Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links

Ciao, everyone. Hope you’re having a great week.

Clearly, three-day weekends screw me up. All week long, I struggled to realize what day it was. Tuesday felt like Monday. I thought it was Thursday twice, neither time on Thursday. The only reason I’m getting this posted on time is that my daughter said something about Friday being tomorrow (as I write this, it’s actually Thursday evening).

It’s been a strange week. And I’ve been working hard. I have a lot to share, but I need to collect my thoughts. Hopefully I’ll catch you all up next week. Until then, I thought I’d share this quote.

Nora Roberts. She has a way of putting things, doesn’t she? And given her name is synonymous with romance writing, she probably knows a thing or two about chasing dreams.

Back in January — no, actually back in December — I decided this was going to be my year. I was going to make it to the next level.

I probably should have had a better plan.

I find myself over-extending more often than not. I need to learn to work smarter, not harder. And I really need to figure out marketing. That’s my next step. But I digress. More on my updates next time. For now, suffice it to say that I am taking steps forward. They’re slow and my strides are small, but I’m not standing still.

And I hope you’re doing the same. Or better! Are you? Let’s talk about it.

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And now, this week’s links:

Posts by me, about my work, or at sites I contribute to:

• Whatchagot Stew | Story Empire 
• University Presses | Romance University
• Get the Most Out of Dictation | Story Empire 

^{At the time of this writing, Romance University is experiencing website issues, so I can’t access the other posts for this week. And the Friday Story Empire post isn’t finished yet. You can track the missing posts down by visiting those respective websites, though.}

Posts by others in the industry:

• Five Steps to Improve Your Website | Nicholas C. Rossis 
• Characters with Agency | Morgan Hazelwood 
• Defining Voice | Sue Coletta 
• First Chapters and Character | Fiction University 
• How to Write a Mystery* | The Write Practice 
• Mystery Endings* | Rachel Poli 
• Easily Design Your Own Logo | Nicholas C. Rossis 
• Introducing the Story | Helping Writers Become Authors 
• Horror Writers and Nightmare Journals | Drew Chial 
• Expanding and Enriching with Theme | Writers Helping Writers 
• Using MS Word for Formatting as You Write | The Write Practice
• Evoking Emotions in Readers | Live Write Thrive 

^{* Indicates two conflicting points of view. I’d love to hear your thoughts on each.}

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!