It is very hard to go wrong with the old classics. 
C.S. Lewis was a prolific writer and decades ahead of his time. He is most well known for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". Inspiring generations of children to wonder what a wardrobe was and why didn't they use a closet? Or that might have just been me.
This classic tells the story of a family of children who pass into another world for a wild adventure and is good fodder for all ages. 

How do the Amish go hunting? 




The first three live book readings are scheduled. For those of you who might be in Mcminnville or Sheridan, Oregon over the next few weeks the schedule is as follows. 
November 2oth - Cornerstone Coffee Shop Mcminnville, OR
November 25th -Mcminnville Public Library, Mcminnville, OR
December 2nd - Slow Train Coffee, Sheridan, OR
The official schedule will be up on the main page. 

At these events I will be handing out my business cards (mockup to the right. 

I have also received the final version of what I hope will be the official book cover. If the publisher doesn't like it it is simply going to be a promotional poster base. 


They sneak up on the deer and build a barn around it. 

The Bookstart site had a few glitches this past week but it is fixed and up and running fine now. The sysadmins however thought to add some extra time onto the campaign to make up for the lost hours. 
Go take a look and leave a comment. 

How does Jack Frost get to work?
This author finds few things more inspiring than good art. Sometimes when I get stuck for what to write just looking as some interesting photo or drawing is enough to get the creative juices flowing again. 
Sometimes, when a story is flowing well but details are missing have an image from the stories allows me to fill in the blank spaces my flighty imagination leaves.
Art is both an anchor and wings to me, like the string of a kite.
This wonderful piece was created for the prequel to "Dying Embers" and shows a critical moment in the relationship between the two protagonists.  It has helped immensely to consolidate the details of the story. 
where do you find your inspiration? 
By Icicle!  

This is the week that I start scheduling book readings and other such in person marketing events! 
Wish me luck!  

One big question is how does a writer deal with writer's block.
Well this author had two main methods.
#1  Find a picture that inspires great emotion (it doesn't really matter which one but I prefer curiosity) and write a short story/character study on what you see and feel.

If that produces no results switch to -

#2 Sit down and torture the keyboard until something comes out. Because sometimes there is nothing to do but plunge forward and write even if you have no inspiration.

I don't know if every great or decent author is an avid reader, but they should be.  This author most certainly was. Not always; I always knew reading was a good thing thanks to my parents, but the effort just didn't seem worth the rewards until around third grade. Then one book led to another. 
So the long and short of it is that I have decided to occasionally highlight an author I found particularly inspiring. 
Today (in no particular order) Brian Jacques of Britain; milkman, friend to orphans, historian, and WWII survivor. He was a boy of ten during the Blitzkrieg and while his tales are never allegorical the taste of that time never really leaves his work. 
His Redwall series is long and engaging from the first book (Redwall itself) to the latest. 
There is far more to these works than talking animals and enchanted swords, there is heart and soul and moral. They can be a bit too intense for the very young, the horrors of war are not glossed over or glorified, but a little parental discretion can take care of that. 

I enjoy writing immensely. The feel of the ideas becoming solid and growing and changing even as I set them down of paper, or electronic media as the case might be. It is all slightly magical and after writing I always feel better. Which demands that the question be asked.
Why on Earth is is so hard to get started writing from a still point?
It is not writer's block. I know what I am going to write. The sheer momentum of not writing simply drags me down and holds me there.
Ah well, perhaps that is what blogs are for. 
Cheers!