Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 90
May 11, 2015
All in the family
A writing career is a family affair. I started my first book 15 years ago, and life hasn’t been the same since for the Langstons.
Some aspects have been negative, but today’s post is not about the bad stuff. Instead, I’ll share how writing makes my family better.
The idea for this post came to me in April. My daughter and I had just attended a wonderful talk at Duke University by Jeannie Lin. Afterwards, we were invited to dine with Jeannie and three other amazing authors–Katharine Ashe, Jen...
May 10, 2015
May 7, 2015
Fangirl Friday: 5.8.2015
Welcome, welcome, to another edition of Fangirl Friday! The day we gush about books…books we love, books we’ve read, books we’ve written, books that are on sale!
New Ruby Releases This Week:There are no new Ruby Releases this week, but if you released something new, please feel free to tell us in the comments!
Ruby Books Discounted or Free in the Coming Week:Liliana Lee’s THE OBSESSIONis free until May 11!
Laurie Kellogg’s DON’T BREAK MY HEART is also free this weekend!
Share In the Commen...May 6, 2015
This or that – One book or many?
[I’m introducing a new concept for the Ruby blog: This or That Thursday. Every month or so, we’ll offer you a question with two choices, such as… Plotter or Pantser? Alpha male or beta? Legal pad or Scrivener? And then you tell us which one most closely reflects you.]
For our very first This or That, I’ll ask about the number of works-in-progress (WIP) you have. Do you work on one book at a time or many?
For me, it’s many. In fact, I may be a little bit extreme, ’cause I’m sort of working on...
May 5, 2015
Show and Tell Wednesday: Barbara Vey’s Reader Appreciation Luncheon
Two weekends ago, I made my yearly trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for what is coming to signal the beginning of conference season for me: The Annual Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Luncheon.
I knew this year was going to be a blast when the event sold out within 48 hours of tickets being available. Readers told me about how they teamed up with people designated to stay up until midnight and buy luncheon tickets.
Friday was the warm-up event with an Author Q&A. With 61 authors, it’s actually qu...
May 4, 2015
Let’s Play!!!!
A few years ago, I posted a little creative writing prompt from the blog Writing Forward, challenging our readers to write a few sentences beginning with exactly these words: “Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon. The blackbird….”
We got lots of fun responses, which you can read here.
I love exercises like these, since they’re quick and low-stakes, but give your writing brain a quick shot of creative inspiration. It’s like yoga with words. Good for k...
May 3, 2015
Yay! It’s Monday!
Welcome to another Real Life Monday! Add up sleepy kiddos rushing to get out the door (I have 3 who attend 3 different schools!), traffic, appointments and e-mails to answer and you have a Monday that feels all too real and in your face. It’s often enough to make us yearn to dive back under the covers in weekday denial. Go Away Monday!
So how do we rev ourselves up, motivate our smiles, and squeeze some exuberance out of our yawns? After years of reading articles and trying various bits of a...
April 30, 2015
Fangirl Friday: 5.1.2015
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Fangirl Friday! The day we gush about books…books we love, books we’ve read, books we’ve written, books that are on sale!
New Ruby Releases This Week:Today is RELEASE DAY for the digital version of Book #2 in Jeannie Lin’s Rebels and Lovers series — A Dance with Danger!
After a failed assassination attempt on a corrupt general, Bao Yang is a wanted man. Taking refuge with an ally, Yang accidentally compromises the man’s daughter when they’re discove...
April 29, 2015
It’s All About the Data… and boy, do we have data!
Liz Bemis and Jenn Stark are delighted to report that the 2015 Author Experience Survey (AES), which we hope to become an annual event, was a great success! As we mentioned in our introductory post, we’d hoped to get 100 responses to feel like we had a reasonable sample of authors. We almost doubled that number!
In this article, we’ll summarize the respondent set, then highlight the top five findings from our initial review. Want to know more than the top five findings? See below!
Respondent...April 28, 2015
Show and Tell Wednesday: DIY Visual Inspiration
For this week’s Show and Tell, we have guest author–and guest artiste–Sandra Schwab presenting her process for visualizing one of her historical romances. When she proposed the idea, I thought it sounded interesting. What I didn’t realize was that we were in for an absolute visual feast!! I was mesmerized by the drawings and digital art. They totally make me want to see how the story comes together! (And I’m also wondering how long it took her to make the portraits. And how long it would take...
