11/22/63 by Stephen King

A writer’s book review I don’t know about you, but for me, being a writer really limits my time for pleasure reading. After sitting behind my computer, writing for 4-6 hours per day, my eyes and mind are pretty tired of staring at words. But every now and then, a book’s synopsis strikes me as [...]

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Is Borders’ bankruptcy the end of an era?

Last weekend I went to Borders here in Fresno to shop their going out of business sale. I didn’t expect to find many bargains since this store will supposedly remain open until late September, but I wound up spending sixty-some dollars. Deals on cookbooks and animal books were abundant. I browsed around the store for [...]

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How far will digital technology for writers evolve?

Despite maintaining this blog with Julia, I’m far from tech savvy when it comes to marketing myself in this digital age. As writers, we have a constantly expanding social universe to explore: Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs, phone texting, business-related internet groups such as LinkedIn. If I put in the time, I could probably have a [...]

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Foggy at fifty

Do readers want to read the type of stories I write? I must confess I’ve begun to wonder. Nearly every sale by new authors seems to be about strange, incredibly dark worlds that none of us mere mortals will ever visit let alone reside in. Personally I find that reassuring given how I’m not very [...]

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E-books: Are we there yet?

To hear Amazon tell it, yep, we’re there and getting closer to ridding ourselves of those awful, cumbersome creatures called printed books. As Julia notes in her post below, Amazon claims its Kindle sales topped paperback books for the first time. I don’t doubt Amazon’s figures, but I think it’s important to note that not [...]

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The truth is stranger than fiction quandary

By now most of you have heard about the female doctor from Bakersfield (CA) who attempted to enter her boyfriend’s home by climbing onto the roof with a ladder, removing the chimney cap, and lowering herself down the chimney. She got stuck halfway down and suffocated via crushed lungs. She was there three days before [...]

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The e-book experiment: tentative results

As I mentioned in my post last week, the Grassroots’ Writers Guild is nearing its one year anniversary. As such, we feel it’s important to update readers on the concepts we initially put forth on this blog. Today’s topic is marketing via e-books. Does it work? The early answer is, yes and no. While Julia [...]

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Free Elvis novel download for Elvis Week

Hello my fellow Elvis fans! In honor of Elvis Week, I am offering the dowloadable version of my Elvis novel, Face the Music, absolutely free through August 22. Please pass the word along to all your Elvis friends. There’s no catch, it’s my gift to you in honor of Elvis’s memory. I haven’t had a [...]

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Here comes the (writing) judge

When people learn I serve as a judge for an annual self publishing contest sponsored by a national writing magazine, they always want to know what it’s like.  My first response is that it’s a lot of work for very little pay. On average, I review 50 entries; the time involved probably works out to [...]

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Will ebooks make it?

There is some important data about ebooks presented in a recent article posted on The New Yorker magazine website. Among the figures and reflections readers/writers should mull over is the allegation that ebooks, at present, only claim an estimated “three to five percent of the market.”  On a positive note, that percentage represents an increase [...]

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