Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 15

Random Writing Tips – Social commentary

Ihad the idea for this post some time ago, and at first it was going to bepretty lighthearted.  But as I thoughtabout it, it took more and more serious turns, until I wasn’t sure what I wastrying to say.  Hopefully, this tenth orso version will make some sense.Weall have ideas on politics, or religion, or whatever, and as writers there isthe temptation to use the platform of our writing

Random Writing Tips – The Memory Sock

Howoften has this happened to you?  You’vehad a long day at work or dealing with your kids or whatever, and you snuggledown into your blankets, and just as your about to drift off to sleep yourbrain finally figures out the last puzzle piece that ties your noveltogether.  Do you assume that the idea isso profound you’ll clearly remember it in the morning, or do you get up, findsome paper

Random Writing Tips – blog mining

 Itseems that if you want to sell your books – especially if you self-publish –you need to find and engage with an audience. That’s great an all, if you’re someone who can hold a conversation.  One time in college, I was walking somewherewith a woman and she said, “So, tell me about yourself.” I thought for a bitand replied, “I was born.” She laughed, and then started talking aboutsomething

Free vampire story ideas

YesterdayI was scrolling through Twitter, or Facebook, I forget which, and I saw a postof someone asking for tips for writing a vampire story.  I didn’t read any of the suggestions becauseI didn’t really care.  Vampires have almostbeen done to death.  But the idea of avampire story fluttered around in my head, and I thought that for a goodvampire story there needs to be some twist. As a

Random Writing Tips – An interesting use for libraries/Twitter

 Atthe beginning of the year, I did a post on my writing goals for 2021.  One thing I left off that list because itonly relates to writing, is that I want to sell more of my Kindle books thisyear.  That’s a great goal, but how doesone try to do that?  I don’t know.  Which is why I’m trying some things this yearto see if I can find something that seems to work so I can expand on it in the

Random Writing Tips – Schedules

Acouple weeks ago, I posted a blog about my writing goals for this year.  One goal I didn’t mention because it’s notactually writing, is to sell more of my books. Great idea, but how do you go about that?Ifigure a good place to start is to just have more people know I exits.  Again, that’s a great idea, but what do Ido?  More importantly, what can I do thatis simple and cheap?  One idea I

Biden Inauguration Sale!

Justbefore the 2012 Election, I self-published PoliticalPies, a collection of forty of my stories with a political element.  I tried to make the stories as neutral orequally condemning of the parties as I could because I wasn’t trying to forcean agenda, I just wanted people to start thinking about issues.  Since then, to try to get it into as manyhands as I could, I usually have a free sale

My writing goals for 2021

 Last
year I posted a blog of my writing goals for 2020.  I had four goals and I met two-and-a-half of
them.  One goal was that every four years
I go through my ebooks and fix any typos and outdated information.  I forget exactly when I finished my 2020
revisions, but it was around April. 
After I finished that, I got to work on my collection Useless Cogs, which I published in
October. 

The
one

Writing Newsletter Fourth Quarter 2020

Way
back in 2006, I began making a quarterly newsletter for my writing news.  At first, I emailed it to my friends, but
part way through the year I switched over to putting monthly updates on my
website.  It was a way to let people know
what – if anything – of mine had been published, random updates, and I usually
added a short story or haiku or something. 
I continued for several years (I moved

Christmas sale!

So
it’s Christmas.  Maybe Santa brought you
a new Kindle, maybe in the last few months you’ve read everything in your
house, or maybe you’re just looking to try something new from someone you’ve
probably never heard of.  Well, I got you
covered.  From Wednesday December 23,
through Sunday December 27, my four Kindle ebooks listed below will be free to
download. 

I
hope you all have a safe and