Steven E. Wedel's Blog, page 4

OWFI Recap 2023

It had been more than 10 years since I last attended the annual Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. conference. The main reason was cost and return on investment. I’ve always been poor, and when I did attend OWFI in the past I seldom felt like I learned enough to justify the expense. So, I had no intention of going this year.

Then Vickey Malone Kennedy contacted me and asked me to b a contest judge. I’ve done this at least twice in the past. I was reluctant, but since I never grade schoolwork a...

Retiring from Education

It is with a heavy heart, and nervousness over the future, that I’m announcing my retirement from public education.

I have been a teacher for 17 years. It has brought me great joy, a sense of purpose, a feeling of satisfaction, some awards, and many great friends. It also contributed to me missing a fair amount of my own kids’ growing up because I couldn’t … or wouldn’t … pull back from the school kids to attend to my own, something for which I am deeply regretful.

I was 39 years old when ...

SEO for Fiction Authors

Search engine optimization. It’s something I only heard about a few months ago when, of course, I realized I wasn’t doing it and need to. So I’ve been looking into what it is and how it helps authors. Here’s some stuff I’ve learned.

First, what is search engine optimization (SEO for short)? SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your website or content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can involve various tactics such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and ...

7 Mistakes Authors Make

Here are seven common mistakes or obstacles that can keep people from achieving success as fiction writers:

Not writing regularly: Many aspiring authors struggle to make progress on their writing projects because they don’t write regularly enough. Consistent writing is key to developing the skills and discipline necessary to complete a full-length work of fiction.Not reading enough: To write well, it’s important to read widely and deeply in the genre you’re interested in. Reading helps w...

March Report Card

March is over. It was a long, strange month, with some ups and down in terms of my writing goals. I never actually set out my goals for the month, so I’m going to detail some things that happened, then give an update on the missed goals from last month.

Most importantly, my new novel Yes or No launched. Doing book launches is new to me, and this one lacked the fanfare of most launches, but I did run a pre-order for about a month beforehand. It came out on March 13 and sales were … better than...

Yes or No Launch

It’s 3:09 a.m. on Sunday, the last day of spring break. The last night I can stay up late like this. I dread going back to the school, back to the students who don’t want to learn, and back to a life where I can’t work on books all day. But it is what it is.

I’m really writing this to thank the readers who bought a copy of my novel Yes or No during its first week of life. The launch isn’t something that will finance my life, but it is, by far, the best book launch I’ve done so far.

Most s...

Yes or No

Today is my new book’s birthday!

My latest novel, Yes or No, is one I’m kinda proud of. It’s a literary novel about a man in his 50s who is confined to a nursing home and suffering from COPD. Daniel’s led a hard life that’s included prisons and rehabs and loss. One day a woman named Alicia come in and says she thinks she’s the daughter Daniel believed his high school girlfriend aborted when her family moved away to hide the pregnancy in the 1980s.

At that time, Daniel gave Penny a note wh...

February Report Card

I set pretty lofty goals for February, and I failed miserably. There were a couple of weeks with a nasty cold and all I wanted to do was sleep. Most recently, the depression crept back in, and I’m trying to get receipts collected for 2022 taxes. I’m not a good recordkeeper and I hate tax season.

Let’s just lay them out and I’ll comment on them.

Finish copyediting The War Lord and make a decent cover, then publish it. This is the first novella in my Tarod the Nine-Fingered sword-and-sorcery...

Forever Young Promo

My post-apocalyptic young adult novel Afterlife is part of a cool new promo at BookFunnel.

This is the story of Cody Treat, an Oklahoma teenager who is able to see the millions of ghosts trapped in this plane after an apocalyptic meteor event. He has to join forces with others to attempt to open a portal for the ghosts before they are harvested by an evil force from the East.

The promo is called Forever Young and features my book and several other young adult titles. You can click the ba...

Second Chance Romance

One of the cool things about joining BookFunnel is the opportunity to participate in big promotional events with other others in the same genre. With the release of Dust in the Wind earlier this month, I got to sign this contemporary romance up for the Second Chance Romance promo.

You should check it out!

Remember, you’re looking for the book by Adri Amanti.