Living A Writer's Life
Interviews, new book releases, release parties, live events, convention news, and resources of interest to writers.
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How Self-Published Authors Can Build Their Brand and Find Readers
by Eva Benoit evabenoit.com For self-published authors building a catalog in independent publishing, the hardest part often isn’t writing the book, it’s being seen. Real book marketing challenges show up fast: uneven sales,…
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Tis the Season to be Canning, Fa La La La La…
It's harvest season, and fall cleanup time for our two country acres.
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How Writers Can Get Discovered and Start Earning From Their Work
Aspiring writers trying to turn strong drafts into a real writing career often hit the same wall: getting discovered as a writer can feel random, and the silence starts to look like proof…
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A Poetic Conversation with Peter Okonkwo
A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Peter Okonkwo, one of Africa's outstanding poets.
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How to Build a Thriving Creative Business and Keep Your Passion Alive
For creative professionals trying to earn steady income from their work, the real opportunity is simple: creative talent commercialization can fund the life and time needed to keep creating.
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How Freelance Writers Can Protect Their Personal Assets and Avoid Costly Risks
Freelance writers who work with agencies, startups, and local businesses often focus on deadlines and deliverables, while personal asset risk quietly grows in the background.
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The Rights Stuff: What Indie Authors Need to Know Before Someone Else Figures It Out First
Here's something nobody mentions when you publish your first book: the contract is often more consequential than the cover.
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Beyond the Page: How Indie Authors Can Build Immersive Worlds Through Multimedia Marketing
Independent authors navigating the crowded modern publishing landscape often face the daunting challenge of making their books stand out.
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Poetry Schmoetry – – The Fantasy Faire Workshop Chatlog
One of the four events my Second Life avatar, Ceejay Writer, hosted for the 2026 Fantasy Faire was a writer’s workshop. These workshops have become an annual tradition for me. Transcripts of previous…
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How to Stand Out When Everyone Is Publishing: A Marketing Guide for Independent Authors
Self-publishing gives authors real control over their work, their timeline, and how they connect with readers. But building an audience from scratch without a publisher's marketing machine behind you takes a different kind…
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A Guide for Creatives to Master Business Skills and Keep Their Passion Alive
Creative professionals, writers, freelance artists, editors, and indie creators, often discover that the hardest part of making art is the business challenges for creatives that show up after the inspiration: pricing, paperwork, follow-ups,…
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The Grifters Are Getting Weirder
The grifters seem to be getting tired - they're starting to making mistakes and are letting AI generate really overblown accolades - more than the usual fawning crapola.
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Fantasy Faire’s Literary Festival Guest of Honor is…
Second Life's annual Fantasy Faire (a benefit for Relay for Life) is on! Guess who's this year's guest of honor at the literary festival?
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Can You Gift an Author ISBN Numbers? (The Answer Is, Sort Of!)
From time to time someone might ask an independent author, “What would you like as a gift?” What that author doesn't dare say, but might really want and need is ISBN numbers
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Start Easy Hobbies That Boost Your Wellbeing and Connect You with Others
Aspiring writers and book lovers juggling deadlines, writer’s block, and the lonely loop of drafts and edits often end up treating downtime like another task to optimize.
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Fiction Writing as Freelance Work
Fiction writing can be a real freelance pathway for college students and recent graduates who want to get paid for storytelling skills without waiting for a “big break.”
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Scam Alert: The Book Marketing Grifters Have Crossed A Line
If you're a writer with published books, you've likely heard of the book marketing grifters that are flooding email, setting up social media accounts to pitch their scams in private messages, and no…
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Author Friends… Need Reviews?
Attention authors! Who needs book reviews? We ALL do.
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POLICY CHANGE: My Book Reviews
For many years I've reviewed books upon request, for free. I've enjoyed helping authors improve their book's visibility and rankings with my reviews. But I am also an author. And while I've been…
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Parlor Poetry Ready for Preorder
Discover the curious and innovative Victorians and marvel at their inventions and discoveries, fashions and fads, along with more than a few peculiar habits and beliefs in Parlor Poetry: A Victorian Versification Abecedary.
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If you could talk to a publisher… oh wait, now you can. Opinions wanted!
The founder of a new publishing platform is hoping for lots of input on a survey created to help better understand what readers and writers want from publishers.
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Wuthering Rewrites – The Fantasy Faire Workshop Chatlog
The full chatlog from the "Wuthering Rewrites" Mashup Workshop at Fantasy Faire 2025 in Second Life.
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Wuthering Rewrites: A Mashup Workshop for Writers
Here's a slideshow featuring 25 mashup book covers, the event poster, and a full chatlog of the workshop from the Fantasy Faire 2025 event in Second Life.
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Read an eBook Week!
My novel, kid's short story collection, and two cookbooks are all 50% off at Smashwords this week!
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I Found Eleven Ways to Rhyme with “Zoetrope”
This book's been simmering on the back burner for quite a while, but I'm moving it to the front and turning up the heat.
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Shepherd – A Shared Love of Books
For many years, I've used Goodreads to keep track of the books I read. I admit it, I'm a junkie for the Reading Challenge. But over the past couple of years, I've found…
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Second Life Book Club Shreds It!
On Wednesday, Draxtor Despres brought his weekly show, the Second Life Book Club, to The Inkwell in New Babbage.
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NaNoWriMo’s Stance on AI – and AI’s Stance on NaNoWriMo
A friend alerted me to changes at NaNoWriMo that are are, to be un-delicate, causing a complete and utter shitstorm among the writing community on X, and I'm sure plenty of other places,…
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The Second Life Book Club – Drax and Ceejay, Together Again!
For my second visit with Drax, we will talk about my new cookbook, Shredding It: A Cabbage Cookbook and whatever else comes to mind! Update: Drax decided to bring his show to my book shop.…
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Shredding It – Sightings in the Wild
I'm starting to see sightings of Shredding It here and there!