Conventions on an Author’s Budget – Tips and Tricks of a Battle-Hardened Con Man

not really a gangsta rapper-1717972_960_720There are a lot of articles out there on doing conventions. How-tos, tips, tricks, puppy tails, and horse whips. Well, guess what? Here comes another article on the subject. Except, I’m here to tell you can do it on the cheap, because there’s no reason to do it any other way.

We’re writers, titans of the ink and lead, masters of the backspace button and the dead stare at the bright screen of emptiness. We can turn the voices in our heads into stories on the internet – it just doesn’t pay that well. So, we have to pinch those pennies like so many piggies. Reeet reet.

Let’s start with the items you’ll need: Continue reading “Conventions on an Author’s Budget – Tips and Tricks of a Battle-Hardened Con Man”

Nuking the Newbies

Authors tend to be sensitive types. Perhaps thin-skinned is more accurate. After all, it’s not that writers are sensitive to you, but as a group, we tend to bruise easily, react strongly and bear longstanding grudges with a modicum of effort.

Whatever the reason, when you get a bunch of these daisies together in a forum of any kind, conflict is likely to occur.

Writers are people whose daily craft lies in the orderly application of carefully chosen words and phrases. To see them engage each other in a manner befitting a playground quarrel is both baffling and horrifying.  It’s bad enough to see veterans going after each other hammer and tong, but when I see a newbie getting a beat-down, it really bothers me. Continue reading “Nuking the Newbies”