Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins Coming February 1, 2012

Everyone who loves reading about country singers won't want to miss Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins, by Diane Diekman, due for release by The University of Illinois Press on February 1, 2012.


The popular country singer, was racecar driver, restless seeker, and entertained countless thousands during his 30-year music career.



Diekman, a retired U.S. Navy captain, is the author of Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story ; Navy Greenshirt: A Leader Made, Not Born; and A Farm in the Hidewood: My South Dakota Home.


Order from the publisher, or Amazon.com. Diekman's earlier books are also available from the author's website.

Historical Fiction Research Simplified

For writers of historical fiction, Amanda Cabot's, Simplify Historical Fiction Research, published by Pentalk Community on January 20, 2012, offers excellent tips.

When You First Join A Writing List

I joined Internet Writers Workshop right after I replaced my 1982 Tandy TRS-80 -- disc operated -- computer with a laptop, in 1996. Internet service had just become available in the Clark Fork River valley in northwest Montana. Living in a remote mountainous region has many perks, but ISP hadn't been one of them.


As a member of IWW, reading submissions and comments, I quickly felt overwhelmed, not to mention inferior. Determined to connect with the writing world, to learn all I could, and to expand my world, I hung in there.


Many wonderful opportunities resulted, and I hope what I learned will be helpful to you, as well.

I understand being overwhelmed when you join IWW! My strategies can help.

First, join only one of the lists offered at a time, until you're comfortable that you can handle more.


I set "Writing" list to Digest, so I get one post a day, and quickly scan it to find tidbits that I have time for.


How to get started? I found it easier to simply LURK and read  Writing Posts, Subs and Crits for a while first, to get a feel for what's expected.


Because "NonFiction" is the only list I'm on (besides "Writing" which is mandatory), I find SUBs generally space out enough I can (usually) keep up, and still find time for my own writing.


And of course, I do not attempt to CRIT or read every SUB. (or read every CRIT - even though reading the CRITS is remarkable for learning purposes.)


How does one decide what to write about?


It's good to experiment when you begin writing, because that's the only way to learn what you are interested in writing. Success comes by doing what you love most to do.

I learned the bulk of what follows from my membership in IWW, so I incorporated it with my years of previous writing experience. People who have followed advice in "Access The World And Write Your Way To $$$" ,a writing resources course, say they learned what they wanted to know by studying what it offers.


Caution: You need to be selective and study only what you want to learn to meet your goals. I began gathering the best of the best that's free about a dozen years ago, and put it online last year. Some links will be dead by now, I'm sure, as I usually update it frequently, but haven't in 2011.


I originally designed the course (sent via emal) to be 10 weeks, with 21 chapters + handouts from Pros.


Links will take you to what you're looking for, and after putting it online I've tried to make it as easy as possible to navigate.


Whatever you do, don't feel overwhelmed or get discouraged.


Keep writing and you will succeed!! Good luck!

Writers and The Taxman

You'll get good insights from an article I published in the '90s. Although IRS form numbers may have changed, the basic advice from "the tax expert" remains fundamentally the same: http://writerinsidertips.blogspot.com/2010/07/7-3-what-about-taxes.html

Our Fascination With Quotes

Why do people like quotes?

VisualThesaurus , in "May I Quote You?" published answers from Scholar, Fred Shapiro, an authority on quotations and the editor of the seminal Yale Book of Quotations The answers provide interesting insights well worth reading.

VisualThesaurus is a wonderful Subscription website people interested in words cherish because, along with other useful resources, the unique interactive dictionary and thesaurus create word maps. (14-day free trial.) Exploration and learning help users understand language in uniquely powerful ways. Visual Thesaurus® is developed and published by Thinkmap, Inc.

This website includes a number of archived (free) thoughtful blogs, plus the numerous comments they generate.

Banish Those Weird Characters and Run-On Sentences

Be certain that your editor is not going to receive a sloppy query or manuscript that possible arrives with weird characters, or sentences that run together.

Some ISP servers like nothing but pure plain text. So when you've saved your work in a standard word processor, whether you use plain text or RichText/HTML, it may not arrive in the pristine condition you intended.

Also, nearly all email programs or web email interfaces default to Rich Text, which also can result in ugly manuscripts when you don't take time to trim it. Let's face it. If your editor receives sloppy looking material you'll be less likely to receive an assignment.

There are ways to prevent the problem.

1. Save a copy as plain text in Notepad. Then open that copy to check for HTML debris. Actually, it is good practice to keep a Notepad plain-text-folder for all your manuscripts.
2. Set your email program or your web email to default to Plain Text.
3. If you're still not sure that you have a clean manuscript, you can run it through one of the "scrubbers" to be found online.

Here are two free converters discovered with a quick search, and each produces a different font:

Inowebmarketing, http://www.inowebmarketing.com/word-to-text/
WebToolHub, http://www.webtoolhub.com/tn561393-html-to-text-converter.aspx

Keep your favorite editors happy by ensuring they receive perfectly formatted copy.

Ann Hite, Author of Ghost on Black Mountain Receives Publisher's Nod For Second Book

Ann Hite, author of Ghost on Black Mountain, received the best of news recently. The second book in the Black Mountain series will be published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  The book will also get an exciting promotional plan.

Those in the publishing industry know this is not a small accomplishment, with the hard times the book business is going through at the moment. Ghost on Black Mountain has only been out three months!