I simply wanted to offer a thank you to all the writers and creative people out there for your work! Your creations speak to the hopes, dreams, fears, lives, experiences, and imagination of humanity. You make the world a much better place, and I, for one, appreciate what you do.
I thought it would be interesting to do a book promotion party by giving not only the name of your book and what it is about but also a quotation from your book, from anywhere in the text.
I offer the following from Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society Book 1 by Charles F. French, which is as much a love story as it is a horror novel:
“As he did every morning, Roosevelt woke up and reached for Sarah, only to be dismayed when he realized she wasn’t there, that she was, indeed, gone, and he would have to make it through another day without her. That was the worst part of every day, having to face another waking period without Sarah” (18).
So, if you would like to join the party and promote your book, please offer a quotation!
Have fun, promote your book, and please share this post.
It is now almost Winter, and it is time once again for a book promotion party!
I want to offer an opportunity for all writers who follow this blog to share information on their books. It can be very difficult to generate publicity for our writing, so I thought this little effort might help. All books may be mentioned, and there is no restriction on genre. This encompasses fiction, poetry, plays, and non-fiction. If I have neglected to mention a genre, please consider it to be included.
To participate, simply give your name, your book, information about it, and where to purchase it in the comments section. Then please be willing to reblog and/or tweet this post. The more people that see it, the more publicity we can generate for everyone’s books. I will continue to do these parties every few weeks.
I have several Christmas movies that carry great meaning to me and that I have loved over many years. I have written about them before in this blog, and I will continue to do so. Now, however, I want to make a new entry into my list of favorite Christmas movies.
The Man Who Invented Christmas is an extraordinary film that was released several years ago. It is a wonderful movie that explores the creative process of Charles Dickens as he wrote the classic novel, A Christmas Carol. The director is Bharat Nalluri, and this work is marvelous! We get a direct entrance into Dickens’ mind as he struggles with his writing. His characters appear and talk to him, which is an excellent touch.
The film is based on the book by Les Standiford, and the stars are Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce. The entire cast, without exception, give extraordinary performances. Christopher Plummer as Scrooge is especially brilliant. Dan Stevens should be recognized as one of the finest actors today.
This film delivers the message of Dickens’ masterpiece, that humanity should be the business of everyone, that money should not be the focus of our lives, and that we should all try to help each other. It will capture your heart and soul, and it is a film I recommend completely! On a system of 5 stars, I give it five!
Please, do yourself a favor, and watch this movie!
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Jorge Luis Borges
“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”
Stephen King
“Books are the food and drink for the human soul.”
“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”(62)
“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” (108)
“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.” (92)
“‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.” (97)
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens: The Christmas Books Volume I.
I was thinking recently of a variety of aspects of books that I love, including plot, theme, and character. As I was considering these elements, I realized that some books have extraordinary sentences. These lines might not encapsulate the entirety of those books, but they are beautiful and powerful.
I will offer two such quotations:
The first is the closing sentence from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, one of the most important novels ever written:
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known” (307).
The second offering is from A Soldier Of The Great War by Mark Helprin. This novel is, in my not too modest opinion, one of the absolute best novels ever written. With this book, Helprin takes his place among the pantheon of literary giants such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Cervantes, and Tolstoy.
“As a way to arrive at the truth, exactitude and methodology are, in the end, far inferior to vision and apotheosis” (30)
So, now I ask everyone who reads this: what are some of the most beautiful and important sentences you have read in books?
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Wordworth Classics. 1993.
Helprin, Mark. A Soldier Of The Great War. Perennial. 2001.
November is coming to an end, and some of you have been doing NaNoWriMo, and others have continued with a somewhat less frenzied pace.
I am one of the people who tries to write on a regular basis and avoids binge writing. I recently finished a first draft of my latest horror novel, so I have begun a first draft of another book–I never run out of ideas! Soon, I will also work on revising a previous draft of a historical fiction/romance novel.
By the way, if you are wondering how I manage to do this, check out my book Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft — how’s that for a bit of shameless self-promotion?!
Hello to all the writers out there and reading this blog!
It is well into the month of November, so it is time for a shameless self-promotion party; please do not be shy about your work.
Writers need to be their own best publicists, and we should also help each other!
Let the world know about your book(s)!
Promote them as much as you can!
Shout to the world about your writing!
Tell us about your book(s), and leave an image and a link if you can.
Here is my shameless self-promotion: my latest nonfiction book can help writers who have issues with finishing first drafts of their books. If that is you, I offer direct, practical advice on how to Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft by Charles F. French.
In order for as many people to see your work as possible, please Tweet, and reblog this post!
Please remember to be proud of your work!
My latest novel is Evil Lives After: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 3.
It is the month for often frenzied writing activity, although I hope most of you continue on a regular pace throughout the year. I have found that such an approach of doing about 500 words a day is extremely productive. At that pace, you can produce about 150,000 words in a year, or about two first drafts!
I am very pleased to say that I have just finished the first draft of a horror novel I have been working on. The draft is a mess and needs a great deal of revision, but now I have something to work on. I will put it aside and begin writing another first draft. Then comes revision.