Blog Posts

It’s Graphic, It’s Novel … a Window Opens

9/29/2014

It’s a law of nature: Once you’re set free of the shackles that bind you to a miserable daily routine, good things start to happen for you.

One of the good things that happened for me early last year was an invitation from my friend Chip Mann to work with him and his brother Dan a few hours a week to help them make their dream a reality. They too had broken some shackles by forming their own company, KID DOMINO, and were well on their way to something good — launching Issue 1 of their multi-part graphic novel series, Forgotten City.

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Find Your Great Escape And Zen Happens

9/22/2014

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Who wouldn’t agree that a great writing escape is anywhere that frees your mind and the creative juices? Conventional wisdom dictates that such a place must be breathtakingly beautiful — if not cradled in the bosom of Mother Nature, then situated at the foot of some architectural wonder.

Such elements are part of the ideal great escape for many writers, especially those who contend that pinning thoughts to paper (or computer screen) is a lonely job requiring solitude and serenity, without distractions or outside pressures. When it’s just you, your thoughts, and your writing tools, Zen happens. … Or does it?

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From RIF'd & Miffed to Published Author

9/15/2014

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When your employer decides to RIF* your job, what are you going do?

Cry? Rant? Mope? Slump into depression? Get even?

I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I did. … I forged a new path and followed it to places I only dreamed were real.

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Story Inspired by Real-Life Tragedy

9/8/2014

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While my forthcoming novel is classified a cozy mystery, there is nothing cozy about the real-life tragedies on which the mystery part is inspired — the heat stroke deaths of high school athletes.

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Author Panic 101 ! What if My Book Sucks?

9/1/2014

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Life was good. For the first time in months, I had no book-related deadline worries. It was mid-August, and eight days had passed since I’d completed the second read-through of the final draft of Dust Bunnies & Dead Bodies and returned it to Rebecca, my editor at PageSpring Publishing. For a few bliss-filled days after that, I operated as if my part in this project was done. I had written the book, made all of Rebecca’s requested rewrites, proofread the manuscript from beginning to end four times, and sent it back to her to publish. It was out of my hands. Yay, I thought, from now until my book debuts in mid-October, I’ll just bask in the afterglow.

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Glad to Be a Grad of the Ray Moscowitz School of Journalism

8/24/2014

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Sometimes as we wander aimlessly along our little path, if we’re lucky, a special person comes along to help us reset our compass. If we’re smart, we pay attention. This post is about the man who helped me reset mine and who I consider my mentor as well as my friend, Ray Moscowitz.

Throughout his long career, Ray, a life-long newspaperman, mentored hundreds of cub reporters, some of whom went on to achieve great things in their careers. They called it the “Ray Moscowitz School of Journalism.” I was lucky to be one of his grads.

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And Now a Word From Ms. Crystal Cropper

8/17/2014

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Thank you, brave soul, for clicking the link to the first-ever blog post by me, Crystal Cropper, editor-in-chief of the Elmwood Gazette, a daily newspaper serving Elmwood, Indiana, since 1893. I’ve been a professional news writer for going on forty years, but this social media hullabaloney is still news to me. Despite my Internet illiteracy, I was told that, because the novel--Dust Bunnies & Dead Bodies-- featuring li’l ol’ moi comes out in less than two short months, I needed to establish my platform, increase my tweets, enhance my Facebook presence, and write a blog ... STAT!

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Write anyway

8/11/2014

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The other day, I commented on a Facebook posting made by one of my former high school teachers. In his response to my comment, he digressed from the topic at hand (Roy Rogers vs. Gene Autry) to add, “By the way, congratulations on the completion of your first novel... there are many of us who are jealous because we did not have the self discipline or will power to complete the novel that is within all of us.”

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Title Wave

8/4/2014

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A book title is a workhorse that pulls a ton of weight.

The title, like the cover, must immediately communicate the story’s genre, hint at the plot, and generate curiosity that quickly entices readers to pick it or click it. Besides that, it must be original, clever, memorable, and unique enough to appear at the top of the list when a potential reader does an online search for the book.

Choosing a book title that does all of this is not for the faint of heart. I now know this firsthand, as I chose the title of my first novel, Dust Bunnies and Dead Bodies, only after I was swept up by a veritable “title wave” of ideas.

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MWW 2014 offers new ROLE, NEW EXPERIENCES

7/27/2014

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Yesterday — Saturday, July 26 — I helped close up the 2014 Midwest Writers Workshop held in the Alumni Center, located on the Ball State University campus in Muncie, Indiana. It was a new kind of ending for me, filled with equal parts relief and sense of accomplishment.

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