Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

Tax Day is behind us!

To celebrate that happy event, I’m running one of my
rare 24-Hour Specials on all my fiction-teaching
products. See if you can spot the pattern:

* Fiction 101: 50 percent off
* Fiction 201: 50 percent off
* Public Speaking: 50 percent off
* Strategic Planning: 50 percent off
* The Snowflake Method: 50 percent off
* Writing SuperArticles: 50 percent off
* Writers Conference Survival Guide: 50 percent off

Why is everything 50 percent off?

To find out why, click here:
www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/links/24.php

All good things must come to an end. This 24-Hour
Special will run from midnight to midnight, Pacific
Time, April 17, 2008.

This deadline will be strictly enforced.

In my last blog post, I critiqued a 53 word one-sentence summary by Livinus and got it down to about 16 words. Livinus edited it slightly today.

Livinus can you email me or post a comment here? I’d like permission to show this example in my e-zine tomorrow, since I think it’ll be educational. Let me know if that’s OK.

Best regards,
Randy

The comments that many of my loyal blog readers have left on my blog today remind me that once in awhile, it’s good to take a little break. We’ve now wrapped up a long and quite intense discussion about web sites and blogging and all that techie stuff.

Let’s not forget why we write: Because we LOVE reading, and somehow or other, we all convinced ourselves that we could write something that we’d want to read. We and five billion other readers.

Right now, I’m reading a pretty cool book that I never heard of until a friend gave it to me a few weeks ago. He and his wife and son were staying with us for about a week while they looked around town, because they’re planning to move up here in a year or so. We had a lot of fun talking about lots of stuff, and he gave me a copy of one of his favorite books: DIES THE FIRE, by S.M. Stirling.

The premise of this book is that suddenly (for no clearly explained reason) all electrical systems fail, all explosives no longer explode, and the entire world is knocked back technologically to the early medieval period. Millions of people starve to death. Some turn to cannibalism. Others wander aimlessly, waiting to die or get eaten (hopefully in that order). But some of them organize into tribes for protection (or aggression) and begin primitive farming or hunting/gathering or marauding or whatever it takes to survive.

There are two main Good-Guy groups that the author alternates between–a hunter/gatherer group in Idaho led by a tough but fair ex-marine; and a farmer group mostly made up of Wiccans in Oregon, led by a Gaelic folk musician/witch. The city of Portland (right across the river from me) is taken over by an evil Bad Guy with fantasies of holding an empire built on tribute. Things are heading for a showdown between Good Guys and Bad Guys as I head into the final third of the book.

I’m finding it all extremely interesting. We do live in a pretty darn techie world. What if all that suddenly went away? What if we had no web? No (gasp) blogs? No streaming audio from www.Pandora.com to play us a mix of our favorite music over high-speed DSL? It would be a different world. Makes me want to go learn archery and shoot something. It’s making me think about the world in a different way, which is always good.

So let’s have a little fun for a few days. What are YOU reading right now? (Has to be fiction.) Do you like it? Why? Leave a comment and let’s compare notes.

A couple of days ago, I posted a set of 9 questions you should ask yourself before you even start designing your web site. These 9 questions help define your “requirements” for your site, and any decent web designer will ask questions similar to these before they start working for you. So sooner or later, you’ll need to face these questions.

Yesterday, I discussed Question #1 in more detail. Today, we’ll talk about #2 and #3, which deal with content.

First, though, I’ll answer a couple of questions:

Pam asked:

“Attracting traffic means that your web site needs to be about MORE than just your books.”

And this is where having a blog would come in, right? Or give aways, teaching, author interviews, etc

Randy sez: Yes, a blog, articles, interviews, are typical types of content you can have on your site that are NOT about your books (but are related to them).

Kristi asked:

Many of us shy away from the selling part simply because it looks daunting (arranging credit card payments, secure sites, instant downloads, etc.) How difficult is all that to set up–and how expensive?

Randy sez: It’s not that hard, especially with PayPal. There are ways to earn money on your site without having anything to sell. More on that later, but not today. And there are ways to sell products without having to deal with the money transaction stuff at all. Again, we’ll talk about that later.

Now let’s look at Questions #2 and #3 that define your requirements. I’ll look at some typical answers, and talk about what kind of site will meet your needs.

2) How many pages do you want to have on your web site?

Answer a) Just one “home page”

Randy sez: A site built using one of those web-based tools that creates a simple site for you might be just the ticket. Or you might have just a single professionally-designed sales page — this is commonly done by internet marketers who can buy traffic.

Answer b) Just one page with a blog on it

Randy sez: This can be a very good choice, if the design is clean and appealing. See Chip MacGregor’s blog site at www.ChipMacgregor.com or James Brausch’s blog site at www.JamesBrausch.org. This isn’t expensive and can do a good job of presenting who you are and what you have to sell the world.

Answer c) Between one and ten pages

Randy sez: This is a pretty typical author’s “brochure site.” Without a blog, it will be pretty limited in content. If one of the pages is a blog, then it can have quite a lot of content on it, and can still provide info about each of your books (if you have them) or it can have a few good articles that will draw traffic. Note that you don’t have to have zillions of articles to pull in traffic, if one of them is a “superarticle.” (See my e-book on SuperArticles for details on what kind of punch a good SuperArticle can bring in if it’s well-done.) Depending on how fancy you want your site to be, you can pay a lot or a little for a site like this, or you can do it yourself.

Answer d) Between ten and a hundred pages

Randy sez: My comments are similar to Answer (c) above. With this many pages, it starts getting expensive to pay a webmaster, so you probably will want a site that allows you to add content yourself. If you tell your webmaster you want to be able to add pages, they can create a “template” page for you that lets you just fill in the content. There are smart ways to do this and dumb ways to do it. (A smart way lets you later easily change the layout and the graphics on the page. A dumb way forces you to do lots of work whenever you want to make changes.) Tell your webmaster you want a smart way to do this. If they don’t know the smart way to do it, then they are the wrong webmaster for you. The smart way typically involves words like “CSS,” “PHP,” or “SHTML” or something similar.

Answer e) Between 100 and 1000 pages

Randy sez: With this many pages, you need an extremely smart way to manage your content. Tell your webmaster in advance if this is your goal.

Answer f) More than 1000 pages

Randy sez: If you are doing this many pages, you need a really professional solution and you’re going to pay a lot for it, or you’ll need to program it yourself.

3) How often do you want to add content to your web site?

Answer a) Several times per day

Randy sez: You need a blog or some similar “content-management system” or you need to be good at writing HTML yourself, because otherwise you’ll go broke paying your webmaster to do it for you. Make sure that you have enough things to say, because adding content several times a day can be onerous if you don’t have a lot to talk about.

Answer b) Every day

Randy sez: Ditto my comments for (a).

Answer c) Several times per week

Randy sez: Once again, ditto. You simply can’t be calling your webmaster several times per week asking them to make changes. They can’t respond that fast, and they’ll buy a very nice yacht with the fees you pay them.

Answer d) About once per week

Randy sez: Then you may not want a blog, because a blog should be updated several times per week. You should still be willing to do a lot of the work yourself, because weekly changes will be fairly pricey if you pay someone to do it.

Answer e) About once per month

Randy sez: In principle, you could pay your webmaster to do this. I still suspect you’re better off learning how to update your site yourself. There are inexpensive programs that let you do this, such as FrontPage (Windows only) or many others.

Answer f) Hardly ever

Randy sez: You can probably get away with just having a webmaster do your site. It may not be worth your time to learn how to make changes if you’re hardly ever going to make them.

Answer g) Never; I want it to be unchanged forever

Randy sez: Ditto my response for (f).

We’ll pick up this discussion on Monday. See ya then!

Christmas is coming and I feel like running one of my famous 48-hour specials. Usually, I do this for one selected product. This time is different.

This time, everything in the store is discounted. Fiction 101. Fiction 201. My two teleseminar series with Allison Bottke and with Mary Byers. And everything else.

Everything is 25% off. There is only one way to get this discount, and that’s to click the secret link here. No other link will get you this discount.

This special runs for 48 hours only, no exceptions. It runs from midnight to midnight, California time, all day December 13 and all day December 14. After that, it’s back to business as usual. If you want to do something for yourself as a writer this holiday season, here’s your chance.

I’ve been driving most of the day and packing and unpacking the rest of it, so I’m a little thrashed today.

Rather than the long blog I had planned to do today, I thought it would be easier on me and fun for you to do something else. I’ve discovered what has to be a strong candidate for the World’s Funniest Title. I got this from Chip MacGregor’s blog. Here’s an exact quote of the title:

“How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?”

No, I didn’t make that up. I’m nowhere near clever enough to think up that great title. I haven’t read the book, but I verified its existence and read some of the reviews on Amazon.

Check it out! This guy has 39 reviews, an average 4-star rating, and his Amazon rank right now is #38,010. No kidding. The reviewers generally say it is the most unintentionally hilarious book they have ever read. After reading the book description on Amazon, I can well believe this. I’ll quote you the first two sentences of the book description:

I think constricting anus 100 times and denting navel 100 times in succession everyday is effective to good-bye depression and take back youth. You can do so at a boring meeting or in a subway.

This, I would guess, is the Christmas gift you get for the guy who really does have everything. Because you can bet good money he hasn’t got this, and he’ll love it.

I would like to start talking about marketing again, since it’s been awhile since we talked about that. I expect to have a guest on in the near future to discuss some of his innovative ideas. In the meantime, I’d like to hear how NaNoWriMo went for all of you. Bonne posted a note today to say she finished! Congrats, Bonne!

I have never done NaNoWriMo, although I have written a 90,000+ word novel in a month, once. So I’m curious how you all did.

If you’ve finished NaNoWriMo this year, post a comment here to tell us about it so we can celebrate with you.

If you’re about to finish, do the same.

If you gave up, post a comment to tell us why.

I’ll mention my own news. I wrote up three sample chapters before the holidays and sent them out to my freelance editor. She’s quick! She already sent me back her review of the chapters. She likes them, but she’s spotted a recurring problem and wants me to work on it. She even recommended a particular resource that I can use to help me. I bought it this morning and am awaiting its arrival so I can start learning something new.

I’ve probably mentioned this already, but the life of a novelist is about continuous improvement. You will NEVER arrive. You will never be perfect. The trick is to identify your biggest weakness and work on it until it’s no longer your biggest weakness. And so on, forever. This is why God created freelance editors–to poke holes in your armor and help you figure out what your weaknesses are.

I launched a 36-hour special yesterday at noon and sent out notifications to everyone on my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine list. However, I forgot to mention it here on the blog. The special ends at midnight Pacific time TONIGHT, Friday, November 16. If you’re interested, check it out here.

A little celebration is in order. I have finished writing up my Snowflake analysis of my next project. Now I can start writing the sample chapters and book proposal and send it to my agent! It took me just about a month to write that Snowflake, which is a lot of time, but it probably saved me three or four months downstream. I would have got it done quicker, but a high-priority interruption came in that I had to deal with–it was an opportunity that rarely comes along and I jumped on it. So that Snowflake would have taken about two and a half weeks under ordinary circumstances. Time well spent!

Christophe wrote:

How do you edit a chapter that has been rewritten ten times? A chapter that you can’t get a clear view of anymore because you have all the ghosts of the previous versions haunting your brain. It’s been rewritten so much you can’t make out anymore if it’s good or bad or somewhere in between.

Randy sez: The answer depends on the context. If this the only chapter you’ve written on this book, then move on. Write the rest of the book. You’ll likely end up throwing away Chapter 1 anyway, or radically revising it later on, when you know the story better.

If, however, this is that one ugly duckling chapter that is killing the entire book, it’s time to zoom out and analyze your story a bit. What’s the big picture for your story? What’s the Three Act Structure? How does this scene fit into that structure? Do you really need the scene, or is it just fluff? If it’s fluff, kill it. If you really need it, and all previous attempts to fix it have failed, here is a radical suggestion: Read the entire book up to that scene (all in one sitting, if possible). Then write that scene fresh (not a revision of the old crap, which you already know doesn’t work). Write it fresh and see if it doesn’t just work better after getting a running start by reading the story just like a reader would.

A side note: I went to my monthly critique group last night, which meets in a Barnes & Noble near me. Naturally, after the meeting, I “paid the rent” by buying a couple of books. One of them is NEXT, by Michael Crichton, which I have been reading off and on all day during breaks in my schedule. And I have still NOT figured out who the main character is in this novel. I’m not sure there is a main character. That’s too bad, because the writing is pretty strong. But I don’t know who to root for. So the novel is not as strong as the writing (at least not for me).

D.E. Hale wrote:

In writing a trilogy, do I need to do one GIANT snowflake for the ENTIRE story, or just each book, or both? What’s the best way to go about that.

If the trilogy is a single story (like LORD OF THE RINGS) then you probably do. (Tolkien actually wrote LOTR by the seat of his pants. He had no idea who Strider was when he walked on stage.) If the three stories can stand alone, you can probably get away with Snowflaking each book on its own. I am starting work on a series now, but I am only Snowflaking the first book. I know more or less what the next several books will be about, but I don’t have the details.

For those of you who’ve read the entire Harry Potter series, it is obvious that JK Rowling had the whole story in mind from the beginning of book one. I doubt she did a Snowflake, but she clearly did a lot of planning on the complete series as a single unit and she knew her characters’ backstories and how those would drive the series.

On to some of that backlog of questions that we posed to Renni Browne:
Holly wrote:

My question: How do I know when I’ve over-edited and the prose is too spare? I write tight to begin with and pare down to make every word carry its weight. Because of this I have shorter scenes and chapters, and a lot of them. I harp on myself to keep the explanation within the action and dialogue (R.U.E.!), not the prose-but I worry that I’ve then left too much to the imagination and the piece is not understandable to anyone without a literary magnifying glass. (What do I do?) Okay, another question: Once I cut out a lot of the flab, I’m left with a long series of very short paragraphs. Is this a no-no, and if it is, is there any way to remedy the situation?

Renni answered: I’ll take the easy question first. You often see very short paragraphs in thrillers, but occasionally they do work in other types of fiction. They can also look or feel weird. Nonstop dialogue, for example, can be exhausting to read if it runs on long enough–it needs to be broken up with beats, interior monologue, a bit of description, etc. Also, if you have very short non-dialogue paragraphs in succession, consider following them pretty quickly with longer ones. As for your other question, overediting is a real danger. My best advice is that you pay careful attention to what you own instincts are telling you. You may already know you’re going too far–that may be why you asked the question. Do you feel that the prose isn’t rich, is too “bare bones,” doesn’t satisfy? Cutting flab is good, leaving things to the reader’s imagination is very good because it gets readers to invest a little piece of themselves in your story, involving them in it at a deeper level. But you have to make it possible for them to do that, and they can’t if you’ve left out too much, if you haven’t given them enough to work with. Again, what do your instincts tell you? They’re more reliable, of course, if you’ve put the manuscript aside for a while.

Randy adds: There are different kinds of writers. There are those who write lean and those who write rich, and you need to decide what kind you are. I naturally write pretty lean, so I don’t try to edit too hard or there’d be nothing left. In fact, when I edit, I tend to add in stuff. But writers who lay on the adjectives and adverbs thick to begin with–those are the ones who need to edit hard and trim out the fat. It sounds like you tend toward the lean already, so take it easy with that red pencil!

More on self-editing tomorrow.

I’m at a writing conference this week and will respond to all the comments on Harry Potter soon. (You know how it is at a writing conference — just too fun to spend much time on the computer.)

However, today, August 1, is also the day Allison Bottke’s latest novel launches. As most of you will recall, I’ve done a series of teleseminar interviews with Allison in recent months in which she talks about mission statements, strategic planning, branding, and all that stuff. My life is amazingly better because of Allison’s advice, and many of our listeners have written to me to say how grateful they are for her help.

Allison is amazingly productive. She’s currently turning out several nonfiction books PLUS a novel each year. Her latest novel is launching TODAY, August 1, with a 31-day blog tour. She’s asked me to be the first blogger on her tour. So I’m interviewing her below, AND I’ve talked her into giving you an amazing deal on our teleseminar series, a 24-hour special for anyone who buys her book today on Amazon.com.

Allison writes Christian fiction for women of the Baby Boom generation, “Boomer Babes” as she calls them. I happen to be married to a Boomer Babe, and my wife really liked Allison’s last novel. I sent Allison some interview questions last week, and here’s what she sent back:

Q: People say that you write “women’s fiction with an attitude.” What does that mean?

A: It was my agent who first coined that phrase in reference to my work. He was trying to describe the kind of fiction I write but it’s not your typical romance fiction, and it’s not historical, and it’s not quite chick-lit. My lead characters are all baby boomers, in their 40’s and 50’s. They are all smart, savvy, sophisticated and a bit sassy. He told a publisher that my stories had “attitude,” that my characters had “attitude.” Thus, “women’s fiction with an attitude” was born. So, for the record, it’s my characters and stories that have the attitude, and not me.

Q: You’ve always been somewhat of a trendsetter in the Christian market, encouraging writers to have a strategic business plan and to be on top of marketing and such — now, it appears as though you’ve coined a new genre with your work — “Boomer-Lit.” Tell us about that.

A: Typical “chick-lit” is written for a 20-30 year old target market. The protagonist is usually single, and struggling with her faith, career, family, love-life and things young women often struggle with. In my books, I wanted to approach the issues that baby boomers are dealing with, things like the empty nest syndrome, aging parents, a change in career, retirement, menopause, and other health issues. I wanted to look at women in the prime of their life who were suddenly stepping out in faith to achieve the dreams of their heart. Women who weren’t afraid to take risks — who had the chutzpah to dare to dream big. That’s how “Boomer-Lit” was born.

Q: Your latest novel is ONE LITTLE SECRET, which releases today, August 1. Tell us about this book.

A: I developed ONE LITTLE SECRET first as a screenplay called JUST A HOUSEWIFE. When Bethany House wanted a second novel after A STITCH IN TIME, I immediately thought of this story, realizing that it would make some great Boomer-Lit!

For Ursula Rhoades, her ONE LITTLE SECRET becomes her one big problem! ONE LITTLE SECRET fits seamlessly into a culture obsessed with reality TV and celebrity lives (think American Idol and E! channel). Delving into the life of a fictional rock star, ONE LITTLE SECRET takes readers on a fun-loving ride through Hollywood and the famous GRAMMY awards.

In a land of glitz and glamour, Ursula Rhoades isn’t fazed in the least by the constant parade of Prada. She has a beautiful home, a loving family, and fulfilling volunteer opportunities that leave this fashionable and loving Bel-Air housewife completely content, even if she did have to give up her dreams when she married Don so many years ago. Enter Nikolai Prevelakis, or Nik Prevel to his fans, the hottest young music star in the country. But it isn’t enough. Handsome, famous, and living the life of a rock star, Nik isn’t content. When his path crosses Ursula’s, he sees the opportunity he’s been waiting for. But what seems like a harmless little secret changes their lives forever-and becomes one big secret everyone’s trying to figure out!

ONE LITTLE SECRET is a Hollywood fairy tale with all the pleasures of escapist literature mixed with gentle lessons on using the talents God has given you, the power of sacrifice, self-esteem, and the value of being “just a housewife.”

Q: Did I hear correctly that you’ve developed some sort of Hollywood contest to cast the film version of ONE LITTLE SECRET?

A: Yes sir, you did. We’re actually giving away an all expense paid trip to Hollywood for two in the event the movie gets optioned for a film. Your readers can vote on who they think would make the best Ursula and Nik — from stars like Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas. It’s a fun and funky contest, how about you stopping by and voting, okay, Randy? Check out the contest here.

Q: Allison, you made your name writing nonfiction. What prompted you to step into fiction?

A: I’ve always wanted to write fiction. In fact, when I grow up I’d like to work in the world of film — writing screenplays. I have a deep love for creating those sappy, romantic comedy fairy-tale love stories that women can escape into. However, I had a major life-changing epiphany at the age of 35 that brought me closer to God in a very profound way. As a result of that, I founded an organization called: GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS. A vital aspect of that organization is a compilation book series of true short stories written by people from all around the world. The GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS anthology collection took off with its first volume published in 2001 and today, there are 23 plus books under the recognized GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS “brand.” That said, I was blessed to enter the world of publishing and get my feet wet—more important—I was able to make connections with editors and publishers who were able to see how I conducted my business.

I also began attending writer’s conferences as an instructor, and while there I was able to take classes as a student with some amazing novelists who generously shared their craft in workshop sessions. I soaked up everything I could about how to write fiction — taking notes — buying tapes — listening over and over again to teachers like Angela Hunt, Gayle Roper, Brandilyn Collins, James Scott Bell, Jack Cavanaugh, Lauraine Snelling, and Tracie Peterson. It was after taking a 3-day long intensive workshop with Tracie Peterson that I was able to fine-tune my work-in-progress and submit it with a proposal to Bethany House. The rest, as they say, is history. Bethany House signed me to write two novels and the whirlwind began.

Q: Your first novel, A STITCH IN TIME had some autobiographical elements. Are there any similar elements in ONE LITTLE SECRET?

A: Some? You’re being kind…there was a whole lot of me in “Stitch,” from the weight loss surgery aspect to the career as a professional fundraiser, to living in southern California. It’s been said that debut novels are often the most autobiographical in a novelist’s career. It’s also said that the second novel — the follow-up — is infinitely harder to write because you’ve used up pretty much everything you know in novel number one, and now the rubber meets the road for real creativity. (insert a big smile here.) That said, ONE LITTLE SECRET has far less of my real-life experience, which was a true joy to write! I had so much fun with this book!

Q: You changed POV’s entirely with ONE LITTLE SECRET. Your debut novel, A STITCH IN TIME was first person and ONE LITTLE SECRET is written in third person. Why did you change and which style do you prefer?

A: Like a ga-zillion other women, I first fell in love with the genre of “chick-lit” reading the 1996 release of Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding. The intimate first-person POV allowed us to experience Bridget’s angst-filled journey right along with her. I was too green to know that first person POV is one of the most difficult to pull off. With ONE LITTLE SECRET, I wanted to see if I could get inside the head of a male character — as well as have more freedom of description and story telling that third person allows. I had a blast with this style. I’d have to say that while I enjoy reading first person, I enjoy writing third person more. All three Va Va books will be third person.

Q: I’m glad you brought that up, what about all this “Va Va Va Boom” stuff I’ve been hearing about?

A: You’ve heard about it? How cool is that! I lovingly call it the Va Va project. I’ve just been contracted by David C. Cook Publishers to write three new Boomer-Lit books in a series I’ve called THE VA VA VA BOOM series. All three books will introduce entrepreneurial boomer babes who own their own businesses. Additionally, each woman has a deep dark secret and a deep dream desire. The first book in the series will release in 2008.

Q: Okay, since you mentioned it, what is a Boomer Babe? And how did that come about?

A: Here’s the definition that appears on my web site. “A Boomer Babe was born between 1946 and 1964, we are women who are comfortable enough in our own skin to realize that the mid-life years can be some of the best and most exciting in our entire life. That the hubris of youth is behind us and the wisdom of the years has made us pretty darn attractive — both inside and out. We are Boomer Babes and we’re proud of it!”

For years I’ve been known as the “God Allows U-Turns Poster Girl.” I’ve been blessed with that moniker and it’s always a joy to share with people how my life direction radically changed. Yet over the years, I found myself being drawn to the challenges my fellow baby boomer sisters were experiencing. In late 2006 I woke up one day with the idea to develop a web site separate from www.GodAllowsUTurns.com devoted to boomer women. We launched the new business, www.BoomerBabesRock.com on January 1st of 2007. A cornerstone of the outreach is a monthly electronic e-zine that we call a “Dream-Zine.” It’s called Boomer Babes with Brilliant Dreams and our goal is to empower and encourage baby boomer women to achieve the dreams of their heart.

Q: Do you have a Mission Statement for your new Boomer Babes Rock! site?

A: Sure do! “Boomer Babes Rock, where fun, fashion, food, family, and faith merge to empower and inspire boomer women around the world!”

Q: Where can my readers find out more about Boomer Babes Rock?

A: Your blog readers can find more about what a Boomer Babe is by visiting this page on the Boomer Babes Rock! web site: http://www.boomerbabesrock.com/mission-bbr.html

And, they can sign up to receive our free monthly Dream-Zine by clicking here: http://www.boomerbabesrock.com/dreamzine.html

Q: Thanks for allowing me to launch your International Blog Tour here at Advanced Fiction Writing. Where else will you be this month?

A: I’ll be visiting 42 more blogs throughout the USA, Canada and Australia. Your readers can check out my schedule here, and I sure hope they check out some of the blogs on the tour schedule: http://www.allisonbottke.com/mr_blogtours.htm

Q: Any closing thoughts?

A: Randy, the fact I’ve been published at all boggles my mind. I want to encourage your readers who have a desire to write to never give up! I also want them to stop judging themselves against other writers. I’m a high school drop out with a ninth grade education and a GED. I quit school after the 9th grade to run away from home and get married. I was going to live happily ever after in my fairy tale dream.

But that’s NOT what happened. As a teenager, I was looking for love in all the wrong places. As a Boomer Babe, I know a whole lot more about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. I also know a whole lot more about pursuing the dreams of our heart…walking in God’s purpose for our life, and making life-changing U-Turns. Boomer Babes Rock is all about living the great American dream. It’s about deciding today… that THIS is the break-out year when you’re going to make things happen — and happen in a BIG way! And that’s what ONE LITTLE SECRET is about. It’s about a dynamic woman who takes a risk to make her lifelong dream come true.

Randy, writing is not about formal education, or who you know, or how long you’ve been at it. It’s about perseverance and risk and belief in yourself — and knowing that inevitably, God will make a way where there seems to be no way. Thanks, Randy, for hosting me on your blog today. As always, it’s been a joy visiting with you and your readers.

Randy sez: Thanks, Allison, for the interview. I hope your book has a great launch. Once again, I’ll remind readers that Allison and I are doing a 24-hour special on our teleseminar series on August 1, as an incentive for people to buy her book. We’d like to see a flood of sales of the book on Amazon on Day 1. To find out more about that incentive, check out the 24-Hour Special Page.