Books » Fiction & Literature » History
The Mystery of Genghis Khan

A Historical Novel, Books One and Two

By Wladimir Secinski

How did Genghis Khan create the largest empire of all time?
This historical novel reveals the secret and brings his world to life.

I have an excuse not to go to Gym today the road is closed due to flooding as the  Goulburn River at Shepparton exceeded the Minor Flood Levelm(9.5 metres)
around midnight Friday. The river is currently steady at around 10 metres. Forecast rainfall may lead to additional stream rises up to around 10.2 metres over the next several days. The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology Victoria rates this area as being Moderate Flood Warning  Issued at 10:35 pm EDT on Saturday 3 March 2012

The sun is trying to get through the grey clouds today and northern Victoria has only had light rainfall overnight so until the flow down from the north eastern water catchment mountains arrives we have been spared more overnight road closures or further home flooding.

3 Easy Ways To Fight Off The Minutiae That Surrounds Writing Your Book by The Power Writing Coach, Editor & Author Writing a book is a challenge, you already know that? There’s no running away from it – so much needs to be done: expanding your idea, plotting, researching character names, setting, actual writing, rewriting, editing, etc.

Then there are other essentials outside of the writing process that you need to put in place before you even publish your book, i.e. writing your pitch, synopsis, chapter breakdown, press release – all of these require a different level of writing. Then there’s marketing, more research and on and on.

Overwhelm yet with all the details that are required for the process of writing? And that’s not all. I know. I also know it’s a test of your sanity to keep focused to make everything gel… so much to do, so little focus.

So how do you create a plan of action and stick to it? More importantly, what can you do when you meander away from the plan, because being human, you will, whether due to circumstances beyond your control, or you’re just plain distracted?

How do you do it? How do you pace yourself so that you can get to the finish line? Here are 3 Easy Ways To Fight Off The Minutiae That Surrounds Writing Your Book that will help kick you into gear:

1) First, I invite you to read an article I wrote titled: Thinking About Writing Instead of Writing? 6 Steps to get you Started.

2) It’s common to become fixated on the minutiae for varying reasons. In my experience it’s usually during the planning process where many aspiring writers get bogged down. When this happens, take some time out along with deep breaths then ask:

a) What is blocking my progression?
b) What am I avoiding?
c) Am I fearful that no one would be interested in my book?
d) Most importantly, What do I want to accomplish?

If you know what the problem is you can do something about it. Pinpointing what those blockages are will allow you to move forward.
If you’re still stuck, it’s good to talk. Speak with someone who can relate to what you are working to achieve. It could be a writing coach or a group of like-minded writers or readers. If you are besieged with marketing tasks, farm them out to free yourself from those undertakings that you do not enjoy, or don’t have the time to do so you can focus on your writing. The point is you don’t have to go the journey alone. Get all the help and support you can.

Take note of question ‘d’ – it’s powerful. Once you understand what you intend to achieve from your writing labours, you’ll become inspired and step up your productivity.

3) Continue to trust in your belief that you can do it because you are unique and you have what it takes to get your message out. Whether you are writing to inspire, motivate or entertain, believe that you can, and you will.

Write It, Work It, Publish it!

© 2012 Cherry-Ann Carew

WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, NEWSLETTER, MAGAZINE, BLOG OR WEBSITE? Please do, but ensure you include this complete resource box:

Cherry-Ann Carew, aka The Power Writing Coach, Editor, Best-selling author and Founder of Writetastic Solutions is passionate about helping aspiring fiction and non-fiction writers bring out their creative expression to write their books. Learn how her coaching and editing services can help you at www.writetasticsolutions.com.



The Power Writing Coach, Editor & Author | March 3, 2012 at 6:48 am | Tags: book, Cherry-Ann Carew, Marketing, Writing, writing coach | Categories: Articles | URL: http://wp.me/pE2Wd-uM

This is partly why I will not comment in blogs that insist you must sign in in some user name line a Google account. If I cannot comment as me and not via some third party account I never follow a blog nor comment in it. I try to keep my blogs easy to comment as yourself - no third party required.
I use Firefox now,

If you use Google, you may want to read this
www.smh.com.auIf you use Google, you may want to re


Books » Business » Management » Strategy
What Would Google Do? Reverse Engineering the Fastest Growing Company in the History of the World

By Jeff Jarvis

What's the question every business should be asking itself? According to Jeff Jarvis, it's What Would Google Do? If you're not thinking or acting like Google - the fastest-growing company in the history of the world - then you're not going to survive, let alone prosper, in the Internet age. To demonstrate how to emulate Google, Jarvis lays out his laws of what he calls the new Google century, including such insights as: Think Distributed, Become a Platform, Join the Post-Scarcity, Open-Source, Gift Economy, The Middleman Has Died, Your Worst Customers Are Your Best Friends and Your Best Customers Are Your Partners, Do What You Do Best and Link to the Rest, Get Out of the Way, and Make Mistakes Well and More. Jarvis applies these principles not just to emerging technologies and the Internet, but to other industries - telecommunications, airlines, television, government, healthcare, education, journalism, and yes, book publishing - showing ultimately what the world would look like if Google ran it. The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that will change the way readers ask questions and solve problems.

About the Author
Jeff Jarvis is the proprietor of one of the Web's most popular and respected blogs about media, Buzzmachine.com. He heads the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York. He was named one of 100 worldwide media leaders by the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2007-2011, and he was the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age is Revolutionizing Life, Business, and Society.

"Style is diction; style is cadence; style is syntax; style is word choice and the spectrum of a writer’s vocabulary; style is length of sentences and the careful placement of different length sentences into a paragraph in the way a master stonemason would set stones into an unmortared wall meant to last for centuries; style is repetition and knowing when not to repeat; style is omission; style is misdirection and subliminal suggestion; style is specificity set into deliberate vagueness; style is crafty vagueness set amidst a forest of specificity; style is the motion of the mind at work; style is the pulse and heartbeat of the narrative sensibility; style is balance; style is the projective will of the writer creating a portal of access to the receptive will of the discerning reader; style is the sound our words make on paper.

Style is goddamned hard." -- Dan Simmons

Books » Fiction & Literature » Science Fiction » General
Flashback By Dan Simmons

America, 2036: a wasteland in economic ruin. Terrorism and ultra-violence plague a once powerful society, whose only escape is to numb itself on flashback - a euphoric yet cripplingly addictive drug that allows its users to re-visit their happier, past experiences. Ex-cop Nick Bottom is about to receive a proposition. Flashback dependency has taken his badge, his reputation, and the love of his son. All he has left are the flash-induced memories of his beloved wife, Dara, taken from him in a tragic car accident. Now powerful magnate Hiroshi Nakamura needs Bottom's services, and, in particular, his memories. As head of the original investigation into the murder of Nakamura's son - an unsolved and seemingly impossible mystery - Bottom's flashbacks now, six years later, hold the key to solving what was the toughest case of his career. But as Nick delves deeper, the harder it becomes to trust those around him. And when he uncovers a connection to Dara's death, it is not only Hiroshi Nakamura who wants answers.

About the Author

Dan Simmons is an outstandingly creative and imaginative bestselling author. He has won the Hugo award, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus award (three times) and the Bram Stoker award. He lives in Colorado.

My new first chapter that I inserted prior to the original chapter has received the thumbs up and I am currently writing a completely new third chapter to transition the reader between the generation and the decades between chapters 2 and four so it is not as sudden as in the original manuscript. This has mostly been cut and paste from conversations throughout the book as I had covered most of it just not in chronological  time line. I had been 'happy' with the past fed in gradually in conversation but on listening to Beta readers who wanted to know everything as soon as they wanted to know it (aside from who committed 3 of the murders) -

I have - am changing the manuscript to a more chronological format to make it easier for the reader to follow. ..lol...not that a lot of the greats like Stephen King could be said to be easy to follow...I don't want to water my style down too much - just modify to suit the reader who wants things explained more - sooner.

 Books » Science » Biology » General
The Mystery of the Cleaning Lady A Writer Looks at Obsession, Creativity and Neuroscience (New Writing S.)

By Sue Woolfe


Bestselling author Sue Woolfe tracks the journey of her novel, "The Secret Cure", through her interest in theories about creativity from the field of neuroscience. Woolfe explores the relationship between mind and body as well as how both inform the writing process. It is designed to be a guide for emerging and student writers as well as readers interested in how the progress of an idea can develop in the hands of an acclaimed writer. This title continues the work Woolfe started with Kate Grenville of books about writing, this time with a particular case study of a novel-in-progress.

About the AuthorSue Woolfe is the author of three novels, several short stories and academic works. Woolfe spent her childhood in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and was educated at Sydney University and the University of New England. She is the author of Painted Woman, the novel and play, and co-author with Kate Grenville of Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels were Written (2001).

Woolfe's best-selling novel Leaning Towards Infinity (2000), about two generations of women mathematicians, was released in 1996, winning the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in 1997 as well as being short-listed for many other prizes, including the prestigious US Tiptree Prize. As well as being published in the United States and UK, Leaning Towards Infinity has been published in translation in a number of countries. Fay Weldon called it 'tumultuous and nourishing', and in the US it was named as 'the deepest novel of ideas for years'. As editor of the anthology Wild Minds (1999),

Woolfe assembled stories from some of this century's greatest authors, including Marguerite Duras, Flannery O'Connor, Italo Calvino and Joseph Conrad. In 2004, Woolfe published The Secret Cure, a profoundly moving novel which explores new ways of what it means to be human, to be normal, to be honourable, and what it means to love.

I've been following this. When the info first came out that deadlier versions of flue were being created in laboratories I was not convinced. I do not believe all I read and always research the course. If the WHO confirms it, then I will believe it.  No good worrying about humankind's stupidity to spend trillions eradicating viruses only to create new ones they hope to control to use as weapons.

This makes Stephen King's Trhiller, the Stand, not at all far fetched.

Editor of science journal says he is ready to publish details of lethal man-made flu 'in complete form'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...Dr Bruce Alberts, editor of Science, was asked by U.S. security advisors not to publish the research into the highly contagious H5N1 virus - but says publication is essential so scientists can develop a vaccine.

Books » Fiction & Literature » Horror
The Stand: Complete and Uncut By Stephen King

Reviews
Survivors of a chemical weapon called superflu confront pure evil in this updated and even more massive version of King's 1978 saga. ``The extra 400 or so pages . . . make King's best novel better still,'' said PW. `` A new beginning adds verisimilitude to an already frighteningly believable story, while a new ending opens up possibilities for a sequel . '' (May)

"A master storyteller."--"Los Angeles Times"

"["The Stand"] has everything. Adventure. Roman. Prophecy. Allegory. Satire. Fantasy. Realism. Apocalypse. Great!"--"The New York Times Book Review"

"As brilliant a dark dream as has ever been dreamed in this century."--"Palm Beach Post"

“…The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity, and this passion is the only thing that raises us above the beasts that perish…” – A. Edward Newton

How can you have too many books. :-)  I have several crates full in the caravan hoe on my last Australian tour and I now have several hundred in my Kindle and long for more.  The joy of turning to exactly what you want to read, when you want to read it.

This is a new blog and I have only begun to fill it with information about the great mystery novels I have read. I would love to hear of ones you are reading too.
The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too Many Books « PWxyz blogs.publishersweekly.com

Jo Nesbo In Conversation: Stanton Library North Sydney
Tuesday, February 28, 2012  9:00am until 12:00pmPublic Event · By Jo Nesbø

• In Conversation with Jo Nesbo. Come and listen to Jo speak about his hugely popular HARRY HOLE series and his latest title PHANTOM.
  
  Tickets: This is a free event Ph: (02) 9936 8400
  
• 
  
    Fiction & Literature » Crime
  Phantom By Jo Nesbo, Don Bartlett (Translated by)
  
  A boy is lying on the floor of an Oslo apartment. He is bleeding and will soon die. In order to place his life and death in some kind of context he begins to tell his story. Outside, the church bells toll. Autumn. Former police inspector Harry Hole returns to Oslo after three years abroad. He seeks out his old boss at Police Headquarters to request permission to investigate a homicide. But the case is already closed: the young junkie was in all likelihood shot dead by a fellow addict. Yet, Harry is granted permission to visit the boy's alleged killer in jail. There, he meets himself and his own history. What follows is the solitary investigation of what appears to be the first impossible case in Harry Hole's career. And while Harry is searching, the murdered boy continues his story. A man walks the dark streets of Oslo. The streets are his and he has always been there. He is a phantom.
  
  About the Author
• Jo Nesbo is a musician, songwriter, economist and author. His first crime novel featuring Harry Hole was published in Norway in 1997 and was an instant hit, winning the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel (an accolade shared with Peter Hoeg, Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson). Phantom is the seventh of Nesbo's Harry Hole novels to be translated into English. Check out www.jonesbo.co.uk .
  
  

 Books » Arts & Photography » Language Arts » Composition & Creative Writing
Inner Drives How to Write and Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation

By Pamela Jaye Smith

Create unique, believable characters using Pamela Jaye Smith's tried and tested techniques, including everything from patterns of speech to styles of walking. 'Inner Drives' will help you to structure character arcs, devise back-stories, develop conflict and even pair up couples. Inspiring and practical, Smith goes to the very source of character motivation and action, exploring the fascinating world of archetypes, mythology and the chakra system. You will then learn to apply these timeless principals of successful story-telling through examples and exercises, making this is a vital text for every budding screenwriter.

Table of Contents
Foreword by Dr Linda Seger; Explaining the Inner Drives; What are the Inner Drives?; How to Use the Inner Drives Centers of Motivation Profiles; The Inner Drive Centers; Root Center; The Theory; The Practice - Using this Center; Mythic Character Structure; The Sliding Scale; Pairs of Centers; Driving the Arcs; Ensembles; Conclusion