Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 47

Terry here (busy, busy, busy) Our question this week: It...

 

Terry here (busy, busy, busy) Our question this week: It’s the time of year when family commitments begin to ramp up, AND a huge number of books are published, just in time for the gift-giving season. How will this affect your reading? What’s on your To Be Read pile at the moment? 
 This year my reading time is especially affected by the fact that I’m judging an award for best novel for the Texas Institute of Letters. It doesn’t entail a huge volume of books, but with all my other commitments,...

On My Reading List

It’s the time of year when family commitments begin to ramp up, AND a huge number of books are published, just in time for the gift-giving season. How will this affect your reading, and what’s on your To Be Read pile at the moment?

Brenda starting off the week.

I have a couple of books waiting to be read. 

First up is Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. My book club selected this novel for our meeting at the end of the month with plans to see the movie afterwards. The book is non-fiction and...

Things I’m Grateful For, by Josh Stallings

Q: Okay – time to confess…those “New Year Resolutions” you made way back in January…how well have you done?

A: I understand the question and it makes sense. The problem is I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. This is largely because of sobriety. I came to believe in taking things one day at a time. If I make a commitment to what I’m going to do over the next year, it creates a big opportunity to make myself feel bad. Much can change in a year. I can promise I’m going to write the great American nov...

And now that it's all over... by Cathy Ace

Okay – time to confess…those “New Year Resolutions” you made wayback in January…how well have you done?

Earlier thisyear, at this very blog, I wrote the following:

Yes, I do have some writingresolutions for 2023:

Write better

Write smarter

Write faster

(this is an annual resolution I ALWAYS failat, whatever the others might be!)

How have I done? 

Writebetter: who knows…only my readers can answer this one.I always try to “w...

SMARTER THAN SOAP by Gabriel Valjan

Okay – time toconfess…those “New Year Resolutions” you made way back in January…how well haveyou done?

 

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Timely

 

These letters are an acronym taught to nursing students forsetting goals, whether it is for themselves or for patients in the workplace.The Irony with the capital I is there is seldom a place within clinicaldocumentation for it, and no nurse has the time on the floor to create one.There is a lot of talk in scho...

This Professional Life

Q: Okay – time to confess…those “New Year Resolutions” you made way back in January…how well have you done?

-from Susan

Since I don’t make New Year resolutions per se, I’m a wee bit off the hook. But not entirely because in the first couple of months of 2023, I took a look at my professional activities, standing, and options and made some private promises to myself. I will never have a break out book, I’ve come to realize, so what can I do to keep my standing as a mid-list author? My newest book, ...

A Tricky Business

by Abir

 

How do you measure “business success”? How “successful” have you been in terms of “business” this year?

 

 

Now this is an interesting question. In the five years that I’ve been a member of this august panel, I can’t remember this particular question being asked. And it’s an important question too, because while writing is a passion, if your dream is to make a living from it, then it’s also a business too.

 

I came to writing, at least serious writing, relatively late. I was thirty nine befor...

Annual Report to the Stockholders from James W. Ziskin

How do you measure “business success”? How “successful” have you been in terms of “business” this year?

I’ve been teaching French in public schools for the past three years. It’s a rewarding, if time-consuming, experience. While I love working with the students and (trying) to inspire a love for language in their hearts, the workload has definitely cut into my writing time. Nevertheless, I managed to publish a short story this year and write a new novel. I consider those two accomplishments succe...

Milk and honey

How do you measure “business success”? How “successful” have you been in terms of “business” this year?

by Dietrich

Most of us will likely think making big bucks spells success, and I suppose that’s a hard point to argue.

When I wrote my first short story, I just wanted to find a willing publisher. Anybody. And when that happened, it felt like success. After getting a few more short stories published, I started to think of myself as a writer — another step forward. And the same can be said whe...

How Successful is Success?

 

Terry here, answering the elusive questions: How do you measure “business success”? How “successful” have you been in terms of “business” this year? 
 If I want a good laugh I remember when I was VERY young and asked my husband how he’d feel if I became a published author and made more money than him. Hahahahaha. 
Ahem. My last royalty check, with nine books published, was enough to take the two of us to dinner at a reasonably expensive restaurant (read: not MacDonald’s). 
I think most people meas...