diannagunn -

12Jun 2013 by Dianna L. Gunn

The Book Tour Blues

by Joelle Fraser I’m sipping coffee in a cute café in the tiny mountain town of Quincy, California, 90 miles from my home. Tonight is the last signing for my new book, The Forest House. For nearly three months, like a traveling peddler from the Old West, I’ve spent my weekends driving from one town or city to the next. This is my second book tour—and I did it all wrong. My memoir about a year spent healing in an isolated forest retreat is with a prestigious, but small, publisher: Counterpoint Press. My publicist, sweet and professional, set up about half of my “events”—readings, radio interviews, guest blog posts, a college class and a book club visit—and I arranged the other half. What I feel, as I wonder how many…

10Jun 2013 by diannagunn

The Ten Commandments of a Serious Writer

Blog Stuff, Inspirational, Writing

Today is a very special day. It is time for me to tell you all about the ebook I've been working on, The Ten Commandments of the Serious Writer. The ebook is based on this post, with a slightly altered list of commandments. Each commandment has been more fully explained, with exercises designed to help you become more fully committed to your writing. This ebook will give you all the tools necessary to plan the next stages of your writing career, including three potential schedules for you to base your own on. If you're looking for help to make the transition from hobbyist, this is the ebook for you. This ebook isn't a comprehensive guide for becoming a successful writer, but it will walk you through the process of laying…

05Jun 2013 by diannagunn

Summer Schedule and Vote on a New Blog Name

Blog Stuff

As I mentioned on Friday, there are going to be many changes around here over the next few months. The first thing to change will be the schedule. For the next two weeks, I will continue at three posts per week. This week I will be writing all three posts myself. On Friday I'll be introducing the ebooks I plan to release this year. Next week I'll be choosing a blog name and a great article about book tours by Joelle Fraser will be going up. After that there will only be two posts per week, on Mondays and Fridays. There will be occasional interviews and guests when people approach me, but I simply don't have the time to find contributors anymore. I will always accept articles from other writers,…

03Jun 2013 by diannagunn

Progress Report June 2013

Blog Stuff, Freelance Writing, Writing

It's June now, meaning it's time to do two things: analyze how much progress I made towards my goals in May, and make my plans for the summer. Let's start by taking a look at what I've accomplished towards my various goals: Editing Moonshadow's Guardian-- Last month I edited exactly six chapters and 42 pages. I should be finished editing before the end of this month, and I am going to start looking for beta readers this month. There's less than a hundred pages to go and I'm thrilled to be this close to the end. So far, June's looking pretty good month as I've already edited three pages and written a new chapter. I'm going to spend the next two weeks in a marathon with a goal of finishing…

22May 2013 by Dianna L. Gunn

Flip Turn by Paula Eisenstein

Book Reviews, Reading Related

Paula Eisenstein is a wonderful author who I interviewed here earlier this year. You can check out that post for more information about her and the story of how we met--today I'd like to focus instead on her debut novel, Flip Turn. Let's start by glancing at the back cover copy: "In Paula Eisenstein’s spare and provocative first novel, a young girl must come to terms with the discovery that her brother killed a young girl. Feeling alienated and not knowing how to ask for help, she decides that suppressing her sexual development will ensure she doesn’t do the same thing. In Flip Turn, Eisenstein has created an unforgettable narrator whose success as an athlete leaves her conflicted about the attention she receives. She fears it will remind people of…

20May 2013 by diannagunn

Happy Victoria Day!

Blog Stuff

I'd like to wish all you lovely people--at least all you lovely Canadian people--a happy Victoria day. In keeping with my rules of productivity, I will be taking the day away from Dianna's Writing Den to work on other things: editing my novel and working on other long term projects. You might have noticed that I didn't manage to reach 400 subscribers in two weeks, but that's okay. When I do reach 400 subscribers, I'll still be hosting a massive giveaway. I am still working on my ebook, Ten Commandments of the Serious Writer, and I'm planning to release this when I hit 400 subscribers--with the very first copy being given away to one of you. Now, off to writing! Have a wonderful day, and thanks for being a loyal…

10May 2013 by diannagunn

Progress Report April 2013

Goal setting, Writing

April's been a pretty exciting month for me. I got a job writing, editing and promoting blog posts for DJiZM Disc Jockey Services and I'm thrilled to be working with them. I'm also working on becoming a paid contributor to a large Canadian music blog, but I can't reveal too much about that yet. I'm still behind on my personal goals, but I did make more progress in April than I did in March, so let's take a look: April progress Editing Moonshadow's Guardian-- I ended up only editing four chapters of Moonshadow's Guardian this month instead of six, but I am making progress. I've now created a concrete plan to make more time for writing, both personal and professional, and I'm hoping to actually do six chapters in May.…

06May 2013 by diannagunn

Three Hundred and Fifty… Two!

Blog Stuff

Today I was going to wrap up my series on disturbances in your writing, but then something very exciting happened: the number of people subscribed to Dianna's Writing Den reached three hundred and fifty. In fact, it reached three hundred and fifty-two. Usually I don't make a big deal of these markers, but three hundred and fifty seems like a really big deal. So today I'd like to say a few things about Dianna's Writing Den. The first is that I appreciate every single one of you, and that I'm thrilled to be forming such an amazing community of writers here at Dianna's Writing Den. I'm really proud of the work I do here and I'm glad to be helping all of you. I hope you'll stay with me on…

01May 2013 by Dianna L. Gunn

Author Interview: Judith C. Owens-Lalude

Author Interviews, Reading Related

Today's interview is with Judith Camille, author of The Long Walk: Slavery to Freedom. Enjoy. 1. Can you tell us a bit about your book, The Long Walk: Slavery to Freedom? My book is about Clarissa and her son, George Henry who suffer the indignities of bondage––bought, sold, resold, and abused. Although scarred emotionally and physically, Clarissa refuses to accept enslavement. As Clarissa struggles against time, lessons from her grandmother fuel her compulsion to be free. On the trail, Clarissa and her son are rescued by the Underground Railroad passengers. Taking the long walk to freedom, they follow the North Star. 2. When did you first realize you wanted to pursue writing as more than a hobby? I knew that I wanted to write for children when my sons left…

29Apr 2013 by Dianna L. Gunn

Making The Sacrifice

Goal setting, Inspirational, Writing

For the last couple of months we've been talking a lot about disturbances in your writing, from writer's block to family to repetitive strain injury. It's important to develop strategies for dealing with each of these obstacles, but in the end it all boils down to one thing: making sacrifices. Today we are blessed that we can do just about anything we want with our time. We have literally millions of options. We can read or watch anything almost instantly with the internet. We can communicate instantly. We can also do everything that came before the internet: go for a bike ride, travel, garden, socialize at the local pub. With so many options, everyone's always busy. We fill up our time without thinking about it and forget to leave time…