Read my thoughts on The Blood-Red Pencil today – {http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com}

I use Elaura Niles’ book, SOME WRITERS DESERVE TO STARVE, to help answer this question in a three-part series on the popular blog, THE BLOOD-RED PENCIL [link].

Head to The BRP to see part one and two on this question. Check out why it’s important for writers to know their book better than ANYONE (part one) and why it’s important to write THE NEXT BOOK (part two)!

Part Three is TOMORROW!

The Blood-Red Pencil [link]

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing
By author, editor, educator Shon Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

The Write Life for You is a series of articles on the writing craft. Past articles have focused on building character, developing a solid plot, and harnessing a writing style. In the first article of the new year, I look at CAMPING VS. MARCHING IN STORIES.

Camping vs. Marching

This month, I’m talking about camping vs. marching. Before I pursued my MFA degree, I knew nothing about this “concept”.

Many writers, for fear of losing readers, will explain everything in their story, not realizing that they will definitely lose their readers this way. So, how do writers tell us everything? They might tell us everything a character has on, explain every piece of furniture that’s in a room, detail an entire conversation from beginning to end, relay every minute feeling that comes through the narrator’s mind, and bring us into every sight, smell, taste, sound, touch that occurs within a story – all in the name of making the story feel real to the reader. In the end, this may make the reader so full off “stuff” that’s unimportant to the actual story that he/she may close the book and find a less tedious (or as I like to say “less chewy”) book to read.

Want to learn MORE about camping vs. marching and how to know when to do both?

Then head to APOOOBOOKS.COM to read my latest article in The Write Life for You series!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY! HOPE ‘09 BRINGS YOU ACHIEVED GOALS AND MUCH HAPPINESS!

For the month of JANUARY, All the Blog’s a Page (AtBaP) is looking at memoir writing, and we kick off the new year with one of my dear friends and my second “husband” (there’s a story there, trust me), author CD Mitchell!

CD is the Blues Brothers holding the beer bottle.

For January, I asked the following set of questions:

• What do you think is the lure of memoirs for readers?
• Do you think there is a bit of egotism on the part of the writer who focuses on memoirs as a means to “tell stories”?
• Why did you, as writer, feel compelled to write your story
• Why did you feel compelled to share this story with others?

CD wrote a piece titled “The Lure of Memoir,” from which he writes, “Memoir is not the genre of self-promotion. In memoir, we do not take a podium and say “I did this! I am great!” We instead take the podium and say, “This happened to me. Please forgive my ignorance. I have learned from the experience and am a better person as a result. Forgive me for what I was before; learn from what I am now.”

“Memoir does not attempt to exalt the writer or to elevate the writer to some lofty, unattainable status over his reader. Instead, we seek to find common ground with our misery and mistakes. Instead of creating envy in our readers, we seek to establish a universal moment where the reader can see himself in the author’s words and can say “I understand how you feel.” The memoirist seeks to create empathy, common ground, and a realization that we all can do better.

“Perhaps the memoirist’s code should be the scripture that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”"

To read the rest of CD Mitchell’s “The Lure of Memoir” and to take a sneak peek into his column “Why Do I Write,” head to All the Blog’s a Page!

ALL THE BLOG’S A PAGE (AtBaP) – Where everything relates to writing
[http://alltheblogsapage.blogspot.com]

Today, the radio show Tale It Like It Is [link] will have yet ANOTHER one-hour special on author branding/writing with me and author and TILII host Samara King.

Time:  4:30 CST

Place: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/samaraking

On tap for convo:  discussion on using social networking sites to promote your writing and setting writing goals.  If you have ANY questions about writing or editing, come and bring them with you!  We’re all about camaraderie and sharing of information.

If you can’t make it, that’s OK.  I will post up the program on my LISTEN tab @ shonbacon.com!

Come check me out at BLOGGING IN BLACK [LINK] today for my short reflection piece, WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE?

Recently, I was interviewed by my publisher, Lady Leo Publishing, and in the interview, I was asked, “Who/what inspired you to write?” My response was three-fold – life inspires me to write; what I fear inspires me to write; what I don’t know inspires me to write.

@ BiB today, I go into a bit of detail as I talk about each of these three inspirations.

To read my piece, head to Blogging in Black [http://www.blogginginblack.com] and LEAVE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS!

ChickLitGurrl Talks to young adult author Coe Booth about her latest novel, KENDRA!

INTERVIEW EXCERPT

CLG: Both KENDRA and your debut novel, TYRELL are young adult novels – what initiated your desire to write novels for teens [and for those who love a good read]?

CB: I’ve always wanted to write for teens. Even when I was writing my little pretend “novels” in elementary school, the main characters were always teenagers. The teen years have always held a special place for me. I guess it’s because there’s so much going on then, so many important decisions and so many heightened emotions. I find it very exciting to write about teens because they go through so many experiences, and often for the first time.

CLG: You’re walking down the street and you feel like a million bucks – what song plays in the background?

CB: “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé. That song always makes me laugh!

CLG: Many people believe that good writers are also voracious readers. What are three of your favorite books, and why do they make the list?

CB: My favorite books are THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston, THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner, and OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck. I love books with real characters and authentic dialogue, and in all three of these books the characters are unforgettable and the dialogue just jumps off the page. These books are REAL!

Check out the rest of Coe Booth’s interview @ ChickLitGurrl: high on LATTES & WRITING!

ChickLitGurrl: high on LATTES & WRITING

Chocolate-caramel lattes + Women writers = ONE GREAT TIME!

[chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com]

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Today, I talked with author and TILII host Samara King about author branding and writing.  It was a great show, and we enjoyed it so much we decided to make a little series out of it called Building Your Brand.

You can listen to the first show here: [link]

The second show will air Sunday, December 28, 2008, at 4:30 p.m. CST @ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/samaraking.

The third show will air Sunday, January 11, 2009, at 4:30 p.m. CST @ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/samaraking.

I’m not a fan of being tagged; however, this is BOOK-RELATED, and as an author and an avid reader, I take the tagdom with pride.

My sistergirl JC Martin recently gave me literary daps with the following bling award:

It’s called bookworm, and if you saw my house, you would realize the name was created specifically for me.

I can’t, however, just take my bling and run off.  I actually have to adhere to two rules.

RULE ONE, I have to grab one of the books closest to me, go to page 56, type the fifth line and the next two to five lines that follow.  As I type this, I am looking at my coffee table and eyeing a stack of books.  I’m about to reach over and pick “The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters” by Lorraine López.

I straighten my dress, smoothing down the hem to make sure it would have been long enough to cover my nalgas even as I fell.

“We better go back,” says Loretta, not knowing the first thing about fainting in church.

“You’re nuts.  After a person faints, no one expects them to return to church.”

Sounds like it could be a funny book, right?  Well, it is, so you should check it out!

Now, the SECOND RULE to follow in order to keep my bling is to pick five people who love books and could receive this bling with honor.  My five are:

Zetta Brown

Rae Weakly

Sammie Ward

Onika Pascal

Annette Marie Hyder

Ladies, make me and books proud!

Yep, you got it: MOI!

My currently publisher, LADY LEO PUBLISHING, is showcasing an interview with me! Below is an excerpt.

LLP: How do you come up with your characters?
SB: Pieces of my characters come from me. Typically, something happens in my world or the world of someone I love that sticks with me, that picks with me, and I have to write that situation out. When that happens, I take pieces of me that are connected with that situation and start the process of developing the main character. From there, I branch out and develop those characters that are necessary to get through that story. Many times, pieces of loved ones (and not so loved ones) are used to develop these characters.

LLP: Are the characters based on real life situations?
SB: Sometimes, yes. I’ve never written a 100% real story; however, many of my characters are composites of people I know, and many of the situations are snatches from real life situations.

LLP: What excites you most about being a writer?
SB: The spinning of a new story. When I get a new idea, nothing excites me more. I can barely sleep, and my biggest concern is outlining the story so that I can jump in and play with my characters.

To read the rest of the interview, be sure to head to [Lady Leo Publishing] now!