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8 Terrible Titles

8 Terrible Titles

I’ll be totally honest with you: I didn’t know what a Blog Hop was until I got tagged in this one. I imagined a bunch sci-fi fans in poodle skirts slow dancing to Jonathan Coulton in the dim purple glow of a thousand MacBook Pros. While I totally think that should still happen, turns...

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Mountain Trail by Burtn

My Path to Publishing

First Draft to First Pitch In this post, I share my journey from deciding to become a professional writer to the publishing of my debut novel, SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN. THE FIRST FIRST DRAFT When my rock band dissolved in January 2011, I realized it was time to reinvent myself. After reviewing my...

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You Googled My Tweetface

NAVIGATING THE SOCIAL MEDIA MAZE I don’t claim mavenhood—but before becoming a novelist, I did manage marketing and social media for my band as well as another small business. So, from the perspective of a content-generator (someone who makes stuff to put up on the internet) I have some knowledge...

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How Spell Check Tried To Sabotage My Novel

Spell Check (c) 2011 Michael Mandiberg On Sunday night, I was almost ready to turn in the second draft of my debut novel, SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN. While I was rewriting, I kept thinking of how I might share the process with you, my dear reader. I have always enjoyed the commentary tracks and blooper...

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Fossil

Process Peek: Do You Outline?

A friend asked me this past weekend: “Do you outline?” I love talking about the writing process, but I can never seem to come up with a straight answer to this question. Generally, I find that the person asking has one of two motivations: 1.) They loathe outlining and want permission to avoid it...

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