as a recent face book member, i have publicly aired my doubts regarding its value to the writer (me, in this case). one result is that i have received an e-mail from a.l. in shanghai,china, suggesting that i read dan blank's weekly newsletter, at least the one headed 'should writers focus on the craft of writing or building their audience?'
personally i have never felt this is an either or question, but hey, let's see what mr. blank has to say.
a lot. i have taken three sentences from an approximately three page article.
i, audrey, do a great deal of speaking to small groups about writing. in groups of would-be writers, i find that most people attending my chats have never sent anything out to be published. it will be my next task to get them to realize that, quoting blank, 'The act of "publishing" is not the critical part of being a writer, it is the act of being read.'
but those in the audiences of my talks and those of you now reading this blog are first going to have to gird up your loins and realize that , again, i quote blank, 'You have to launch to grow. '
maybe that terrible fear of rejection that keeps so many potential writers from sending manuscripts to publishers will be mitigated by the last dan blank message to be communicated today, 'Getting read and finding an audience is not about branding and marketing - it is about communication.' i think this takes the easily bruised personal out of the equation.
thanks a.l. and thanks dan blank.
on to a writer who knows what he has to say and says it with slices of knife wielding satire. i can't believe i've never heard of david rosenfelt before. first of all, he owns twenty-seven golden retrievers. he doesn't need to write detective fiction. this fact alone makes him appreciated by those of us who make up the loopy writers society.
most important is that he writes a neat murder mystery i read one dog night, subtitled, an andy carpenter mystery. in this book #9 of a series, we find defense attorney andy carpenter faced with a six year old crime, a fire that killed 26 people, and noah galloway, the man who says he set it and deserves jail time as punishment. noah and andy are linked by past and present ownership of the same golden retriever. it could happen! the story is a little convoluted, but nothing impossible. the best parts are rosenfelt's asides, his riffs on the absurdities of, for ex., the today show. he says they don't have time for news because everyone is so busy saying 'good morning' to everyone else, as if they haven't already spent a couple of hours in the studio together. he's even funnier about some of the 'info' posted on face book. these are easy targets, it's true. but he doesn't only hit the target. he goes straight to the bull's eye. my own pun.
one dog night, 387 pages, is published by minotaur books. c'mon , guys at minotaur, let go of those purse strings. hire some copy editors. this book is going to make money for you. showcase it and yourselves!
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