Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links

Ciao, amici! I know last week I said I’d be posting links this Friday again, but I kind of liked it better doing the link post on Saturday. It gives me a chance to include Friday’s posts in my list (rather than deleting them or holding them all the way until the following week). So, we’re going to try it this way for a while and see how it goes.

If you’ve been following my site, you know I’ve been busy. If you haven’t, well … now you know. This week’s quote doesn’t really sum up my last seven days. Rather, it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while as I’m considering my next work (as me, not as my pen names for my job). It’s not that I don’t have plenty of ideas. (I do. I REALLY do.) It’s which ideas will speak to people as well as which idea has a message that I feel compelled to say right now.

But that all begs a question—what’s so interesting in my repertoire that I can pull it off? Which brings me to the quote of the week by John Updike:

We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings…
Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull
and it’s up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.

My life is rather dull. I was actually lamenting that very thing to my husband last night, which might be why this quote spoke to me. But then I realized, sometimes dull is preferable. I know I seem to be jolted out of my boring routine for tragedy a lot more often than for pleasant surprises. So I’ll take the dull, the mundane.

But I’ll continue to write stories about people whose lives aren’t. Maybe I’ll throw a hero king or two in the mix, just for good measure. We might not have them in the real world anymore, but I’ve got room for a bunch of them in my imagination. And in my stories, too.

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And now, this week’s writing links:

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

Me

• Who is Author Keira Beck?
• Cover Reveal: Marcia Meara’s The Emissary 2

Story Empire

• Marketing Checklist | Me
• Writing Life | Mae Clair
• Audio Book Covers | P. H. Solomon

Romance University

• Core Story and Inspiration | Donna MacMeans
• Reference Works | Becke (Martin) Davis
• Story Prompt | Becke (Martin) Davis

Posts by others in the industry:

• Amazon Advertising Using Machette | Nicholas C. Rossis
• Beautiful Sentences | The Kill Zone
• Emotional Spectrum | Fiction University (fascinating post)
• Choosing a Character’s Career | Fiction University
• Getting More BookBub Followers | BookBub
• Amazon Ads (Definitive Guide) | Nicholas C. Rossis
• Show, Don’t Tell | K. M. Allan
• Five Ways to Tighten Your Writing | Fiction University
• Get Holiday Sales | BookBaby

And when you’re done with these links, don’t forget to check out the sidebar, where you’ll find more links to some of my favorite sites.

Have a great weekend! Arrivederci!