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In honor of black history month, I have been featuring African Americans, past and present, who have distinguished themselves in the field of literature. However, this week’s post is not about an African American, but a white woman who influenced the course of African slavery through her writing. Her name  is Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose work sold in the millions, and who became an abolitionist and a defender of slaves.

Like Ann Petry who was featured last week, Harriet was born in Connecticut, one of three daughters to Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote. However, Harriet was born almost a century earlier on June 14, 1811.  Her mother died when Harriet was only four years old and her older sister Catherine became her educator. Harriet enrolled in a seminary (girls’ school) run by Catherine, where she was educated in traditional “male” fashion in the classics, languages and mathematics. (more…)

In honor of Black History month I am featuring African American authors who made history by accomplishing extraordinary feats at a time when the odds were so heavily stacked against them.  This week the spotlight rests on Ann Petry, the first African American female author to sell over one million copies of her book.

Petry was born in 1911 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, where her father and grandfather ran a drugstore. Petry loved to read and from the age of fourteen she knew she wanted to be a writer. She  wrote poetry and short plays in high school, but after graduation she chose the safe route and enrolled in the pharmacy program at the University of Connecticut where she earned her PhG degree. Ann worked in the family business until she married in 1938 and moved to New York. (more…)

Every writer needs to have some kind of networking support in order to grow and become more proficient in his craft. One form of support is the critique group, which means just that – members critique each other’s work and provide helpful feedback on different areas of the work. If it is non-fiction, the critique may focus on grammar, sentence structure, content, relevance and development of the subject matter. If it is fiction, members may focus on theme, point of view, character development, setting, dialog and narrative in addition to grammar and sentence structure. (more…)

Check out the video trailer for my new book Women For All Seasons

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I guess it’s not too late to be working on your New Year’s resolutions, but if you are like most people, you may have ushered them in admist the confetti and fireworks.  I came across an article about Oprah Winfrey and New Year’s resolutions. Guess what? She doesn’t make them. She prefers to “go with the flow.”  Well, if I were sitting on a billion-dollar empire, I wouldn’t either.  But if you are a  writer, aspiring or experienced, you should be setting some goals for your writing life this year. One of my goals is to be  more consistent. Writing is an art like any other that needs to be practiced  if it is to be perfected, and consistency is the key to success.

So, goal # 1: Be consistent. (more…)

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It’s a joy to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous New Year! If you are a writer, you are probably looking forward to the New Year so you can achieve some of  the goals that eluded you this year.  Or, maybe you would like to correct  a few mistakes here and there. In addition, you may be reflecting on all that took place over the past months.  Whatever your situation, I wish you much success in the new year. (more…)

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The book marketing journey continues. It may lead me along winding lanes, dark alleyways, sudden stretches of sunlit roads and then maybe  a speed bump or two. If that happens, I’ll simply slow down, then pick up speed and continue on my journey, the wind in my hair and a song in my heart. I’m saying all of that to say this: the book marketing journey can be unpredictable for an unknown author. It can be daunting to say the least, not a venture for the timid or the overly cautious. There are many avenues to explore, one of which is book signing events. (more…)

In my last post I wrote about why I decided to go the self-publishing route. Since then I received a lot of positive feedback from other writers about why they self-published and the experiences they had. One gentleman said he liked the control that self-publishing gave him, even though he has published through traditional publishers like Doubleday. A lady said she self-published her first book and because of it she was able to find a publisher for her second one.

These are true reports that self-publishing can work, but you have to be prepared to do all that it takes (and then some) to get your book before the masses. The key to that is effective marketing. This begins before your book is even published. Do you have a web presence? Do you own a website or blog? Do you tweet, link, face or get involved in the many social networking opportunities available?

I have to confess that because of my work and other writing commitments I didn’t do as much as I should have done to market Women For All Seasons before it was released. However, I am plugging at it steadily. Someone said that in order to market your book effectively you should do at least one thing every day.  So far I have notified all of my groups about my book and I keep posting messages about it to Twitter and Facebook. I have gotten reviews posted on Amazon and uploaded a PDF version so visitors can look inside the book before buying. Book Buzzer is making use of this technology on its site as well, and once you have enabled this feature on your Book Buzzer page, you can share it on your website and other social media.

Effective book marketing takes a lot of effort, but I plan to have fun with this marketing campaign. I’m not going at it in a desperate attempt to make money, although that would be nice. But for right now I’m going to have fun and learn as much as I can, so next time around, self-published or not, I will have a very effective campaign and sell a lot of books.

Between now and Christmas, I’m giving away a copy of my book to someone who subscribes to this blog, so don’t miss out.

Related articles

• Christian Self Publishing Association Launched to Serve Authors and Raise the Quality of Self-Published Books (prweb.com)
• Why I Chose to Self-publish (suzanneanderson.net)

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The term self-publishing carries with it a lot of negative connotations. As writers, we are led to believe that if you self-publish your book, you immediately brand yourself as “not- good- enough.”  Truth be told, most of the self-published books I have read have made me cringe, but some  traditional books also come in for my mental red ink.  With traditional publishers falling on hard times, editors are becoming more leery of taking on new names these days and are sticking with their tried and true authors. Occasionally, a new name makes it into the hallowed halls.

Knowing all this, I decided to take the plunge and self-publish my first non-fiction book Women For All Seasons which was released a few days ago. (more…)

We arrived at the Totem Bight State Park under a light drizzle. This park is  a former Native village belonging to the Tlingit and Haida tribes. The park was abandoned when the natives moved to other communities to find work. The totem poles they left behind were soon overgrown by forests until the US Forest Service began a program of reconstructing the poles. Totem poles are skilfully carved from cedar wood and are used to depict various things, such as legends (story poles), or as grave markers (mortuary poles) or to mark some momentous occasion. Many of the Tlingit and Haida stories pay tribute to the chief, Raven, who is considered to be a symbol of the Creator. He is usually distinguished by his long, straight beak.  Totem poles are usually raised during a potlach or celebration, in which the entire village takes part.

Inside the wee small door

 In the middle of the park stands a model of a clanhouse which was built in Native villages in the early 19th century. Built of wood, the house consists of just one room with a totem pole standing in each of the four corners. It is said that 30 to 50 people would have shared this house. We entered the house through a regular door, which was made for visitors, but the original door is a  hole about 5 ft high x 4 ft wide hewn out of the side of the house. We had to bend to pass through this door and had fun taking pictures in it.  I stood in front as you can see in the picture below, as I didn’t want to get stuck.

 If you plan to visit Alaska, make Ketchikan a part of your itinerary. Its natural beauty, majestic wildlife, fascinating history and culture will leave a lasting impression on you. There are many tour companies that make it easy for you to  see as many attractions as you wish. You can choose to travel by motor coach, Hummers or horse-drawn trolleys, or if you favor the water, you can go by high-speed boats, semi-submersibles and amphibians.

Related articles

• The totem pole (white-pebble.net)