Robert L. Slater's Blog, page 20
July 1, 2014
Why write a book for an audience that doesn’t read?
From 1999 to 2012 I taught at small alternative schools. One of the challenges as an English teacher is finding books that can hook students who did not grow up reading. Most students have one book that they read and loved: The Giver, Of Mice and Men, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Witch of Blackbird Pond, My Side of the Mountain, Island of Blue Dolphins,Hunger Games. I wanted to write a book for the kids who have gotten to high school without finding that book that they couldn’t put d...
June 19, 2014
Updates: Analog Review, #46 on Amazon, Teen Writer’s Conference…
No new content this week. Sorry. Working on a post tentatively titled: Why I wrote a novel for a target audience that doesn’t read…
Tomorrow, Friday, June 20th, I will be volunteering at the Write On! Teen Writer’s Conference. Event is presented byWhatcom Young Writersand Village Books, and co-sponsored by the Fairhaven Village Inn, Whatcom Educational Credit Union, poetrynight, Peoples Bank, and Lithtex NW Printing Solutions. For more information and to register, visitwww.writeonconference.co...
June 14, 2014
Choose your own reading adventure at Village Books tonight…
Check out my local author friends and I at Village Bookstonight. I read first at 7pm and at the end we’ll do panel questions.
June 10, 2014
Ladies and Gentlemen, Class of 2014. Sunscreen. Really!
Notes from a Commencement Address to Windward High School’s Class of 2014.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Class of 2014. Sunscreen. Really
What is Rob known for? Recycling. Not throwing things away? So the best way to offer advice? Recycle it. Borrow from the best. So, I’ve got advice from Shakespeare to Suess, Anne Frank to Ani Difranco, Heinlein to Hemingway, Mother Teresa to Twisted Sister, Spider, My Aunt and the Beatles, Tolkein to Rowling, and Socrates to Slater [cough].
Dr. Seuss: Don’t cry becaus...
June 3, 2014
My Path to Indie Publication: Part X—Finding Equilibrium
Path to Indie Publication Series is a companion series to Marshall Ryan Maresca’sPath to Publication. I have been avidly reading Marshall’s posts since I discovered his blog. ReadPath to Indie Publication:Part I.Part II.Part III. Part IV. Part V. Part VI.Part VII. Part VIII.Part IX.
Part X—Finding Equilibrium: the agony and the ecstasy of new authorhood.*
With the success of the three readings equaling sales of more than 70 books, I was very hyped about attending Norwescon 37. I created and ordere...
June 1, 2014
Two great new reviews… and a sneak peak of the next Deserted Lands novel…
Two great new reviews [Hint: If you want to help out Rob's discoverability and have read any of his books, the links are here, all in one place, to rate and review.] and a sneak peak of the next Deserted Lands novel…
Virginia Herrick for Chanticleer Reviews:
All Is Silenceis [a] suspenseful, sensitive debut novel… juxtaposes the tragic (a young girl singing at a loved one’s deathbed) with the darkly comic (plenty of unused dishes–throw the dirty ones in the backyard!)… grabs our heartstrings… k...
May 26, 2014
My Path to Indie Publication: Part IX– Party On.
Path to Indie Publication Series is a companion series to Marshall Ryan Maresca’sPath to Publication. I have been avidly reading Marshall’s posts since I discovered his blog. ReadPath to Indie Publication:Part I.Part II.Part III. Part IV. Part V. Part VI.Part VII. Part VIII.
Party On. *
One of the ideas I had picked up from Mary Robinett Kowal’s Debut Author lessons, an excellent and concise primer for how to act pro as a newbie author, was that I needed professional author photos. I had been cross...
May 19, 2014
Time Traveling in a Capsule Slowly
Rough Draft of a Letter to the Future [To be placed in a time capsule in Ferndale, WA in 2014 to be opened in 2064.]
Future folk,
What could be more exciting to a writer of Speculative Fiction than to be asked to time-travel? It would be slower than one would like, of course, only one day at a time, and cut off from the real world like a cat in a box. But it would connect with you, who may not have even been born when these thoughts were placed on paper.
Fifty years ago, one hundred years for yo...
May 17, 2014
500 words a day Challenge & Progress
At the beginning of this year I set a goal of a 500 words per day. I have only managed to accomplish that goal on 5 days. Other days I wrote few to none. So, with the idea that if I tell folks what my goal is I will hold myself more accountable, I am publicizing it. Anyone else who wants to take the challenge is welcome to comment below with their own goal.
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I’ve also set up writing goals in Scrivener that will help. And today I broke 1000 words in 1 hour. More words than I have written in one...
May 11, 2014
My Path to Indie Publication: Part VIII–Print Release, Awards and Readings.
by 
Path to Indie Publication Series is a companion series to Marshall Ryan Maresca’sPath to Publication. I have been avidly reading Marshall’s posts since I discovered his blog. ReadPath to Indie Publication:Part I.Part II.Part III. Part IV. Part V. Part VI.Part VII.
Print Release, Awards and Readings *
February 15th was my 47th birthday and that week Pintado’s cover for All Is Silence was awarded a Gold Star by Joel Friedlander’s Book Designer Cover Contest.
The shipment of 500 books came in and I...
