Sharon Skinner's Blog, page 7
September 28, 2020
To Dune, or Not to Dune, That is the Discussion (and other things)
With a new cinema adaptation of Dune in the works, authors Sharon Skinner and Bruce Davis share their thoughts on the iconic science fiction series. Listen now to the August episode of the Brick Cave Podcast, with Sharon and fellow author Bruce Davis.
18 Additional minutes of this show are available for members of the Sapphire and Diamond Dragon members of the BC Book Club. Learn more and join at: https://bcbookclub.com
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August 31, 2020
Return to Anoria- Cover Reveal- Release Date Information
Fans of The Nelig Stones, Brick Cave Media has a full announcement evening plan for you on September 8, 2020 around the release of Return to Anoria, the second book of The Nelig Stones series from author Sharon Skinner.
Join Sharon for the special Zoom Tuesday, September 8 at 6:30pm MST for the cover reveal.
Immediately following the Virtual Event, Sharon will be on the BC Book Club Forums to answer questions from Book Club Members about the upcoming book.
Also on September 8, Brick Cave (and Sharon) will announce-
Release date for Diamond Dragon BC Book Club Membersl
Release date for Sapphire Dragon BC Book Club Membersl
Release date for the publicl
And, we will have a special surprise announcement as well
To RSVP for the zoom announcement:
BC Book Club members can post in the Sharon Skinner Forum that they would like to attend.
You can RSVP on the event at Brick Cave Media.com.
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August 5, 2020
Sharon Featured in Tempe Library Newsletter
Sharon has been published with an article in the July 2020 Tempe Public Library Newsletter, Pen to Paper Resources for Authors, with an article entitled Five Ways to Lose Your Reader on the First Page.
A simple and straightforward look at five different traps that push readers away from being captured by your story.
Got thoughts? Share them on Sharon’s Facebook Author Page or on the BC Book Club Sharon Forum.
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July 16, 2020
What I Have Been/Will Be Reading This Summer
With all the craziness of the world, I have pretty much tuned out to video media. I haven’t turned on the TV screen for over six weeks. I am sure it’s a passing thing, but I am listening to more podcasts and getting in more reading time.
I have also started listening to more audiobooks this summer. (Blame it on my BFF/Navy buddy. Thanks, Cathy!) However, I also read almost every night before I go to sleep and for that I prefer physical books. Words on the page are somehow more comforting than a voice in my ears and I like to get my eyes off the screen for a bit before I close them for the night.
The titles on my reading lists do not conform to any single genre. While my preferred genres tend to fall under SpecFic (Fantasy, SciFi, Paranormal), I have always been a voracious and eclectic reader. That means, I read what interests me, and I often focus on things I want and/or need to learn. Right now, that includes digging deeper into my white privilege.
Here is a list of the books I have recently finished and/or am reading:
Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (Audiobook)
I finished this one recently. Wow! I thought I knew somethings, but I was gobsmacked by the wrongness of the version of history I had ingested and the “nuanced” racism I fully missed in a number of things I have consumed in my life. Now, I need to read Kendi’s original, and deeper, work: Stamped from the Beginning. Also, Reynolds does an amazing job of narrating.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (Audiobook)
I picked this up as a writing craft booster. Also nicely narrated by the author. Some really good stuff in this one. Especially the part about how to handle the really negative critics (read: trolls): “Smile sweetly and tell them to go make their own f**ing art.”
So, You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (Audiobook)
Listening now. I love, love, love how Oluo explains things. She makes the hard truths easier to take in, and she is honest and sincere and doesn’t let herself off the hook, either. I am learning so much.
A Blade so Black by L.L. McKinney (Physical)
This is a new take on the Alice in Wonderland stories by Lewis Carroll. I am reading this as a mentor text for my craft. Looking at the ways other authors handle retellings/twisting known stories into new as I work out the kinks in one of my works in progress.
My CURRENT Reading (a Bit at a Time)/To Be Read (next) stack includes:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley
The Kick-Ass Writer by Check Wendig (Reading sections piecemeal.)
The Adventures of Damnation Kane, Vol. 1 by Théoden Humphrey(Reading chapters as serial episodes.)
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
And a slew of books I still need to read to compete this year’s Reading Women Challenge.
Yes, I do read more than one book at a time. No, I do not get confused by doing so. I have been doing it since I was a kid and it is just the way my brain likes to take in information, which is super helpful for my book coaching/developmental editing work.
Here’s to a wonderful word-filled summer in whatever way works for you!
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June 22, 2020
The Brick Cave Podcast Welcomes Sharon Skinner and Bruce Davis
Bruce Davis and Sharon Skinner kick off their own edition of the Brick Cave Podcast with some great talk about their current project lineup, fashion of the 19th Century, COVID, the current Brick Cave Kickstarter and other rabbit holes. They also talk about the #PublishingPaidMe hash tag and movement. Bruce puts in a plug for Frigid Reads, a review site: https://frigidreads.blogspot.com/
Sharon Skinner is the author of 9 books and a number of short stories, including the Tavara Tinker Series. Her most recent title, The Exile’s Gift, is available now from Brick Cave Media.
Brice Davis is the author of 7 books and several short pieces of fiction. He writes science fiction, fantasy and non fiction. His most recent title, Gold Magic, is currently available from Brick Cave Media. He is online at https://brucecdavis.com.
18 Additional minutes of this show are available for members of the Sapphire and Diamond Dragon members of the BC Book Club. Learn more and join at: https://bcbookclub.com
About Brick Cave Media
The Brick Cave Podcast is ©2020 Brick Cave Media LLC., all rights reserved. for more information on Brick Cave Media, visit the organization’s website at https://brickcavemedia.com. The Brick Cave Membership Community is called the BC Book Club, and you can join at https://bcbookclub.com.
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June 1, 2020
Upcoming Sharon Skinner Appearance
Brick Cave Media will be hosting a Zoom Panel June 30 with Sharon A Skinner and Louise Robertson: Can You Separate the Writer From the Work: With Louise Robertson & Sharon Skinner.
RSVP Required, and you can RSVP and receive additional details here: https://brickcavemedia.com/event/can-you-separate-the-writer-from-the-work-with-louise-robertson-sharon-skinner/
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May 26, 2020
Help Turn The Healer’s Legacy Into an Audio Book
Brick Cave Media, the publisher for The Healer’s Legacy Trilogy, has announced a Kickstarter beginning June 1, 2020 and lasting until July 15. The goal is to raise the $ to turn (at least) 3 of their fantasy books into audio books.
The Healer’s Legacy is one of those three books! Here’s how you can help make it happen:
If it’s before June 1, click the link on the campaign below and select the “Notify Me” option on the campaign page. The more people that do that the more interest it gets from Kickstarter to promote (so we are told). You are NOT committing any $ by doing so, FYI.
Then, on June 1, if you do want to help Healer’s and back the campaign, make sure you pick a #TeamSkinner reward. It’s a bit of a competition between Sharon and fellow Brick Cave Authors J.A. Giunta and Bruce Davis– the author with the most backers of their levels is the first one to get their book recorded. There are cool add ons including exclusive writing for Sharon, rewards including Sharon reading her favorite passage from The Healer’s Legacy and talking about it and, because it’s audio focused, a lot of audio book content.
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May 19, 2020
It’s Day IDK anymore
It’s Day IDK anymore of COVID-19 shelter in place/work from home for me. I realize this experience is as different for each of us as who we are. Some people, utility workers, grocery store workers, food chain employees, truckers, etc., must still go to work, hopefully in as safe as possible environments. Some, like those in the medical field and public safety service, etc., must go to work despite the fact that their environments and/or interactions are most definitely not safe. I am grateful to be able to work from home and to have a home from which to work.
Because of the nature of the work I do, I am still employed and still very engaged with my work colleagues.
And I am appreciative.
There are many people who are lonely and isolated and afraid. (I hope you are reaching out to the people you know and checking in.)
This situation, this major paradigm shift, has required an equally major mental adjustment. The way we see the world has changed because the world has changed. I am lucky to be in the position of rolling pretty well with this upheaval.
That said, as a Grants Professional, my day job right now is a lot like drinking from a fire hose.
All. Day. Long.
What that means for my writing is that I am using up a lot of my focus and energy on deep work during the day, which leaves little bandwidth left for creativity. Not that I wasn’t already struggling with my current WIPs prior to the pandemic. (But that’s another story.)
So, what have I been doing to try and break through all of this and get my butt back into the writing chair?
Well, a few months back, I started on the path to becoming a certified Book Coach through Author Accelerator. Since I already provide editorial services and mentoring for writers, it makes sense to formalize that and put some structure around it. It’s a ton of work, but it’s work that suits me, and it excites and feeds my passion for books and writing and supporting other writers in honing their craft and finishing and polishing their stories. I am about 90% of the way through the course and looking forward to finishing. (Thank you, Jennie Nash!)
Meanwhile, I have also continued to improve my knowledge of craft and all things book related. I have subscribed to and am listening to more podcasts, including #amwriting (highly recommended) and watching a multitude of Ted Talks.
As a life-long learner, this is nothing new for me, but this ongoing learning process has been amplified and expedited by the requirements of the Book Coaching coursework, and I am now seeing what I learn through a new lens. I am now seeing how these tools can benefit specific writers that I am currently working with as well as potential book coaching clients in the future.
And, in an interesting turn, I am once more feeling like a writer, that I do have more stories to share, that my characters, while patient, won’t wait forever for me to get back to them. And that they, and my readers, deserve my focus and energy. So, in the midst of all of this, I #amwriting again. (Finally!)
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April 22, 2020
Sharon and Brick Cave Media Supporting the Mesa United Way
Brick Cave Media, one of Sharon’s publishers, is supporting the Mesa United Way COVID-19 Support Fund with a special donation of books and gifts.
Dubbed the “Crate of Dragons and Magic”, the crate includes a complete Healer’s Legacy Trilogy, signed by Sharon, a plush Wyvern dragon, a Brick Cave Media T-Shirt, a bag to tote your new library in and the entire Ascension Series of novels by Arizona author J.A. Giunta.
You can register to win the crate by joining the fundraiser event:
Dress Up from the Waste Up Fundraiser
Friday, April 24, 7:00pm-8:30pm
Registration: http://mesaunitedway.org/ZoomParty
But wait, there’s more . . .
In addition to supporting the fundraiser, Brick Cave will donate $2 from each online sale between April 19, 2020-April 30, 2020 to the Mesa United Way’s Covid-19 Relief Fund. The promotion includes all books and other items available in the store at BrickCavemedia.com. To qualify the purchase must be made at BrickCavemedia.com.
Sharon has also pledged a $2 donation on each sale from her website as well until April 30th.
Read the Brick Cave Release here: https://brickcavemedia.com/brick-cave...
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April 16, 2020
Mesa, AZ Fire Chief Mary Cameli Reads Rocket Shoes
Mesa, AZ Fire Chief Mary Cameli hosts a YouTube based Storytime event. In this episode, she reads Rocket Shoes, by Sharon. Rocket Shoes is available for you here on the site.
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