Happy New Year, everyone!
Like so many others, I thought I’d do a 2012 year-in-review post to see where I’ve come from, what I’ve done, and where I hope to go in the future. Part ego-trip, part reminiscence, it’s a good way to get a running start on the new year.
While I work on my Part II of A Primer on Book Covers, check out my buddy Art Taylor’s review of the mystery The Twenty-Year Death in the Washington Post.
Art is a professor and writer and gets to review mysteries and crime fiction for the WaPo several times a year. Check out his blog after you check out his review.
Review: Ariel S. Winter’s The Twenty-Year Death in the Washington Post.
Almost four years ago, an idea for a crime fiction series wriggled its way into my subconscious. Although I’ve always enjoyed reading Parker, Child, and Crais, I was hankering to write about someone who wasn’t always right, wasn’t indestructible, and had flaws and problems that weren’t of his own making…but had to be solved anyway.
The protagonist I started noodling with became retired Washington DC homicide detective Marty Singer and his first novel, A Reason to Live, is so close to done I can taste it. Final edits are done and only the formatting and launch remain.
I thought this might be a good time to recount where it all started.
This past Friday I wrapped up my first Goodreads Giveaway and thought I’d share some of the tips, tricks, and results I learned from doing it.
This is Part III of a three-part series on my attempt to print my short story collection, one bad twelve, using Amazon’s CreateSpace method. Part I covered many of the basics; Part II covered the “short list” of tips and tricks that helped me get my title to CreateSpace.
In many ways, this is the easiest part of the CreateSpace process and is more about reporting than tips or tricks. Once I’d been through the formatting and artwork (cover) stages of my book, much of the “creative” process was over. There are still a few issues that might be of interest to writers new to the print format, however.