All Blog Posts (5,816)

It’s a term I first heard last year: “crowd-funding”. What’s that? I hear many of you ask. Well have a quick look over www.kickstarter.com and you’ll soon learn that it is a way to fund creative projects / entrepreneurial ideas through small donations from “the crowd” as opposed to the traditional way of large venture capital, expensive loans or self-funding. Of course lots and lots of small affordable donations can add up to…

A cold morning in November as I enter the transporter and set the controls to pick up this week's featured author. When I ask her where shall we go to conduct the interview leans in close and whispers, "It's a secret." Then she hip check me out of the way. Before I can regain my balance and see what location she's input, we're there...somewhere.

I've explored the locale…

Bless me soul and kiss the Blarney Stone, October is oughtta here and we wish for some Irish luck for November. Unfortunately, no shamrocks, since we're heading into the deep fall season but we can still enjoy some Irish coffee. Well, you enjoy the coffee, I'll enjoy the Irish.

Why all the Eire talk? Well when I picked up this week's featured author, he directed me to a…

My views about small press and indie houses have drastically changed over the last seven years. I was trashed the first time out (2006, just returning to the Internet) with two books to the same publisher. They took 26 other authors down with me and closed their doors. The other four publishers (over the years to the present) resulted in lack-luster sales, no concerted promotion/marketing other than a few listings, editorial mishaps and what not. Granted,…

Being Polite Showing Manners

Some of us really do know how to be grateful,

loving and kind to those who shows…

http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Home-Book-Dennis-Hayes-ebook/dp/B00G4T2GKS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1382635634&sr=8-7&keywords=The+Pyramid+Home+Book

I have published my second book as a kindle e-book on Amazon.com.

Is a comprehensive examination of the pyramid form as applied to…

         People love their pets and I am one of those crazy animal lovers.          

      On this October Tuesday, the day dawned cloudy, with a cool mist washing my face. The moisture mixed in with the tears forming as I reached down and…

Today, you can’t walk down a street in any small town or major city in the United States without observing a person with a mobile device, whether it’s a Smart phone pressed against the ear, tapping with strong thumb action on…

Written By:  Pierce Gates and Dana Gerous

                PIERCE GATES SPEAKS:  First of all, let me apologize for “dragging out” my answer to F.

John Surells “Capturings.” When I said I’d respond to that well-written piece, I had no idea my retort

would necessitate three submissions. And, probably I could, and perhaps should have posted it as

four. Nevertheless, I wish to end with three,…

It's a cold October day here in Iowa, but I'm heading south, specifically Georgia, more specifically Savannah, even more specifically, just outside Savannah, with this week's featured author. All I said to him was I wanted warmth, and music and good food.

Soon, we're enjoying reggae music, waves on the beach, the black and white Tybee lighthouse in the distance. We're…

Atheism is in.

“They have purely and simply finished with God!” — Friedrich Engels.

More than an ism, it is the statement of modern age. Perhaps much more — now it’s almost a religion. And, as…

    My evenings are designated times I reserve for writing chapters in my fifth novel, Chasing The Wind While Riding A Greyhound.

However, there is a nagging thought…

Hi everyone just a quick note if your a non-US national (I'm Irish and live in Ireland) and you're wanting to get your book published through an American publishing house then you will need an ITIN number.

My nearest American Embassy IRS walk in place was London Grosvner Square. Now what you need is: 

1) Your in date passport,

2) The completed W-7 form (You get it on the IRS website and its surprisingly easy to fill out they also have…

Hi everyone just a quick note if your a non-US national (I'm Irish and live in Ireland) and you're wanting to get your book published through an American publishing house then you will need an ITIN number.

My nearest American Embassy IRS walk in place was London Grosvner Square. Now what you need is: 

1) Your in date passport,

2) The completed W-7 form (You get it on the IRS website and its surprisingly easy to fill out they also have…

Santa Claus and Little Sister - The Novel, The Song, and The Screenplay

As October rolls on...wait just a second. Today is October 11. You fans know someone celebrating a birthday today. Not that I'm looking for gobs of well wishes (but any presents you want to send will be accepted), but today, yours truly is 47.…

When I first started writing I used to wonder where I would get my ideas: they never seemed to come at the proper time. I would site at the kitchen table at 4am in the morning and wait for inspiration to strike.



Needless to say I was sorely disappointed.



It wasn't until I began just letting go that the ideas began coming to me. Those early days were fun and exciting: sending out manuscripts by (gasp!) the United States…

Glory hallelujah, lift a glass/teacup/slice of cake and celebrate that the new edition of Peace on Earth is back in print as of this very morning - the e-book came out last month.  It's very slightly different from the first version, but only in minor detail.  I've been using my limited resources on getting all three of the current books in the series newly or once again before the paying public, so haven't had much thought for blogging, I'm afraid.  The first in the series and last to come…

“Your writing bores me.” “I am bored by your writing.”

Not only do these two sentences demonstrate the difference between the active and passive voice but also they communicate a central reason for avoiding the passive voice.

In the active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action described by the main verb. Thus, the subject is active. In the passive voice, the action is done to the subject. Thus, the subject is passive. Passive voice is a problem for direct writing…

Active and Passive Voice: When you are active, you do something. When you are passive, things happen to you. This is the same concept as the active and passive voice in sentences.

In the active voice, the subject performs the action described by the main verb. In the passive voice, the action described by the main verb is done to the subject.

Example D.1a, active voice: “The service…