author
What Are Your Corona Virus Author Activities?
This week, what I have termed my Corona Virus Author Activities included autographing a few of my novels and mailing them to front line workers, nurses and doctors in Chicago and Philadelphia who do a lot of reading on their breaks, if they get breaks. I am so grateful to medical staff who have saved my life numerous times during my cancer journey, and to the ones watching over my mother, now suffering the end stage of Dementia’s long goodbye, that I had to do this when I was asked. It’s such a small thing. This was part of the #AuthorAdopt program (no longer accepting authors).
I hope the nurses know how much we all appreciate their risk and their great work. #Nurses are angels. If there’s anything you can do to lighten their load, do it.
Also, as part of my corona virus author activities, I have been searching for an agent for my now finished novel. Fingers crossed.
In addition, I’ve been facilitating a critique group on ZOOM, the new cool place to be, for novel writers. What a great source of inspiration that group is for me. When a teacher no longer learns from her students then her days as a teacher are done. Looks like I’ll be around for a LONG time. I learn from them every day. During this shut down, quarantine, socially distanced mask wearing (’cause I’m not a #maskhole) time, it’s important to keep your feet to that writerly fire, stay motivated, keep in touch with other #writers and keep writing, keep submitting, keep creating.
What Corona Virus Author Activities have been keeping you sane in this befuddled (such a great word) time?
Oh, and watching Netflix or any other streaming channels only counts if you’re taking notes, which I do. If OZARKS was a novel, that tension and conflict would be a page turner.
Tweet me @MindyHalleck
This REALLY Irritates me!
I’m posting this here on my blog, as well as I did on #LinkeDin because it really is getting out of control: Every day I get hit up by these scammers on social media, especially LinkeDin asking that I pay them for a review of my #Novel. These dishonest review practices should be against the law. Really chaps me. I’m sharing my response to this girl who is a lawyer wannabe. UGH! I know it may be naive on my part to wonder about lawyers, but still, are Ethics and Morals no longer a requirement?
“””PLEASE do NOT send me a message asking me to pay you to review my novel. I DO NOT pay for reviews. It’s dishonest and should be illegal. I get perfectly good 5starreviews on my own, based on REAL readers and their HONEST opinions. thank you. AUTHORS and READERS, if you agree, please share this post. Thank you. Cheers, MIndy Halleck, Author of the consistently FIVE STAR reviewed novel, Return To Sender https://amzn.to/2wGL9Bp“””””
Staying Grounded in Basic Storytelling Principles
This last year I’ve really gone ‘dark’ as they say, which means I’ve been very quiet (and unproductive) on all fronts. It’s been a good break, a needed break so I could recharge and take care of myself, but now it’s time to get back to work.
When I’m struggling with a section in my WIP (work in progress for you non-industry folks), or trying to re-wrap my mind around my story I return to basic tools for guides out of that self-imposed darkness.
Larry Brooks, who if you don’t know him yet, you should – who writes writerly-how-to books is one of the gurus (via 
his books and blog at Storyfix.com) that I return to over and over again. Not because I’m that stupid (well, not always) but because stories, characters, plots, themes and all the magic elixirs that make up a story world, are fluid, changing, often morphing into something completely different from what I thought I started out to write. So back to the basics I go. If I don’t go back to those grounding basics of storytelling; premise, concept, plot, theme and so on, then I get lost in the words. SO MANY WORDS! And when I get lost in the words it takes FOREVER to finish a project, be it novel, short story or essay.
Oh, and when I said my story could ‘often morph into something completely different’ I meant it. I recently had a conversation with Hollywood script guru, Michael Hague (author of too many books to mention here) who asked me which aspect of my story fascinated me the most, because, he said, that’s where your passion lies and that’s what you should follow. My answer shocked the baggeebies out of me. So, with that answer, which I wont’ share here…maybe later in another post – changed my entire story. After the initial shock, I was happy our conversation happened when I was only 150 pages in.
When a local writer friend, Pam Carter (Writer, Producer and Playwright) asked me about premise,
I realized during our conversation about hers that I actually needed to re-consider my original premise now that the story had changed so dramatically, and so revisited all my information on premise and concept. Again, back to Larry Brooks
who teaches this stuff like hell fire and damnation from a preacher ablaze with the truth. If you’ve seen him live you know exactly what I’m talking about.
So while I press through; re-entering my story world, getting back into a writing groove, editing, re-outlining and all the other blue-collar work a writer does to create a story-world and narrative that will be of interest to readers, I wonder, what tools do other writers return to time after time, and why? Okay, back to work.
Digital Autographs ~ Readers Connecting with Authors
Are you an author who likes to autograph their books, or an avid reader who loves to collect autographs? Do you feel a disconnect when you purchase digital versions of your favorite author’s books, or as an author do you feel that same disconnect when you can’t offer autographs? Well, here’s the solution to your problem, AUTHORGRAPH.
I woke up this morning to another request for my autograph from a Kindle reader of my novel, Return To Sender. I love that! Thanks, Heather for reading and then taking time to connect with me.
Anyway, if you are a reader who wants to connect with your author via autographs, visit Authorgraph and sign up for this free service. Authors, this FREE program allows you to offer your autograph to adoring fans.
What’s better than affordable marketing tools. Have fun. Oh, and here’s what a digital autograph looks like … 
Mindy Halleck 