August 2017 archive

The Top Score

Lists, rankings and ratings eliminate some of the guesswork in life. For example, instead of chancing a bad experience, I check rating websites for a restaurant, a movie or even a church. Goodreads and other online forums allow readers to post comments and ratings about novels or collections of stories. How would the general population …

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Writing Contests

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title, a list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” — Jane Yolen Add writing contests to the list of ways to exercise your writing muscle. You may …

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My Top Ten Favorite YouTube Gamers

Have you ever wanted to play a certain video game but didn’t have the time or motivation to go for it?  I know I have.  I found an answer to this dilemma with YouTube.  I started out by watching videos of entire games that I believed I would never play myself.  Gradually, I discovered enough …

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Editor’s Note: Author Promotion Strategies

Sisyphus, from Greek Mythology, rolls a boulder uphill for eternity. With each attempt, the boulder rolls back downhill and Sysyphus must start the task anew. This is the author’s task once a book is published. Some authors think that the publisher does (or should do) most of the promotion to sell their books. They might …

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