From Birth to Five

Today we're going to interview Brenda Nixon, client and author of the Birth to Five Book:

Brenda, your The Birth to Five Book is doing very well in the market and we’ve presently marketing your discipline book tentatively titled "Difficult to Discipline?-success strategies for getting your kid to mind." I know your primary focus is on speaking and promotion, but what are you working on next?

Thanks for your comments and observations about The Birth to Five Book. As a mom, conference speaker, freelance writer, author, and media guest expert on parenting, I'm always working on something, Terry. This week, I've prepared my Speaking Agreement and vitae for an Iowa hospital event, written my Discipline Tip sent to subscribers, written a blog entry for my co-authored "A Scrapbook of Christmas" Firsts, finalized plans to be a writers conference keynote, and submitted four stories to book compilations plus worked on my internet presence and networking through facebook and twitter. All that was besides getting my college-age daughter ready to return for her senior year and helping my other daughter who is desperately looking for a RN job. And I still feel behind . . . What's on the horizon for my writing career? I hope to continue promoting and see strong sales with my parenting title and get more book proposals written.

You’ve been really active doing interviews and programs and all types of promotion, what are you presenting programs on and to whom? How can people find out more about the programs you offer?

Quick answer: go to the "Where's Brenda?" page at http://www.brendanixon.com/. Most of my speaking and interviews are listed. If people want to find out more about my parenting topics or my education and experience they can find it on my website.

What is the best writing advice you have ever received? The worst?

Oh my, probably the best - and most often quoted - advice is to connect with other writers. The writing life can be lonely; if you want to remain fresh, enthused, and improve, you must connect with other industry professionals through online writers groups, critique groups, and at writers conferences. Hmm, I don't know if I recognize the worst writing advice. I've received bad reviews, bad rejections and bad treatment from others but can't say there's any advice on how to write that is off the chart.

What would you like to use this opportunity to say to people?

Write about what you know! If you know about child development and parenting and God has given you the gift of encouragement, then write from that vein. If you know airplanes and are a seasoned pilot, then write about that. Your passion and experience qualifies you to write on a given topic; going to writers conferences and improving your wordsmith skills will help get your work published. You'll hear other professionals tell you to stretch - get out of your comfort zone - and that is good advice when you're an experienced writer. But to begin your career, write fromyour heart's passion. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote many works; some accepted and many rejected. But after she moved to a ruralFlorida hamlet where she experienced a strong passion for the land and the people, she wrote her best works: Cross Creek and The Yearling.

Thank you Brenda, and readers if you would like to automatically know when there is a new posting follow this link http://cowboymusing.blogspot.com/ ( in a new browser window so it doesn't open in this box ) to the main blogspot site and become a follower. This is a new function offered by blogspot and I am just beginning to accumulate followers.

meet mystery writer Donn Taylor

Today we're going to visit with client and I'm proud to say my good friend Donn Taylor

Donn, your mystery "Rhapsody in Red" and your poetry book "Dust and Diamond" are both doing well in the marketplace, and we're working on marketing
the sequel and trying to get a reprint deal for your earlier work, "The Lazarus File." What are people liking about "Rhapsody"? What are they saying?

Almost every comment has been positive. Readers like the characters--the widower professor plagued by musical hallucinations, the feisty female professor of comparative religion, the sometimes-surprising secondary characters like MRS. Blossom Harlow. People have commented favorably on the novel's light satire of political correctness and the small-college scene, and they like the ironic encounters between the professor and the school administration. Quite a few have commented on the mystery's climax and the wrap-up chapter. I've been pleasantly surprised by people I don't know e-mailing to ask when the sequel comes out.

What's next in the pipeline from you?

I've just completed a historical novel set in 1948, when America was trying to restore normalcy after WW II but worrying about early stages of the Cold War. That's the setting, but the story turns on how a small town too proud of its own virtues deals with its first murder. I'm working on a sequel to that one, with a third book possibly taking those characters through America's entrance to the Korean War. I'm also doing the early work for a second sequel to "Rhapsody."

You do programs at writing conferences, what are you presenting on and how do program people find out more?

I teach workshops on poetry writing. They cover the elements that make poetry different from prose, how to get started writing poetry, how to make your poetry different from most of what's being written, and some of the unique special effects poetry can achieve. I also do one-on-one poetry critiques at conferences. Descriptions of my classes are can be found in the Faculty and Workshops link at http://www.blueridgeconference.com/. My Web site, http://www.donntaylor.com/, contains examples of my poetry as well as sample chapters of "Lazarus" and "Rhapsody." Interested parties can contact me via e-mail, donn@donntaylor.com.

What's the best piece of writing advice you ever got? The worst?

Best: That's an easy one: LEARN THE CRAFT. The hard part is figuring out what parts of it I don't yet know. From my college teaching days I had no problem with the mechanics of writing. But in changing from academic and technical writing into fiction writing, I had to learn the theory of structuring scenes and entire novels. Then I had to practice until I could make the theory work. And as Cec Murphy says, we must never stop learning. There's another barrier of ignorance I'm trying to break through now, but I'd better not name it.

Worst: That's easy, too: the idea that "It's all subjective." Not so, and the statement is all the more false because it's partly true. There are some subjective elements, such as an editor's judgment of whether a particular subject will sell to the readers. But to enlarge the subjective factors into the whole picture is to create an excuse for failure--an excuse not to get better. Craftsmanship is not subjective, and sloppy writing won't be rejected on an editor's subjective judgment because the poor craftsmanship will stop it before the content gets evaluated.

Anything you'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to say?

I like novels that temper suspense and pathos with humor. That technique worked well for Shakespeare, and I'm surprised more of us don't imitate him in practicing it. And C.S. Lewis was all too correct in saying that the hardest thing to portray in any art is simple goodness. Nevertheless, we need to put in the necessary effort and the ingenuity. If we don't, our writing ends up overbalanced in the other direction. I only hope I can actually practice what I preach.

Thank you, Donn, great answers. I encourage readers to sign up for a rss feed to automatically get this blog as it alternates between introductions and advice from my clients, answers to writing and agent questions people ask, new book releases. and a variety of other topics.