Pat Bertram's Blog, page 323

Writing, Blogging, Promoting — My Aha Moment

Fellow author Dale Cozort recently returned from agent Donald Maass's High Tension Workshop. (Okay, it wasn't recently –  it was back in April, but who's counting?) Cozort reported that according to Maass, the keys to keeping modern readers' interest are finding something fresh — a different way of looking at events — and finding ways of getting the reader to identify with the character or with the scene.

According to The Everything Blogging Book by Aliza Sherman Risdahl, the key to keeping blog

More Blogs Than One

A year ago when I was waiting for my books to be published, I kept myself occupied with setting up a variety of blogs. I told myself I wanted to test blogging platforms so I could help my fellow authors pick the best one for their needs, but that wasn't my excuse for setting up a bunch of WordPress blogs since I was already familiar with the site. The truth is, I became enamored with the custom colorizer, and ended up with five blogs, identical except for color.

The blue blog, this one — Bertram'

Catapulting Me Into BetterSellerdom

In the past week, I received a couple of emails from people asking my advice on how to promote various online activities, I received an invitation to host a seminar on promotion, and I received an invitation to participate in a BlogTalkRadio discussion about creating a successful Facebook group. Apparently, I'm making a name for myself, (albeit slowly) but not as an author. Am I doing something right? Am I going about my self-promotion in the wrong way? I don't know.

The interesting thing — to me

It's a Birthday Party!

No, it's not my birthday, it's the birthday of Second Wind Publishing, LLC. The first book was published exactly one year ago today, and now there are almost thirty, including two of mine (with a third on the way.)

I have no doubts of the success of Second Wind. Mike Simpson has the uncanny ability of getting his authors involved in the business, challenging us to expand our abilities beyond the scope of writing. He's gotten die-hard thriller writers to edit romances. He's gotten shy authors to d

Keeping It Real in a Fabricated World

Ian O'Neill, the one-time advertising copywriter turned award winning freelance journalist, is the author of Endo, a mystery/suspense novel set in Ontario, Canada. Ian has written for newspaper, magazine, radio, television and once wrote a dirty limerick on a dusty car but didn't sign it. Ian writes:

Writing a fiction novel can be oxymoronic since we fill the fabricated story with facts. In my novel, Endo, I made up a detective, his life, the world around him, but added facts to keep the reader g

The Magic Of Mysteries: The Art (And Joy) Of Misdirection

Ian O'Neill, the one-time advertising copywriter turned award winning freelance journalist, is the author of Endo, a mystery/suspense novel set in Ontario, Canada. Ian has written for newspaper, magazine, radio, television and once wrote a dirty limerick on a dusty car but didn't sign it. Ian writes:

I worked for Parks and Rec when I was younger and on a rainy day managed to bring in a magician to entertain the kids in our program. It was fascinating to not only watch him perform but also to see

To Trust or Not to Trust?

I recently helped run a short story contest for Second Wind Publishing, LLC — the first contest that was sponsored solely by the company — and it went smoothly. Until last week. That's when we found out one of the finalists had copied a story from another writer who had posted it on the Internet. Whoooo. So not the thing to do!

Deborah J Ledford, a friend and fellow author keeps warning me about posting my writing on the Internet since such episodes are not uncommon, but I still persist in postin

Something Ew and Different

So, did you miss me? I bet you didn't even know I was gone. I went to Las Vegas to a surprise birthday party for my brother, and I couldn't talk about it beforehand since I didn't want to be the one to un-surprise him. It was fun, though the town is wasted on me — I forgot to gamble. I guess I'll have to find another way to get rich. I know! I'll write a book, become a bestselling author, and make millions. Are you laughing, too? It would have been better for me to be a bettor.

I was hoping that

Is Anyone Really Writing the Great American Novel?

I still come across characters in books who want to write The Great American Novel, though in real life (or as real as it gets online) I don't see people saying that. Has the desire to write The Great American Novel been superseded by the desire to write the next million-dollar bestseller? And is either goal realistic for most of us, or even worth pursuing?

Frankly, when I started writing this bloggery, I didn't even know what The Great American Novel is, so I went trolling the Internet (so much

Words of Healing, Words of Fun

Tonight is No Whine, Just Champagne, my live discussion on Gather.com, and the host of the discussion chose to discuss — among other writing concerns — jingles, verses, word play, greeting card sentiments. It should be fun — I tend to take writing too seriously, but my love of writing started with a love of playing with words. Long before I started writing novels, I wrote snippets of poetry. I'd spend hours looking for the perfect word, for the perfect rhythm, the perfect innuendo. Some of those