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The Truth About Imposter Syndrome – For Writers
I just discovered something and it made me physically ill. I have participated in cultivating someone else’s imposter syndrome – and it wasn’t even intentional. A recent series of events made me seriously analyze why, after a successful career with many milestones reached including the BA degree in English – Creative Writing, book awards and award nominations, and a writer-of-the-year…
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Lessons Learned From a Writing Life Part Two
Be BOLD – Don’t censor your thoughts and ideas no matter how outside the mainstream they are. Playing it safe doesn’t bode well for a writer. Be FEARLESS – Don’t be afraid to try new things, embrace new technology, or hit publish on that novel you’ve had sitting in your desk drawer collecting dust for all these years. You never…
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Lessons Learned from a Writing Life Part One
Some readers can be fickle and fame fleeting Your latest novel will be the most popular thing since sliced bread one minute, but the second the next trend hits, most readers will forget you ever existed. Fame is fleeting. Do what you do because you love it. That passion and love will attract loyal readers and super fans who will…
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I Am Not Flattered
I am so angry right now as I type this. I am NOT flattered. Not one bit. They always show up in my inbox full of flattery for my work. Whether they actually value it is another story. In the pagan/occult writing/publishing world – we need to stop normalizing the idea that writers and artists shouldn’t expect payment for their…
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Why AI Will Never Truly Replace Humans
I have a confession to make. I am a creative and I use AI. Now, before you start throwing knives at my head, let me explain. How I Use AI I’ve used AI to help outline blog posts. Frank and I did some experimentation using AI to help us generate some blog content on demonolatry.org. We found it helps to…
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Exercise Tips for Busy Writers (And Other Desk-Jockeys)
Any writer knows that a sedentary lifestyle is the enemy of creativity. Nevertheless, it can be hard to find the time and motivation to exercise when you’re trying to meet a deadline. The following will help you make exercise a part of your writing routine. The benefits of exercise for writers: It’s no secret that leading a sedentary lifestyle can…
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Indie Authors: Don’t Get Scammed
Dear Fellow Indie Authors, I care about you and and we need to have a talk. We need to talk about why the beginners among us are such easy targets for scams and bullshit. As you know, independently publishing your work does come with some legitimate expenses. But it also comes with a bunch of scam artists trying to take…
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Writing Organizations
I haven’t written a post about writing organizations since 2013, and my view of them has changed a bit since then. So, I thought I’d write a new post about how to choose the best writing organizations at each point in your career. Every writing organization has something it does well and focuses on, and it’s important to be in…
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Whose Book is it Anyway?
Recently I was asked how many times I’ve incorporated reader suggestions into my books and how much my readers dictate where my stories go. To be honest, I can’t give you an exact number of times I’ve incorporated a fan’s suggestion(s). I do it every so often. I did a poll for Inherited Djinn (Djinn & Bourbon #1) and let…
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A Writer’s Priority is Writing – Not Managing ALL the Social Media.
Today, I (and many other writers) received a survey from a marketing mentor asking about TikTok. Apparently, this is the direction advertising and selling books is heading. Mind you, for a young, tech-savvy fifty-year-old, I am perfectly comfortable with video, including platforms like TikTok. Chatting with an audience is easy if I know in advance what I want to say.…
