Category: Musings

Writing blog

Final Origin Book Trailer

I am SO excited to release the Final Origin book trailer! This project had to take a several-months long hiatus, and I’m thrilled to be back on track. The book is due out at the end of the summer! For more details about the book, head over to www.mnemonicsindustries.com! I’m also launching a crowdfunding campaign …

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Welcome to Up Close!

This is going to be a new feature on the SisterMuses blog. Every Friday, we’ll feature a behind-the-scenes peek into our current works in progress! We have three projects underway right now — J. Leigh is madly working on Scion (Madness Method 2), I’m kicking off a brand-new series with Final Origin, and we’re collaborating on an exciting …

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Dealing with Distraction

In a recent post, J. Leigh talked about reasons why we distract ourselves from our work — why do we waste time when we know we should be productive? The root of self-distraction tends to be fear: fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear period. Sometimes, self-distraction happens because we’re overwhelmed and we just don’t …

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3 Reasons Every Business Should Hire an Editor

If you’re a business owner and don’t have an editor on call, it’s time to think about retaining one, even if it’s just on a freelance basis. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. If you produce any kind of written material — whether it’s a menu, a website, a newsletter, a flyer, or a …

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Why We Waste Time

This is a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately while I’ve, well, been wasting time.  I feel like I haven’t done any significant writing for almost a year. (Heck, I haven’t even been blogging!)  Some of that was unavoidable — personal issues to deal with, classes and a full time job that …

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Empathy – The Key to Writing Deep Emotion

A reader recently sent me this question, after reading The Madness Project: I find that it’s difficult to convey strong emotion or culminate events without being drippy…How were you able to stay deep and involved without going overly sentimental? The question took me a bit by surprise.  I’d never really thought about it before…although I can …

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Failing Gracefully as a Writer

No one wants to talk about failure. Writing bloggers and how-to authors everywhere make their livings by promising success — follow this strategy, take these classes, Tweet this many times/day, Facebook with your fans…and you’ll sell thousands of books and readers will love you. The strategies are as numerous as there are bloggers…or would-be writers. …

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5 Ways to Travel for Inspiration

If you’re like me, you love to travel…but probably don’t get to as often as you’d like.  Maybe it’s the time, maybe it’s the money…or maybe it’s both. There’s that day job that you actually have to go to (you know, to pay the bills).  Or there are the kids or the pets (or both) …

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Using Pinterest for Setting Research

One of the coolest things about thriller writer J.F. Penn’s website is the photos section. She travels a lot as part of the research she does for her novels — it’s a writer’s dream! J. Leigh is going to talk about her trip to Iceland last year and how it has played a huge role in her …

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