Sorry, gotta rant.

Out of curiosity I went looking for reviews of SERVICES RENDERED. It's been out a month now and so far I've found only one review. What I ALSO found were not one, not two, but THREE sites that had posted the book as a free, illegal download.

THREE of them! And the book's just out four weeks. I haven't even gotten my first royalty check from the darn thing and already its been pirated. How the hell am I ever going to make a living at writing if people keep stealing my books????

I'm asking you all a favor. If you ever see an ebook, mine or anyone else's, listed somewhere for free and you know you paid for it, the site is probably an illegal pirate. Email me or the other author or the publisher and we'll take care of it. I am very thankful for EC's pirate hunter -- she does a great job and wields one hell of a sword!

GRRRRRR

New Feature!

Ta Da! The kinks are worked out and today I get to introduce the roll out of a new feature of my blog today…the writing workshop.

We all tell stories, whether around the water cooler recounting the Big Play from the game last night, out on our daily power walk retelling the latest joke we heard, or in the break room discussing dreams for a different life. Telling stories is important to us and we all tell them.

But when it comes to writing stories down, many people back away and say, “Not me. I’m not a writer.” They understand that there are different skills involved in bringing a story to life on the page than when recounting their latest exploit to their friends. Finding the right words and creating a memorable story is part art and part skill. And both take practice.

Which is why, for the next several months, I’m running a writer’s workshop feature on this blog along with my regular (or is that irregular?) posts.

Professional writer or just beginning doesn’t matter. Genre doesn’t matter. Got a great mystery story? How about a true-life adventure? Want to tell the story of your family’s history? In these workshops you’ll find new ways of thinking about some of the skills necessary in crafting a story that will keep people reading and turning the page from chapter to chapter.

The workshops break into four general categories: writing skills, ancillary skills, inspiration and publishing.  Some workshops fall into more than one division. That’s okay, I’ll code each post with tags that’ll help you know what you’re expected to do.

Keep in mind: what you write is for you. I’m not providing a forum through which you can post your writing and because of my own writing schedule, I do not give feedback on manuscripts. Any stories sent to me will be deleted without being read. I’m not an agent or a publisher. I’m a writer who’s gained some insights along the way and who wishes to share them. That’s all. J

That said, there’s no reason we can’t have a good, spirited conversation about each workshop. If you have an additional insight, feel free to post it in the comments. Remember, writing should be fun…and so should talking about writing!

My qualifications

The contents of these workshops are actually my accumulation of several years’ experience teaching creative writing in real-life classroom settings. Each workshop has been tried and tested several times. Additional workshops came from my work in Second Life where I gave many of these workshops in the virtual world (as Diana Allandale). This is, however, the first time I’ve gathered all the various workshops I’ve offered in both worlds and published them in one place.

The nitty-gritty

A new workshop will be posted every Tuesday. Eventually we’ll have the contents of a book about writing. At that point, I’ll collect all the workshops in ebook (and maybe print) form for those who would like it all bundled into one nice, neat place and offer it for sale.

You’ll see a new button below. If you enjoy the workshops and find them useful, please consider sending a donation my way. When the final product is ready to go, those who have donated each time will get a free copy of the ebook as a gift from me. I won’t dun you twice for the content.

Watch for the first workshop coming on Tuesday, October 4th!

Cleaning and getting ready...

I've been cleaning up more of those tags tonight -- hopefully no one is getting notices that the blog's being updated when all I'm doing is erasing old, rarely-used tags in preparation for adding some new ones that are far more useful (and relevant!). Also playing with Blogger's new interface -- I can post titles for each post in this template now!

You may recall I promised something new almost two weeks ago. I'm glad I didn't rush as I ran into a small snag that's now been teased out. One more little wrinkle to fix and everything will be good to go. Are you curious? Here's a hint: sharpen your pencils, make sure you've ink in your pen; you'll soon be working and finding your Zen!

 LOL In spite of my bad poetry, stay tuned to this space for an exciting new feature!

Catching up

Okay, it was give and take for a while, but I have prevailed! HARDSHIP AND HARDTACK is now officially released in Kindle, Nook and all other ebook formats, as well as in print!

When I get some time later this month I'm going to give the blog a going over and re-do the sidebar and the tag list. Just be forewarned. There will also be a new feature that is almost ready to debut, but I've learned my lesson about being over-eager to release stuff :).

In the meantime, I'm back in Second Life doing readings (have one in just a few minutes at the Nudist Paradise, which is exactly what it says it's name is!). If you're inworld, stop by!

Check out my Civil War historical and play safe!
Diana

I know, I know. To go from a week of exciting news nearly every day to a week of nothing is hard. I didn't take the week off, just to let you know. I've been reformatting HARDSHIP AND HARDTACK after finding numerous issues with the darn thing. No formats are up and working until further notice.

Also have taken both children back to their respective colleges on opposite ends of the state -- the house now belongs to my husband and me once more. Those of you who are empty nesters know it for the bittersweet feeling it is. Spent a number of hours putting the house back to rights after the flurry of packing and moving out.

In all the rush, I forgot to tell you all I was guest-blogger over at Sizzling Hot Book Reviews! Many thanks to Marissa for the opportunity to post there. If you haven't read it yet, follow this link and take a gander. I reveal another side of my none of you know about!

Be sure to visit the website and let me know if you like the puzzles. Do you want more of them? Let me know that, too!

Play safe,
Diana

edited to remove links to non-functioning books