thomas the Tank Engine and Buzz Lightyear and Barney. A month shy of being 3 means all sorts of curiosity ("Where Percy going?" while watching Thomas videos) and wanting to learn, ergo, the shoe tying lesson as @cuppacafe was getting ready to leave for work. Once it warmed up enough, we went for a walk and found acorns ("These are...