Saturday, February 28, 2015

Faculty Interview: Mike Befeler

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

Mike Befeler (Author, Colorado)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 
Characters that grab your interest. I like putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and see how they handle it.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world? Pleasures: meeting interesting people, the thrill of completing a manuscript and the joy of seeing it in print, researching a new subject. Difficulties: agents, editors, etc. who don't respond, the time to get something published

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
Keep writing. When one manuscript is completed, start the next one.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it?
 I would pass it on. Build a portfolio of manuscripts. Then you can decide which to publish traditionally or self-publish.

5. What do you love most about your career? 
I'm fortunate that I was able to retire into writing. I can writer whatever I want and pursue any subject that interests me. As an example, I'm a fiction writer but I'm writing a biography now of a 96-year-old WWII infantryman who was captured by the Germans and liberated by the Russians. I wasn't planning to write this, but when I was introduced to Ed, I couldn't resist telling his story.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you? 
I wish others recognized my work ethic and ability to make and keep commitments

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? Interesting questions that I've never considered.

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Keyboard

Plotter or Pantser? plotter- basic not detailed

Book or E-Book? Book

Spicy or Mild? Mild

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunrise

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? Sesame Street

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

   
Mike Befeler writes the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series including Nursing Homes Are Murder, Care Homes Are Murder; Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, a finalist for The Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2012; Senior Moments Are Murder; Living with Your Kids Is Murder; and Retirement Homes Are Murder. He has two published paranormal mysteries, The V V Agency and The Back Wing and another novel titled Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse. After thirty-nine years in the high tech world, he retired into fiction writing. He grew up in Hawaii and lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Wendy. http://www.mikebefeler.com

Friday, February 27, 2015

Sweet Success - Darby Karchut

By Kathie Scrimgeour

Darby Karchut’s YA fantasy, Griffin Rising (ISBN 978-0-9741145-6-9, trade paperback, 200 pages), was re-released in 2014, by Copper Square Studios. It is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many independent bookstores.




Armed with the power to control Earth and Fire, a sixteen-year-old teen is determined to complete his apprenticeship and rise to the rank of Terrae Angeli. But first, he must overcome a brutal past to survive in this world. For Griffin, it’s time to angel up.

Darby Karchut is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. She's been known to run in blizzards and bike in lightning storms. When not dodging death by Colorado, Darby writes urban fantasy for tweens, teens, and adults.


We love to hear of fellow Pikes Peak Writers' Sweet Successes, including story acceptances, winning contests, getting published and book signings. Please email Kathie Scrimgeour at ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com if you've got a Sweet Success you'd like to share.


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Faculty Interview: Rod Miller

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

ROD MILLER (Author, Utah)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read?
Believable characters dealing with credible conflicts as they try to maintain dignity in contrary situations or settings. I think this true of any and all stories, real or imagined, serious or humorous, fact or fiction.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world? 
The pleasures include being able to immerse yourself in another world. It can be a world of your own making when writing fiction, another time or place when writing history, the lives of others when writing magazine articles, the world of words when writing poetry, the world of ideas when writing essays, and so on. There’s no end to the places you can go.

The biggest difficulty, I think, is that I do not care to visit the worlds of vampires or wizards or a dystopian future or bizarre eroticism or other worlds more likely to lead to fame and fortune.

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
Don’t quit your day job.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it? 
Pass it along, with additional advice to not let making a living interfere with writing—or doing whatever you want to do in life—any more than you have to.

5. What do you love most about your career? 
It’s an enjoyable activity that’s less frustrating than golf, doesn’t require the hand-eye coordination of video games, is less expensive than skiing, and occasionally results in enough income to take my wife to dinner. (Which is why I write, rather than play golf, video games, or ski.)

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you? 
Knew: I’m not as bad as you think I am. Didn’t know: I’m probably worse than you think.

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? 
It would probably be politic to say I relate to characters like Atticus Finch or Jean Valjean or someone else with lofty moral qualities. But I am drawn to Augustus McCrae in the Larry McMurtry novel Lonesome Dove. Gus has an approach to life I agree with, best summarized by his saying to his partner, Woodrow Call, “Well, I’m glad I ain’t scairt to be lazy.”

Laziness is an overlooked virtue, as evidenced by Gus’s follow-up statement: “Hell, Call, if I worked as hard as you, there’d be no thinking done at all around this outfit.”

Just sitting and thinking may look lazy to others, but, for me, it’s how things get written. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going to write. Then, when I get around to actually “doing something,” I tend to get it written fairly quickly—which leaves more time for laziness.

My wife, on the other hand, says I’m like Ebenezer Scrooge. But I am certain that’s because we have recently survived (sort of) another Christmas season and it is still on her mind. And I am confident she means the transformed Scrooge after being whipped into shape by various ghosts. For sure. Absolutely. I think.

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Keyboard

Plotter or Pantser? Pantser

Book or E-Book? Book

Spicy or Mild? Spicy

Sunrise or Sunset? Noon and Midnight

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? Sesame Street

Facebook or Twitter? Huh?

   
Rod Miller writes about the American West in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He is two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award—for short fiction and poetry—winner of the Westerners International Poetry Award, the Academy of Western Artists Buck Ramsey Award for Best Poetry Book, and was named 2012 Writer of the Year award by the League of Utah Writers.

Author of five novels, four nonfiction books, and three poetry books, Miller is also author of numerous anthologized poems and short stories, dozens of book reviews, and many magazine articles. His latest books are Goodnight Goes Riding and Other Poems from Pen-L Publishing and a tall-tales novel, Rawhide Robinson Rides the Range: True Adventures of Bravery and Daring in the Wild West, from Five Star. Release of a follow-up novel from the same publisher, Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail, is imminent, as is a nonfiction book from TwoDot/Globe-Pequot, The Lost Frontier: Momentous Moments in the Old West You May Have Missed.

A frequent presenter at writers’ conferences, workshops, and other events, Miller is a member of Western Writers of America and received the 2014 Branding Iron Award for his service to the organization.

Visit him online at writerRodMiller.com and writerrodmiller.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Break Free From the Mindsets That Make Writing a Struggle

By Alissa Johnson

A writer recently told me she had plenty of ideas but rarely got past the first few pages of a story. She got into fights with her characters because they wanted to do one thing and she wanted to stick to her original vision.

One time, determined to finish, she jotted down the basic points from start to finish, intending to add details later. But having finally gotten to the end of a story, she couldn’t bear to make changes. What if she got it wrong?

As a writing coach, I hear these stories frequently and they lead to one consistent conclusion: Maybe I’m not meant to be a writer. Perhaps you know the thinking: Real writers write every day, finish what they start, and don’t get stuck. I’m not a real writer.

I don’t buy it. True, writers write. But struggle isn’t a sign of failure. It’s most often one of three false mindsets at play:
infinitemindset.com


Mindset #1: I Don’t Know

This mindset is like a song stuck on repeat: I don’t know if I can pull this off. I don’t know what happens next. I don’t know the ending. I don’t know if the story will be as good as the idea. I don’t know if anyone will like it.

When characters “misbehaved” for my writing friend, she didn’t trust the new direction. And because she couldn’t force the story go the way she wanted it to, she got stuck.

To get unstuck, try turning “I don’t know” into “I’ll figure it out.” Let writing be a form of exploration. If you sit down to write one thing, and it turns into something else, why not go with it? It might be better than your original idea.

Mindset #2: I Know

When you have a hard time changing a story, there’s an underlying assumption at work: you know how it’s supposed to go. But talk to any “real” writer, and you will hear stories about revision after revision after revision. The idea of a perfect first draft is a myth.

But what if writing could be an act of discovery? Try reading your work for what you actually wrote, not what you think you wrote. You’ll see that it’s often quite different. You’ll also see what you can add, what you can take away, and the parts you really like. Your writing will quickly improve.

Mindset #3: I Must Protect My Work

The writer above struggled with mindset #1 and #2, but it didn’t take long to learn that her troubles stemmed from a bad experience with a reader. In college, she showed a story to a friend in her dorm and he trashed it. Now, she felt like she had to get it right before she shared her work.

It’s tempting to think that you are protecting your work by showing it to someone you know—an acquaintance, a friend, a family member. They respect you, so they’ll respect your work. Unfortunately, the people closest to you don’t always know how to give feedback. I have seen far too many writers stopped in their tracks by inexperienced readers. Instead of protecting your work, honor it by selecting someone who understands your vision and can give you honest but respectful feedback.

The good news is that these mindsets are simple to identify and shift. A couple of weeks after my conversation, my writing friend emailed me. She’d practiced these new ways of approaching her writing, and she was in the middle of a story, letting it evolve as she went. She liked the story, and most importantly? She was actually having fun.

About the Author: Alissa Johnson helps writers finish what they start, including essays and short stories, screenplays and memoirs. As a "writer's confidante" and "story whisperer", she helps them release doubt and uncover the story that needs to be told. Learn more at writingstrides.com.







Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Faculty Interview: J.A. Kazimer

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

J.A. KAZIMER (Author, Colorado)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 
I’m a total sucker for a happy ending, or at the very least a satisfying conclusion. Other elements I enjoy in a read are characterization, though not the kind found in standard description. Exposition is out for me. I want fast paced dialogue, some humor, and a whole lot of entertainment. I’m not one for taking books too seriously. I want the escape. Give me that and I couldn’t care less about how many adverbs you use.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world? 
The best part of being a writer is typing THE END. Now, secondary to that feeling comes those moments when you can connect with others over a shared love for words and story. It’s amazing to go to a conference, and know these are your people. Your tribe. The difficulties are pretty much the downside of any artistic expression – rejection, subjectivity, and the struggle to carve out a living. All of which can be overcome if you hold onto that passion for typing THE END.

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
Marry well. I, of course, failed to take that advice, and now live in a box under a bridge.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it?
I’d alter it to be, marry well unless you’d like to live in a box under a bridge. If they’d added that part I might’ve taken their advice.

5. What do you love most about your career? 
Hanging out with other writers. I love both learning from and teaching my fellow scribes. It energizes me. Something I need after suffering through a fifth revision.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you?
I’d like people to know how much I enjoy writing all sorts of genres. I’m a huge fan of romance and mystery, and find myself leaning toward those when writing. But I also love fast paced humor from days of old like Cary Grant in His Girl Friday. So I blend humor, romance and mystery in everything I write.

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? 
I’d like to say James Bond, but I have a feeling my loved ones are thinking much more along the lines of Thelma of Scooby Doo fame, but without the smarts.

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Keyboard. What sort of sadists works in pen?

Plotter or Pantser? Pantser. Yes, I am the sadist who doesn’t outline. I swear, every time I start a new book that I will outline. That lasts about two days.

Book or E-Book? Ebook. My love of my Kindle knows no bounds. Yeah, it goes farther than most of my close relationships.

Spicy or Mild? The spicier the better.

Sunrise or Sunset? What is this sunrise thing you speak of?

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? Hmm…Snuffleupagus or a guy who takes off his shoes…not a hard choice.

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook. I am too jaded for Twitter. It feels like everyone is on it to push their agenda or sell me stuff, not hold a real conversation.

  
J.A. Kazimer is a writer living in Denver, CO. Novels include CURSES! A F***ed-Up Fairy Tale, Holy Socks & Dirtier Demons, Dope Sick: A Love Story, Froggy Style, The Assassin’s Heart, and The Fairyland Murders. Kazimer spent a few years spilling drinks on people as a bartender and then wasted another few years stalking people while working as a private investigator in the Denver area. You can find her, much too often, online at jakazimer.com.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Divert and Distract

www.cutcaster.com
By Karen Albright Lin

Red Herrings, typically found in mysteries and suspense novels, are not the only diversions in fiction.

You could set off a false alarm, prompting laughter (perhaps fire sprinklers set off by lovers’ overuse of candles) or a disaster unrelated or tangent to the plot’s main goal (the getaway car overheats so the bad guy must run to find a taxi). Even more fun, create a fake danger such as a false ticking time bomb distracting your protagonist from the actual threat. One technique you can use is the Boy Who Cries Wolf. Have a false alarm go off three times and only the third turns out to be a real one warranting action. Horror movies use the noise-around-the-corner this way.

Aspects of a character can be diversions from the most important threat. In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger brilliantly explained his Joker slit-face at various points in the story. Each time his tale was different. That took our attention off the main plot momentarily each time as we pondered the truth of his latest tall tale. It was creepy and entertaining and revealing of an aspect of his character, but it wasn’t essential to the plot line.

A character might lie, leading the protagonist and reader to suspect the lie is related to the plot, yet it turns out to not be. This lie acts as a distraction as well as a red herring. They aren’t key to the plot or solving the mystery, but they extend the suspense and tease and keep the readers guessing.

Make no mistake; diversions aren’t important only to a mystery audience. Romance makes use of them. How many of us remember vividly the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally in which Meg Ryan…. Well, I’ll assume you know what she did. It wasn’t essential to the plot, but it caught our attention and made the movie something people talked about; it was even emulated by those with thick skins and twisted senses of humor.

Pop in a surprise that is unrelated to the plot yet adds to the emotional content. Have a bird poop on your character as he’s racing to catch the bus. See how he reacts. One character will cuss up a storm. Another will laugh at his continued misfortune. A real nut might lick it off his shoulders. Sorry for that visual!

You can divert attention using tiny details that add suspense or a feeling that something’s not quite right. Find the front door wide open; have a gun jam during a skeet shooting scene; have a cell phone’s battery run out. These are not meant to be true warning signs. A character can create this type of distraction; a secondary character might wear a mask that doesn’t really hide anything important. They are diversions because they never pan out yet are plausible and seeming threats.

Have someone do something suspicious but only to get some attention.

Create a true hazard; divert attention from it with unrelated action. Then bring it back in a real disaster. Think Indiana Jones and the pit of snakes. On the other hand, one could give a character a weakness that the reader assumes will pan out but plays no serious role in the plot. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum has a pet hamster but, other than the threat of her not returning in time to feed it, we don’t need it to solve her mysteries. Throw in some nosy neighbors peeking out the window offering only a humorous break from the action. You may remember the riotous Fun with Dick and Jane in which the nosy neighbor only adds to embarrassment. In the old TV show, Bewitched, there was a weekly artificial threat – Gladys Kravitz’s exposure of Samantha’s special powers. Talk about an interminable Boy Who Cried Wolf technique.

Props (such as Columbo’s recurring raggedy coat and Barretta’s cockatiel) can act as diversions, offering a sense of familiarity and sometimes comedic relief.

Try adding a few extra diversions to your plot in order to distract or fool or tease your reader. Then see what happens.

About the Writer:  Karen is an editor, ghostwriter, pitch coach, speaker and award-winning author of novels, cookbooks, and screenplays. She’s written over a dozen solo and collaborative scripts (with Janet Fogg, Christian Lyons and director Erich Toll); each has garnered international, national and regional recognition: Moondance Film Festival, BlueCat, All She Wrote, Lighthouse Writers, Boulder Asian Film Festival, SouthWest Writers Contest, and PPW Contest. Find out more at www.karenalbrightlin.com.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Quote of the Week and Week to Come

"There are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a limited number of pages on which you can spend your time. But I prefer to think that a book is like a life, particularly a good one, which is well worth staying up all night to finish. "

biography.com
Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler)
A Series of Unfortunate Events


This week on Writing from the Peak:

* Divert and Distract                                    Karen Albright Lin

* Faculty Interview: J.A. Kazimer                Jason Henry

* Break Free From the Mindsets That
       Make Writing a Struggle                      Guest Post - Alissa Johnson

* Faculty Interview: Rod Miller                    Jason Henry
                  
* Sweet Success - Darby Karchut               Kathie Scrimgeour

* Faculty Interview: Mike Befeler                Jason Henry 




Saturday, February 21, 2015

Faculty Interview: Angie Hodapp

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

Angie Hodapp (Contracts and Royalties Manager at Nelson Literary Agency)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 
Strong characters and tight prose. I’ll forgive a plot hole or two if I’m in love with the characters and the writing is exceptionally well-crafted, beautiful, or unique. Plots can be fixed, but a writer who truly understands--and can convey something poignant about--the human condition and can artfully place one word after another is rare and special.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world? Pleasures? Online access to a worldwide community of like minds. Difficulties? Online access to a worldwide community of like minds. The Internet, especially social media, helps writers feel less alone. But it also makes it way too easy for writers to fixate on comparing themselves to others, or to feel as though they’re throwing their work out into an over-saturated marketplace.

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
This wasn’t given to me personally, but Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech, which he delivered at the 2012 commencement ceremony of the University of Arts, sums up the best advice any writer/artist can receive.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it? 
See #3 above. Google it. Watch it. Live it.

5. What do you love most about your career? 
Being a writer working in publishing has certainly demystified the industry for me. I have the pleasure of working with writers who are polished professionals. And writers who aren’t. I’ve read lots of slush—good, bad, and ugly. All this has helped me realize that art equals business. Aspiring writers who approach the industry with that understanding, and who enter it as professionals, starting with their query letters, are already miles ahead of the pack.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you?
I don’t really have an answer for this. Seriously. Can't come up with anything.

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you?
I’ve always loved Kivrin from Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. And the eponymous character in Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. Maybe because both are thrust alone into dangerous, high-stakes situations but are allowed by their authors to feel very real, very relatable fear. They’re not “strong female characters” or “kick-ass heroines.” They’re just given a job to do and they do it. I like to think that’s how my best self would operate in similar circumstances. Oh, and I also love Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas. Because who doesn’t love a loner who still manages to have a sunny outlook on life while saving the world book after book?

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? KEYBOARD

Plotter or Pantser? PLOTTER

Book or E-Book? BOTH

Spicy or Mild? NEXT QUESTION

Sunrise or Sunset? SUNRISE

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? MISTER ROGERS

Facebook or Twitter? FACE BOOK


Angie Hodapp holds a BA in English education and an MA in English with an emphasis in creative nonfiction. She is also a 2002 graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute. A Colorado Gold Contest winner and Writers of the Future Contest semifinalist, she has taught at and developed curricula for Writer’s Digest University. She is the contracts and royalties manager at Nelson Literary Agency in Denver, Colorado.

Friday, February 20, 2015

5 Tips to Update Your Online Real Estate


By Stacy S. Jensen

In the middle of my submission process in January, I began looking at a few ways to update my website and social media sites. I want to make sure my online real estate is in good shape — in every season. You never know when a prospective buyer, er, agent might pop over for a visit.



Here are five areas to review:  
  1. Dust off the welcome mat. You want to welcome guests, so make it easy for them to reach you. How can your visitors say hello or ask a question? Most blog platforms allow you to create a contact form or a page with links to your website or social media accounts. Some people want to Tweet you while others will want to send you an email. Make it easy for them.
  2. Check the foundation. Make sure your content is in the best shape it can be. Is your 'About' page current? Have you won a contest that you mention in a query, but don't list it yet on your website? Does your bio still reflect who you are and what you want visitors to know about you? Does your resource page show resources you use? Don't send a blog visitor to a site you no longer recommend. Social media bios should also be checked for needed tweaks.
  3. Change the furnace filter. Look for ways to update your site. Did you change the copyright notice on your site? Do you have an events calendar on the front page with no upcoming events? Be sure you are current. If you have social media updates streaming to your website, are you active on those sites? If you haven't tweeted in six months, remove that "live feed" now.
  4. Shovel the driveway and sidewalks. Make sure your site is easy for visitors to access. Does your domain name still make sense? Perhaps you began your blog as "mountain biking mama," but now you write under your real name. Consider how people know you and make sure they can find you without hiring a private eye. 
  5. Update. You need to use the most updated version of your platform, themes, widgets, and plug-ins available for your site. Also, take time to browse the widgets available for your site. You may discover something new that will make your life easier and your site a better experience for users.

Websites and blogs are part of a writer's portfolio now. Just like you revise your manuscript, you need to do the same with your online presence.
What have you updated on your site recently? Was it a quick fix?


About the Author: Stacy S.Jensen worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for two decades. Today, she writes picture books and revises a memoir manuscript. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and son.




Thursday, February 19, 2015

Faculty Interview: Josh Vogt

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

Josh Vogt (Author, Colorado)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 
A character or premise that tackles a genre concept in a truly unique way. I'm also a sucker for good banter and fight scenes.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world?
 
As a writer, two of the things I see as difficult are audience traction (ye ol' exposure and marketing), and managing the administrative side of the business, since I freelance full-time. The pleasures? A great amount of personal freedom in my schedule, being able to actually write for a living, meeting other authors and peers, and simply the chance to help my imagination thrive.

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
Persist. That is often what makes the real difference in this kind of career. And in the craft, also persist, because you don't ever improve unless you keep trying.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it? 
Definitely pass it on. And I would add that it's okay to take breaks sometime. It's often a balance of working hard and knowing when to give yourself breathing space.

5. What do you love most about your career?
 I'm rarely bored! Honestly, the sheer variety of clients I work with and projects I've tackled is a little daunting if I think on it for too long.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you? 
Please send checks or money orders to the following address...kidding! I'm a sucker for jelly beans and drink way too much diet soda.

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? 
I'd like to say Bilbo Baggins, in many ways. Or just hobbits in general. A great love of food, drink, friends, and home with a deeper yearning for the occasional adventure. I'd say they'd see me much the same way (as in high school, my room was often referred to as my 'hobbit hole').

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Keyboard. I type far faster than I ever write longhand.

Plotter or Pantser? Definite plotter. The more I outline ahead of time, the faster drafts go.

Book or E-Book? Either, but I've been reading more ebooks lately due to space and convenience when traveleing.

Spicy or Mild? Spicy!

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunset. The morning and I are mortal foes.

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? The Muppets.

Facebook or Twitter? I mostly interact on Twitter, except for specific Facebook groups.

  
A full-time freelance writer and editor, Josh Vogt has sold numerous stories to Paizo’s Pathfinder Tales, Grey Matter Press, the UFO2 & UFO3 anthologies, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Shimmer, among others. His work comes in everything from flash fiction to short stories to novellas to doorstopper novels, and is found in a growing variety of genres, such as fantasy, science fiction, humor, horror, and pulp. His debut fantasy novel, Forge of Ashes, is available as of April 2015.

He also writes for a variety of RPG developers and publishers, producing game manuals and sourcebooks, campaigns and adventure modules, worldbuilding materials and tie-in fiction. He’s a member of SFWA as well as the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. As a copywriter, Josh works with a roster of international clients, developing website copy, advertising, marketing, and  ales content, video/audio scripts, social media campaigns, and much more. You can find him at JRVogt.com or @JRVogt.”

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Year Writing Project

By Jennifer Lovett Herbranson

When I was in college, I read a book that actually turned out to be a journal. I can't remember that author's name or the title of the book to save my life, but what he did has stuck with me for the past twenty years. For the sake of creativity, let's call him Jake.

Jake was an English major hell bent on graduating to Pulitzer Prizes and New York Times bestseller lists. His professor told him, "If you want to really and truly be a writer, then you must write every day. Get in the habit and write every day, even if it's one line, write. Just write. And if you make it one year, you'll be a writer."
monthlyexperiments.com


So Jake wrote. Then he turned all 365 pages into a book, which I read in one night sitting in my dorm room, knowing my roommate would be off partying with her sorority sisters until the next morning. I read his 200 pages, and 
when I finally finished it angels flew through the window, circled in blazing yellow lights of awareness.

But let's start a little before that day. I went to college at Tennessee Technological University. It's a small little thing tucked away in a mid-sized Tennessee town halfway between Nashville and Knoxville. It has a small Ohio Valley Conference Tier III football team on a campus full of old buildings and older oak trees. The hottest thing to do on a Thursday night was line dancing at the Cotton Eyed Joe. Not a Barnes and Noble in sight. (Although today, it does have a Books-A-Million where I stop in every time I'm in town).

I was an English major who could quote Keats and Shakespeare. I wore Tevas and canvas pullovers, ate vegetarian and was at Spankies Bar every weekend to hear local folk bands play. I dated a guitar player who wrote amazing lyrics. I was going to be the Pulitzer Prize winning, NYT bestseller attending parties with equally fabulous writers, smoking cigars and drinking wine while contemplating the state of the universe. And I was going to solve all the world's problems with every Emerson and Thoreau bone in my body.

And then I read Jake's book. Then I got a clue. Write every single day? I was only writing for class. I mean every now and then, I'd write a poem or a short story. But every day? Nope. And my poetry professor hated my poems. Too sappy. Too old fashioned. Too "in the box." If I was supposed to write every day to be a NYT bestseller, I was failing miserably.

So as soon as the sun came up the morning I finished the book, I grabbed my keys, jumped in the car and hit the road. To Nashville. They had a Barnes and Noble. All I knew was that if I was going to be a writer and write every single day, I needed a journal. Not just any journal. A leather bound, lined journal with a strap. And I found a beauty.

On the drive back to campus, I dreamed of all the things I would write. All the stories I would create. All the drama, the adventure, the excitement. I could do it. I could write every day for a year.

And starting January 1, 1996, I wrote every, single day for one full year. Some days only a line or two. But most days, it was more. The project became an obsession. I would be a “real” writer if I just wrote. It was so simple. So I wrote and wrote and wrote.


And I did it again in 2003. And I’m going to do it again in 2015. Because every so often I need to be reminded that I’m still the Keats-quoting-music-loving-hippie who can create, who can imagine, who can write. I am that girl and the only way to keep being that girl, is to keep writing.

Belated Happy New Year and Happy Writing!




About the Author:
With a combined 14 years of active and Reserve time as a US Air Force Public Affairs Officer, Jennifer Lovett Herbranson has marketed books, shows, concerts and more. She is currently the speechwriter for the Director of the Defense Logistics Agency 
outside of Washington DC. In her spare time, she is pursuing a career as a fiction writer.



Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Faculty Interview: F.T. Bradley

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

F.T. BRADLEY (Author, Colorado)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 
Character is always first: without an interesting person to follow, who wants to stick around? I love a character who is a little unexpected, and keeps me on my toes as a reader. Quirky is good.

I also like a little brisk pacing. If there's a lot of narrative, it had better be some amazing writing. I think it's why I like children's, middle-grade and YA: every word counts that much more. Also, there's more humor. I like a good voice.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world?
It's great to have the world at your fingertips all the time--all you have to do is hop on the internet, and you can connect with readers and other writers. This kind of direct access is such a gift.

But it can be a distraction too... I have designated, daily 'no internet time.' I disconnect my computer from the internet, and focus on writing for about three hours every day. It's necessary if you want to get anything done, plus it's also good to avoid information overload.

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 
During a mentor conference call (I was a lucky duck, honest) with Lee Child, he said about building a writing career, "It's a long game." Meaning, you have to look at this as a long road, a lifetime career, really. It helps me to think of this advice, so I don't worry so much about today's challenges.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it? 
It's great advice, so I'd repeat it. I'll add to it that you should enjoy and celebrate small successes. If you have a good writing day, if you got a short story published, whatever it is--do a happy dance. And find yourself some writing friends to share these successes with, and also your failures. Everyone has those, too.

I wouldn't be where I am today without my writing friends.

5. What do you love most about your career? 
As a middle-grade writer, I'm lucky enough to get to make author school visits. They're so much fun, and really inspiring. Kids are so smart. Plus, they make you feel like a rock star.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you? 
I have a horrible peanut M&M addiction. There's no cure for it, alas... But don't tell anyone, or they might hide them.

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? I relate most to Pippi Longstocking. Who doesn't want to sleep upside-down? My family would probably pick Pippi too--they're actually tired of having pancakes for dinner...

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Pen for plot outlines and brainstorming, keyboard for writing.

Plotter or Pantser? Both: I plot with a rough outline, then pants my way through. I'll actually be sharing how that works at PPWC.

Book or E-Book? I'm a paper girl all the way.

Spicy or Mild? Mild. I feel a little disappointed in myself for being so boring.

Sunrise or Sunset? Both! Sunrise for new plans. Sunset because that's when it's dinner time, and I like food.

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? Sesame Street, because of Cookie Monster. Mr. Rogers for the sweaters.

Facebook or Twitter? Both! I like Facebook for the cat and dog pictures, Twitter for the publishing news. Can you tell by all my 'both' answers that I don't like to choose..?
   

F.T. (Fleur) Bradley is the author of the Double Vision trilogy (Harper Children’s), a series of fun spy mysteries for middle-grade readers that School Library Journal calls “a must-read for mystery fans, including reluctant readers.”

She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband, two daughters and entirely too many cats. For more information on F.T. and her books, visit www.ftbradley.com.

Monday, February 16, 2015

What an Intermediate Writer Needs to Know

By DeAnna Knippling 

I blogged earlier about what a beginning writer needs to know.  At least, that was the title.  Really it was a collection of what I learned (or should have learned) as a beginning writer, combined with what I observe from other beginning writers now, the struggles that they go through.

And now for intermediate writers.
writersleague.org

What makes an intermediate writer?  How do you know that you’ve moved on from beginner status?  Do you need to master everything on the beginner list?  (Even master writers haven’t mastered everything on the beginner list.)  No, what seems to happen is that an intermediate writer is born one morning when they wake up and say, “I am incompetent.  I am completely and utterly incompetent.  Although, admittedly, not as incompetent as Jane Doe over there who wants to tell me all about the novel she's going to write someday.”  Beginning writers seem inordinately cocky and arrogant.  The life of an intermediate writer is filled with rejections, self-doubt, and redefinition of what one previously thought of as strengths.

I’ve seen a lot of people stall here with some variation of “But I’m doing everything the writing books are telling me; why am I not selling?” or “I just don’t have time anymore.”

In no particular order, what I’d advise an intermediate writer to do and learn:
  1. Look up the Dunning-Kruger effect again.  Understand that a loss of confidence does not necessarily reflect a lessening of abilities.  It gets better.
  2. Deliberately experiment with different genres, both in reading and in writing.
  3. Looking at stories from different perspectives is often beneficial, both in asking other people to read your work, and in reading them out loud or in a different format or font.
  4. Heinlein’s rules are practical instructions rather than an ideal to be strived for at this point. 
  5. The focus changes from “learning the rules so you can break them” to “learning control.” 
  6. What once seemed a strength now seems like a particular weakness.  It’s all relative.
  7. Jealousy may become a serious, career-killing problem.  Several considerations:  Is this person a hard-working writer who obviously spends a lot of time putting words on the page?  Is this person being coached or edited by a much more skilled writer?  Has this person retreated from the writing world since their one big hit?  Is this person using a ghost writer?  Identify the person involved with the greatest amount of skill and study their work. 
  8. “Craft” and “skill” are excellent watchwords--at this point.  Beware of any writer who spends more time talking about art than technique--at this point.
  9. The working definition of a story tends to be, for now, “a collection of story elements that don’t suck.”  Characters that don’t suck plus setting that doesn’t suck plus plot that doesn’t suck, etc., etc.
  10. Steal from life.  You’ll rarely get caught.
  11. Focus on becoming a working writer:  work.  Everything you write should be treated as part of your profession.  Do not turn in sloppy, late, unclear work.  Blogs, query letters, synopses, stories, social media, interviews, appearances:  all your work should be done in a timely, professional fashion.  As often as possible, prove yourself reliable, agreeable, willing to learn and take feedback.
  12. Continue typing in material and testing it with various methods of analysis.  The question to answer, at least on a subconscious level, is:  Why do I like this so much?  or, from a darker perspective, Why am I so jealous?
  13. Build writing speed.
  14. Start working on releasing any dependence on editing and re-editing and tweaking and quite possibly editing again, well, a revision would be nice, there’s always another typo to find or another mistake to fix, ha-ha, of course I haven’t submitted this yet, it’s only been seven years, are you kidding?
  15. If you have not involved yourself in your local writing community, consider doing so.  Feel free to retreat from it as necessary.  You will take different things from the community at different times:  for now, focus on learning practical information and on meeting people who are as driven as you.
  16. Be kind rather than honest with feedback to people who are not begging for criticism.
  17. Beg for criticism, but do not respond to it.  Say “thank you,” even if thanks are unwarranted in this particular instance.
  18. Areas of interest:  
  • Openings
  • Closings
  • Scenes
  • Conflict
  • The wide variety of ways any given beginner’s element can be addressed
  • Atmosphere/mood/theme/emotion
  • Style
  • Finding weaknesses or missing pieces from your beginner’s journey and ameliorating them

  19.  Don’t pretend to be an expert, but people are always desperate for honest information.
  20.  Continue to maintain your health, relationships, and sanity on a daily, practical basis.  Stories are an addiction; expect nightmarish withdrawal symptoms if you manage to work up a habit.

I was constantly swamped with the mosquitoes of doubt during this period--I can’t stress this enough.  This is something that can only be pushed through by work.  If I had stopped to think about art for art’s sake, or whether I was making anyone’s life any better for having read my stories, I would have stopped writing.  Put your head down in the weeds and write:  that’s about the only thing that will get you through this period.  Be a worker, not an artist; keep dreaming of large and wonderful things, but put your nose to the grindstone, blindly and unceasingly.

Here are some of my favorite reading  and research suggestions for intermediate writers:
  • The Copyright Handbook, Nolo Press
  • NaNoWriMo
  • Save the Cat!  by Blake Snyder (the whole series)
  • 2K to 10K:  Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love, by Rachel Aaron
  • 45 Master Characters, by Victoria Lynne Schmidt
  • Wonderbook, by Jeff VanderMeer
  • Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Dwight V. Swain
  • Anything by Karen Elizabeth Gordon, but especially The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
  • GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, by Debra Dixon
  • Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks
  • Hooked:  Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go, by Les Edgerton
  • Any Internet search for “craft writing books” or “craft writing blogs”
  • Books by publishing writers on how to sell work in your genre
  • The Dummies/Idiots guides related to writing
  • Duotrope.com, Ralan.com
  • The website Preditors & Editors (yes, it’s spelled like that)
  • Following or friending your favorite living authors on social media
  • Setting up your own blog, not named after your first novel
  • Make sure to have watched and studied the following movies:  The Fugitive.  Star Wars (the original one).  The Princess Bridge.  The Avengers.  Fight Club.  Titanic.  Thelma & Louise.  They will come up repeatedly in classes and discussions
What are yours?

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Quote of the Week and Week to Come

"The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power."

www.famousauthors.org

Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931 - )
Recipient of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes
Beloved
Song of Solomon
The Bluest Eye


This week on Writing from the Peak:

* What Intermediate Writers Need to Know        DeAnna Knippling

* Faculty Interview: F.T. Bradley                          Jason Henry

* The Year Writing Project                                   Jennifer Lovett

* Faculty Interview: Josh Vogt                             Jason Henry

* Tips to Update Your Online Real Estate           Stacy S. Jensen

* Faculty Interview: Angie Hodapp                      Jason Henry
















Saturday, February 14, 2015

Why Come Back to the PPWC?

By MB Partlow

In the month of December, we held a New Year/New Books promotion, open to everyone who registered for the 2015 PPWC between Dec. 15 and 31. We threw all the names into a hat (or, you know, a random number generator), and now we’d like to congratulate our winner, Georgie Nelson.

Since it turned out that Georgie is a regular conference attendee, we thought we’d find out what keeps her coming back.

PPW: How many Pikes Peak Writers Conferences have you attended?

Georgie: 8-10 -- off and on since 1996

PPW: What keeps you coming back?

Georgie: There are many reasons for returning. A huge reason is because of the inspiration and camaraderie -- it is fantastic to be around other writers who share my passion. Also, no matter how many times I've been to PPWC, I am always learning VALUABLE information. The topics are always timely, in-depth, and address my needs as an evolving writer.

PPW: What's your favorite part of conference?

Georgie: That's a hard one. I want to say "everything," but I know that isn't helpful to you. The programs, of course; they are the heart of the conference. However, the lunches and dinners allow attendees to meet favorite writers and ask questions of editors and others, and that is very valuable, and enjoyable! I've also had many enriching conversations over my breakfast bagel and coffee -- building a sense of community and connection is vital -- we're often very isolated as writers.

PPW: Which keynote speaker are you looking forward to the most this year, and why?

Georgie: I signed up for the programs and for the soul-feeding mixing with other writers, but I'm also very excited about our guests. Mystery and suspense by Kathy Hogan Trochek and Andrew Gross are spot on to my interests, and I've always loved SF/Fantasy, so being introduced to Seanan McGuire is a treat. And who doesn't admire the Goosebumps series? -- bring on the creepfest!

PPW: And would you mind sharing with us one of your personal goals for this year's conference?

Georgie: My personal goal is to garner the inspiration, and re-hone the skills necessary, to cut and put a final polish on my novel (over 500 pages now, and needing a firm hand). I won 3rd place in the writing contest 3 years ago, but lost steam (well...after losing my mother, my beloved aunt and mother-in-law, and my twin sister all in the same year, it's been very hard to write). I'm hoping to recover my mojo and to re-embrace the passion for writing I've had since I was a child.

If you’d like to learn more about the 23rd annual Pikes Peak Writers Conference, please visit http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/ppwc/. We’ve got spectacular keynote speakers, insightful agents and editors, and a host of faculty who will help you further your writing adventure. And don’t forget to say hi to Georgie while you’re there!


MB Partlow's first paid writing gig was for the A&E department of The Independent. She wrote a parenting column for Pikes Peak Parent for several years, and freelanced for The Gazette. She’s a longtime volunteer for PPW, working her way up from chair stacker at Write Brains to Moderator Coordinator, Contest Coordinator, Director of Programming, and now Conference Director for 2015. A voracious reader across genres, she primarily write urban fantasy, although she ventures into space opera, mystery and magical realism. MB is physically unable to restrain her sense of humor, and her mouth occasionally moves faster than her brain. She blogs at PartlowsPool@wordpress.com, and can be reached at Conference@PikesPeakWriters.com.