I am looking forward to this weekend. My son–who is also de facto designer for me books–is coming up from Austin for a photo shoot. We have reserved the TV studio at our University with its green screen for the shoot. We plan on shooting our main characters for the two covers there, then using … More Oh Shoot!
Three to five hours a day, seven days a week, for ten years. Ten thousand hours. A million words. Any way you slice it, the road to becoming a serious writer is not done overnight. Even those overnight sensations that hit gold on their first trip to the transom have the inevitable task of answering: … More Ten Thousand Hours
I entered into the independent book publishing business with trepidation just about this time last year. This is after the publication of about eight books the old-fashioned, more traditional and more accepted way. And after a year, what’s my prognosis? Great for some, terrible for others. As for me, I follow in my father’s footsteps. … More Indie publishing. Great for some, not so great for others.
If you live anywhere in the Midwest, especially in Oklahoma or maybe Kansas, you know that some powerful weather came through yesterday. We got hit about 4 p.m. with winds that they estimate topped 70 mph. I went outside my office and took some photos of the clouds, which looked like they were ready to … More Status Quo
It wasn’t life. I had given up on life a long time ago. It was existence—barely. I took no notice of my gray, pallid, flaking skin, my putrefied face and hair, my black nails or the thick, black fluid that oozed from the sores that covered my thin body. I was only dimly aware of … More “Pinocchio”
Shelly and I finally got our Christmas present to each other this past weekend. It was four days–well, three and a half days–at the Lighthouse Inn in Rockport, Texas, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. After 38 years of marriage, we still enjoy being with each other more than any other person in the world. And … More A Matter of Priorities
Well, to be honest, the best cover you could have involved investing a thousand or two into a bona-fide cover designer. That’s what we used to do in the old days when I was a book editor. But now that I am a indie publisher, I don’t have the cash, and I suspect you don’t … More Three Tips for a Better Book Cover
OK, first I just want to make it clear. Prevail Publications is me, and I am it. It’s the watermark I use for my indie publishing. Here are five books I plan on releasing this year: The Secret of Promise Island. An orphan brother and a sister are sent to live with their mysterious, strange … More Prevail Publications: Five New Books for 2013
Back in the late 90s, when I was a book editor at at Seventh-day Adventist publishing house, I had two friends who wrote a couple of books about how the world was going to end. One of them had his office right across from mine, and shared his work as he was writing it. As … More I apologize. OK, maybe not.
I am excited to announce that I finally passed 10,000 followers on Twitter. Now, I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you, and actually all it is is just a number. But it is a landmark of sorts, nevertheless. I have been involved with Twitter for about three years now, but it’s only been … More Ten Thousand Reasons
