Showing posts with label Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Effect of Writing

    Back in January, when my first book was released, I was asked how writing has affected my life, and how my life has affected my writing. In a nut shell…writing has affected everything about my life and my life has affected everything about my writing :)

    Like any writer, my experiences, my personality, my relationships, my emotions on any given day…all of these affect my writing. But these things affect non-fiction and fiction differently.Fiction is very much an emotional sport. I sort of have to be in the right mood to write fiction. Because I take all my emotions and past experiences and make them a part of what I am actually writing, all the aspects of my real life that affect me tend to affect my work as well.

    But non-fiction is very non-emotional (unless you are talking about creative/narrative non-fiction like a memoir or narrative personal essay). Actually, in my book, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, I’m trying to calm emotions down. I want to remove the stress and anxiety my readers feel about writing these assignments by making the process as entertaining and easy as possible. Non-fiction, for me, is more analytical, more technical. So, whatever is going on in my life at the moment doesn’t really affect my non-fiction writing.

    Now, how has writing affected my life? In every way imaginable. In ways I never even dreamed. If I were to make a pro and con list, writing would probably seem like it affected my life negatively. My house is a mess, my kids live on cereal more often than I’d like to admit, I don’t spend as much time with them (or with ANYONE for that matter) as I should, I tend to spend all my time in front of my computer instead of out in the world…

    But the pros are pretty awesome. Because of my writing, I’ve met the most wonderful people; I now have an amazing outlet for both the more analytical/educational non-fiction side of me, and the overly imaginative/dreamer fiction side of me; I get to spend my free time doing what I LOVE; I’ve learned to be patient and persevering and PROUD of who I am and what I do. There is nothing quite like working toward your dream. I’ve found out just how strong and determined I can be. Writing is helping me develop into the person I always wanted to be. :)

    How has writing affected your life? And does your life affect your writing?

Post Title

The Effect of Writing


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/08/effect-of-writing.html


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Saturday, May 21, 2011

All 4 Alabama Tornado Relief Auction

    Hey guys! My book, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, will be going up for auction at 1 pm CST today. It's a great book for students, perfect for a back to school present for the fall, or for anyone stuck in an English class this summer :) And it's for a good cause.

    Head on over and check it out - there are TONS of other awesome items up for bid as well (including a signed copy of my new picture book, A Magical World) :D

Post Title

All 4 Alabama Tornado Relief Auction


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/05/all-4-alabama-tornado-relief-auction.html


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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

How To Promote Your Book

    Nowadays, promoting your own book, especially when it comes to non-fiction, is something every author is going to need to do. Publishers do help (for instance, my publisher hired a publicity firm to work with me) but a lot of promotion responsibility rests on the author’s shoulders.

    There are a lot of things you can do; some you are probably already doing (like blogging) and some that are fun things you can do once you have a book on the way. Since my book, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, is geared toward students, teachers, and homeschooling parents, I try to connect with those readers as often as possible. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing to help promote my book: 
    • A blog tour when the book released 
    • I created an Author Page on Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads 
    • I began promoting my upcoming book through my blog and website and focused on building my readership
    • I’ve printed bookmarks and postcards featuring my book to leave on the counters of my local library and bookstore – and I recruited as many friends and family members as I could to do so as well. I will also be mailing the postcards and press kits (see next bullet) to schools and other institutions that might be interested in my book 
    • You can create press kits to send to newspapers, radio stations, and any other venue that might either plug or be interested in your book 
    • I spoke with my local bookstore about making appearances and will appear with my book at their bi-annual teacher convention
      • Any appearance opportunities you can find will be a great help in promoting your book. Whether it be visiting schools or speaking at conventions, these are a great way to get yourself and your book known. So if you find an opportunity to make an appearance or presentation of any kind, TAKE IT! Even if it is not specifically related to your book, it will help get your name out there.
      • Online appearances like Twitter chats, blog and website guest posts, Skype chats, forum chats, and any other venue where you can connect with your audience are great
    •  I even made T-shirts for family members to wear to their English classes and to Disneyland :D (hey, people have nothing else to do while they wait in those huge lines but read the shirt of the guy in front of them :D )
    Many of these ideas I got from Steve Weber's Plug Your Book. He's got a ton of great ideas for how you help get your book out there using online sources. Also, look around at what other writers are doing. Ask your friends and family about the types of things they like to see, what they pay attention to the most. Think of anyone and everyone who might be able to help promote your book in some way and ask for their help.

    This is one of the reasons you spend so much time and energy doing that social networking thing. Use the connections you've made! The writing community is one of the most helpful groups of people I have ever had the pleasure of associating with in my life. Most writers are more than happy to help a fellow author. Just gotta ask :)

    Bottom line – connect with your audience. Let them know you have a book they need :)

Post Title

How To Promote Your Book


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-promote-your-book.html


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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Last Day Blog Tour Stops and a Special Guest!

    Welcome to February everyone! Can you believe we are here already!?

    Okay, today is the last day of my blog tour. And I have a special treat for you today. I will be featured over at the lovely and talented Vicki Rocho's, and I will also be over at my awesome Blog Chain buddy's, Eric Stallsworth's. So head on over to their blogs! Today is the last day to leave a comment on any of the blog tour posts (for a complete list with links, check out the blog tour tab above) for more entries in the huge Grand Prize Giveaway!!! I will be announcing the winner of the Grand Prize on Thursday, so go comment!!

    And for an added treat...Eric will be doing a guest post for us here! The floor's all yours Eric! :)

    ---------------
    First off, a big thanks to Michelle for allowing me to grace your blog. I’m truly honored to be allowed to guest post here.

    Essays are a big part of my life, particularly since I’m still working my way through a Masters degree. And depending on the assignment, I either really enjoy or really dread writing essays. Okay, more often than not I dread them. Michelle McLean has the answer for everyone like me who hates the idea of writing essays. Even if you just find the task difficult, Michelle’s book Homework Helpers: Essays & Term Papers will ease your pain.

    After reading through her book, I found that Chapter 3 on Argumentative/Persuasive Essays is my favorite. Michelle is compelling, and her writing is very conversational. Reading through the chapter makes this type of essay much easier to begin and work through. From the get-go, Michelle tells you what the purpose of this essay type is (i.e. to convince your reader to agree with your point of view), and then she launches into easy-to-follow steps that will get you through the essay creation.

    Since I’ve already stated that I don’t particularly like essay writing, why would I choose this type as a favorite? Surprisingly, I like the challenge. More often than not in this type of essay, you’re forced to take a stance and defend it. You have to base your stance on factual information, and sometimes you may be forced to take a stance you personally don’t agree with. This is where the true challenge comes into play.

    I also believe that this type of essay has an impact on my ability to write fiction. When we’re crafting a character, everything has to be believable. In essence, we have to take a stance on who the character is and why they choose to do the various things they do. We have to prove to our readers that the story makes sense, that the characters are realistic, and that the world we are creating is worth reading about. We put ourselves in a character’s figurative shoes and walk around until our readers believe.

    If you’re struggling with essays (or know someone else who does), you really need to pick up Michelle’s book Essays & Term Papers. It will help your writing ability in ways you never imagined, and it’s hands down the most laid-back (and yet incredibly informative) textbook I’ve ever read.

    Thanks again to Michelle for allowing me to visit. It has been a real pleasure.

Post Title

Last Day Blog Tour Stops and a Special Guest!


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-day-blog-tour-stops-and-special.html


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Thursday, January 20, 2011

It's Launch Day!!! Let the Blog Tour Begin!

    Welcome to Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers Blog Tour!!

    We've got an awesome first day! I am thrilled to be hosted today by the absolutely amazing

    Christine Fonseca
    Elana Johnson
    Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Wiggins
    and Lisa Amowitz

    Starting today, every commenter along the blog tour will get an automatic entry for the huge Grand Prize Swag Basket! For every stop you comment on, you get another entry (one entry per stop). So if you visit each of the lovely ladies listed above, and LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR POST, you'll receive four entries for today.

    At the end of the tour, I'll draw a name to select the winner :)

    There will be several other opportunities to win copies of my book and swag bags along the way as many of my blog tour hosts will be featuring their own giveaways. I'll post each stop every morning and will also keep a running tab of them in the Blog Tour Giveaway tab above. Links for the giveaways and the Blog Tour stops will go live once the actual posts are up.

    I hope you all join me for the tour! I'm being hosted by some really amazing people. It's going to be a blast!

Post Title

It's Launch Day!!! Let the Blog Tour Begin!


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/it-launch-day-let-blog-tour-begin.html


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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Product Placement

    --Blog Tour kicks off tomorrow! Getting a jump start over at the fabulous Christine Fonseca's blog with an interview. Go check it out! :) And the awesome Amparo over at the OA is having a contest to win a copy of my book and some fun swag....winner announced tomorrow! Go enter!

    I've been answering a lot of questions lately about promotion...what I'm doing to help promote my book specifically. Now, my book is a non-fiction book about writing, so when it comes to promotional items I did writing type stuff: bookmarks, pens, that kind of thing. But it got me thinking about the fun promo stuff fiction authors get to do.

    - Jessica Verday has perfumes that go along with the characters in her Hollow books (her MC makes perfumes)
    - Beth Revis has some awesome Godspeed swag for Across the Universe
    - You can get jewelry with the Mockingjay design from the Hunger Games series
    - You can get jewelry depicting the different years for the House of Night series
    - You can get everything under the sun Twilight and Harry Potter

    So I'm curious....when writing your books, do you ever do "product placement"? Do you have your MC wear a favorite necklace that you know would be a cool promo item if your book ever hits the shelves? Do you design a special logo for your MCs rebel alliance that you know would look on awesome on everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs?

    It's not something I used to think about when writing, but with the growing necessity for authors to promote their own books, and especially over the past year or so as I've been focused on promoting my own book, it has become more present in my mind as I write.


    Does it ever cross your minds?

Post Title

Product Placement


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/product-placement.html


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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Blog Tour Grand Prize Sneak Peek

    I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek of some of the items that will be in the Grand Prize Swag Basket for my blog tour (which will be launching NEXT WEEK!!!)





    Pictured above we've got two different T-shirt designs (one a little more girly than the other) :) ; a water bottle; a calendar magnet, some bookmarks, a few different designs of mouse pads, and, of course, a copy of my book :)

    There will be a few other items as well, but I wanted to give you a little taste of what will be given away.

    Stay tuned for next Thursday and the launch of the tour!

Post Title

Blog Tour Grand Prize Sneak Peek


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-tour-grand-prize-sneak-peek.html


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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Game Two for Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers Release Celebration!

    Sorry for the delayed post this morning....I got a bit distracted by a few shiny pretties that showed up with the nice FedEx man today :D Look, look, look!!!!


    *happy sigh*

    Okay! On to Game Two!!

    For every essay I detail in the book, I tell my readers to do three things...three things that will make writing that dreaded essay much easier. This puzzle will give you the answer to those three things. Solve the puzzle and enter the answers in the form to enter the drawing for Game Two's prize! It's a crossword puzzle, so there are more answers than just the three of course, but the three answers you are looking for are three things that you actually do or make when you are preparing to write an essay or paper. I'll give you a bigger hint tomorrow if anyone needs one :D

    So! Click HERE for the puzzle.

    It should show up (if it doesn't, please let me know). Ignore the part on the bottom, just pay attention to the actual puzzle and clues. You should be able to copy and paste to Word or just hit print if you want to print it out.

    Then enter the three correct answers in the form below and I'll draw a winner from all the entries :)




    Game Runs - from Wednesday Jan 5th through Saturday Jan 8th 11:59pm EST

    Winner Announced - Sunday Jan 9th

    Prize - Signed copy of Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers and various fun book swag including bookmarks, a mousepad, a calendar magnet, a few other fun things, and maybe a t-shirt (to be delivered once the book releases)

    Bonus! All entrants receive an extra entry in the Blog Tour Grand Prize Drawing for an enormous prize basket of books, swag and goodies!

    Have fun!!!!

Post Title

Game Two for Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers Release Celebration!


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/game-two-for-homework-helpers-essays.html


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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Having a Good Day :)

    Why, you ask? Well, despite the fact that my heater is once again not functioning (the pipes are probably frozen again so hopefully by this afternoon they'll thaw enough for it to kick on) and the fact that my kids are home due to flooded roads all over town (they were back to school for a whopping 1 day after a very long Thanksgiving vacation) I am STILL having a good day because....

    MY BOOK IS BEING PRINTED AS WE SPEAK!!! Or...as I type LOL AND I also got to look over my full cover (front, back, and spine) for final approval yesterday. Just TOO cool :)

    Ooooo, AND there are two incredible blurbs on the back cover of my book - one by the lovely and wonderful Suzanne Palmieri, and the other by my very dear friend/crit partner/agent sista Christine Fonseca. How cool is that!!!?

    So, despite the minor set backs of the day, still:


    How is everyone else doing on this fine Thursday?

Post Title

Having a Good Day :)


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/having-good-day.html


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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tutor Tuesday - How to Write a Memoir

    We haven't done a Tutor Tuesday in a while, and since I've been in a haze of non-fiction lately (editing my author proofs for my book (squee!!!! done!!!!) and organizing my blog tour, etc, I thought I'd revisit a few tips on how to write a little non-fiction.

    Most writers I know or have met, who write NF along with fiction, are memoir writers - or would like to be someday. Writing a memoir isn't that much different from writing fiction - you still want to pull the writer into the story, you are usually trying to make a point with what you are writing, etc. With the one huge, glaringly obvious difference that a memoir is TRUE, as opposed to our less true fiction works :)

    Writing a memoir takes a lot more effort than just recording the events of your life as you recall them happening. Here are just a few tips to get you started.

    1. Pick a theme 

    The difference between an autobiography and a memoir is the focus of the narrative. An autobiography is the telling of someone’s life. A memoir focuses on the theme (or themes) of that life (or episode in the life). Think of what you are writing about. What is your message? What is going on? What is the moral to your tale? Are you writing about your life as a cautionary tale? Was your life changed by one spectacular event? What events in your life led up to that?Picking a theme helps narrow your focus so that you don’t get distracted with stories that have nothing to do with that theme.

    For instance, if I was focusing my memoir on how I am the unluckiest person in the world who ended up winning the lottery, I’d choose to share events in my life that illustrate that. Share unlucky episodes, anecdotes, and events that led to me winning the lotto. I would steer away from writing about my first puppy or my first car or my high school graduation…unless those events helped to support the theme I want to get across.You want to tell the story of your life…but a lot of stuff happens to us in the course of a lifetime…you need to find a way to narrow that down and trim a bit of the excess.

    2. Make it conversational 

    You gotta make it interesting. Don’t drone on and on about your less than stellar childhood – make the reader feel like you are speaking directly to them. Pull them into your narrative, make them feel what you were feeling, experience what you experienced. Put them in the story.

    3. Use your senses 

    This is a good way to draw your readers in. When you write a scene, think about your five senses. If you are describing a trip to the beach, what did you smell? What color was the ocean? What sounds did you hear? Could you taste the salt on your lips? Did the hot sand burn your toes, or did it feel cool and silky?

    4. Ground your story in the real world 

    This seems like a given, but when you are writing about personal experiences, you are (naturally) focused inward. Add details to your narrative that help place what is happening to you in the real world. Things like cultural references (what movies were playing, what songs were popular, etc), modes of transportation (were wood paneled station wagons littering the roads, or was everyone driving a hybrid?), popular clothes fashions (shoulder pads and teased hair or bell bottom jeans and long, shaggy hair?)….these types of details can be woven into your memoir to help set the setting.

    5. Be ethical when writing about living people! 

    This one can be tough, and it is completely up to you if you will use real names or not. But consider how your story may affect those you include. Telling the world that your sister had an affair might be great for your story, but how will it affect your sister? In my opinion, changing the names of the major players in your narrative don’t adversely affect your memoir in the slightest – and using the real identity of someone who would prefer to remain anonymous could hurt you (and them) much more than it could help your book.Again, this is only my opinion, and this is a subject that can get really touchy, but if your sister’s affair is something you need to include in your book (maybe it is what broke up your own marriage, etc), I don’t consider it dishonest if you change your sister Patty to your cousin Susan – the event is the same, the results are the same, the STORY is the same. Changing a few details to protect someone who has no choice over your freedom of speech is not, in my opinion, dishonest.

    Now, saying you were a drug dealer that lived on the streets when in fact you were raised in a million dollar mansion in Beverley Hills is another thing entirely. Changing the facts and events of your life is dishonest…that isn’t a memoir, that is a fiction novel. But changing a name or two…making a sister a cousin…you aren’t changing anything that affects the outcome of your story. Just think long and hard before you include someone that might not want to be included. You have the right to tell your story, but they have the right to keep their lives private if they wish.

    6. Above all…KEEP IT HONEST! 

    As we just discussed, fabricating the facts of your life doesn’t do anyone any good (as some writers have discovered). When you label something a memoir, you are making a sort of promise to your readers that what you are telling them is the truth, that the events that you are sharing really happened. If the events of your life aren’t enough on their own and you need to fabricate experiences to complete the story…then do what you wish, but don’t call it a memoir – call it fiction, because that is what it is.

    Will you get hauled into court and called a fraud if you couldn’t remember that it was raining the night you fell overboard into the sea so you said it was a clear night? Probably not. It’s a small, insignificant detail that doesn’t affect the outcome of the experience. Are you being dishonest if you say you fell overboard when you’ve never set foot on a boat in your life? Yeah. You are. Don’t do that. :)

    Now, these few tips are just the bare basics of memoir writing. For more detail and specific How To tips, you might want to find a book or two on memoir writing. I recommend Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art, to start you out.

    There is also a chapter in my upcoming book on writing narrative essays (which can be a sort of shortened version of a memoir), along with tips on how to take your writing up a notch.

    Have you ever thought about writing a memoir? Or have you written one? Narrative essays (like Chicken Soup for the Soul stories)?

Post Title

Tutor Tuesday - How to Write a Memoir


Post URL

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2010/11/tutor-tuesday-how-to-write-memoir.html


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