Writers are forever pregnant with poetic words that whisper and pray and pause and pacify. We plant and plow and ferment words. We use fertile words such as fecund, semen, soil, fever. We spill our hearts for peaceful, soft, snowy, swollen words, and we touch with words that shiver and sweat and scratch and scrape and bruise. Writers crave enticing ...

After four weeks of writing, last night I made the final revisions to my latest short story, Samuel’s Wife.  This morning, I sat in my study drinking a cup of coffee, my dog at my feet, my family still asleep, and read the story one last time. When I finished, I held the thirteen sheets of typed, double-spaced paper in my hands and thought of ...

Just a little under a year ago I made a decision I was sure would impact the rest of my life for the better. I was only a year out from graduating college with a degree in English, but I had another passion: weather. I decided that I would finish my English degree and then proceed immediately to Georgia Tech to study Earth and Atmospheric Science. ...

I've decided to start a blog which will chronicle my journey as a college graduate while I try to slide into the professional publishing and writing community. It will follow my escapades from the sticky, kudzu-covered fields of Georgia, to the busy, ruthless streets of London, England. You can follow my blog on wordpress.com, by following the link ...

I have lived at 35 different addresses in my life. 13 of those addresses were before I turned 18. The 22 apartments and houses since then are the legacy of an ex-military dependent who spent the bulk of her childhood moving, saying goodbye, saying hello. My husband, who spent his entire childhood and adolescence in one neighborhood and in one house ...

Seventy percent of the individuals accosted by an aneurysm bursting within their head will slip into a coma and then pass away that particular day, without realizing what has burst within them.  As I got ready for a full day of writing fiction on Tuesday, March 27th this spring, I felt an odd sensation within the frontal left of my head.  ...

I would like to share a great blog posting I recently uncovered that’s as pertinent and vital today as when it was originally posted two years ago. The posting, called An Indie Call to Action, was posted by April L. Hamilton, the “author and indie publishing agitator.” What April suggests, essentially, in her post is that we, as writers, put our mo ...

Indie writers, myself, particularly, since I also run an Indie micro-press, can easily get tangled up in the differences between trad-published writers and us. Because we are still fighting so hard for credibility and to wave away the stench of self-published from our books, we can tend to spend too much time focusing on the manner or way that we b ...

James P. Mesker, author of A Practical Guide to Collecting Civil War, and Sister, Billy the Kid, and Me, received his education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. As a historical researcher and archivist, Mesker volunteers with the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Landmarks Commission. He was the ...

At the suggestion of Kristen Lamb, (she of the We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media  (indispensible IMHO), I just read James Scott Bell’s book “Plot & Structure.” It was a little scary reading it since I was more than half way done with the novel I’m writing, so much of the plotting had already been done. But with some helpf ...

Three kids from Georgia's most boring town (now there's a contest I'd like to see...) suddenly find themselves reluctant time-travelers to World War II England. To get home, they have to find an elusive man called George Braithwaite (whoever he is.) Meanwhile, can they survive bad food, scary old ladies, non-absorbing toilet paper, and Hi ...

I am a part of a small writer’s group here in my area and each week we pick a word and write whatever we want to pertaining in some way to that word. One of our words was “Mountain.” Here is what I wrote…   I have a bumper sticker on my van that reads “Don’t lie to kids.”  Many people ask me why I have it there, what does it mean? It ...

A professionally edited version of Somerset, a novel by J.P. Cunningham, is now available for purchase at amazon.  The new Kindle version will be up for sale within the coming two or three weeks.  ISBN 9781453839515.  The first edition placed within the top 20% of contestant entries within the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. ...

One question I am often asked (as an academic historian who writes a YA/MG time-travel series) is "Are your books historically accurate?"  It always makes me clench my teeth.Let me put it this way: The Snipesville Chronicles are more historically accurate than Mel Gibson's movie The Patriot. Or, in fact, any Mel Gibson movi ...

If I have to explain the benefit of a rave book review to an author, I’m happy to do so. All the “pro’s” in the headline refer to this point and this point alone. A book review, for an Indie, is a lovely morsel of advertising that delivers credibility and the promise of quality that didn’t come from your own self-serving mouth. A positive book revi ...

I used to write magazine articles for a financial planning firm based in one of the northern states.  The CEO was a man who lived his life spiced with exclamation points.  He started his days spitting out exclamation points and speaking in capital letters. He’d arrive at the office and say, “HOT DAMN!  It’s colder than hell out there ...

Puget Sound 1990 I was taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, Washington when someone spotted whales in the water. Some of us gathered at the rails to watch. Moments later, the prayerful sound of a violin filled the air. Standing opposite me, an elderly man had brought the instrument up to his face and was playing as though he had no audience. At ...

I am the Real Housewife of Douglasville.  I know because I have a wine glass engraved with the title.  I've written for the Douglasville Patch a little over a year.  Here is the latest blog.   One would think that I had learned my lesson years ago.   My first transgression was a cold, winter morning in Powder Springs ...

...I was in line with all the other Twilight fans at 11:00 PM waiting to watch the newest release, Breaking Dawn, Part 1. At this point, these films are catering to the fans of the franchise. I can appreciate the books because I began reading them when Twilight was first released in 2006. As a sophomore in high school, I was very interested in fant ...

My voice is often confrontational, but honest. I want to give you something that will change the way you think or live. From my experiences, I would rather punch you with my words than bore you into complacency with platitudes. Authenticity is a priority, but it is excruciatingly difficult to write with that brand of honesty. There is always that i ...

He's a big guy who sports a smile true to his heart and shakes with belly laughter that erupts with little urging.  In Brackish, a recently released book of poetry, that big man I call friend takes us to the gulf marsh where he digs, revealing entire stanzas buried alive, pulsing under mud and peat, thick and heavy with the past, and spreads t ...

Today, I placed Jimmy's marbles under my Christmas tree. My maternal grandmother gave birth to a son in January 1934.  She named him James; they called him Jimmy. As the Great Depression and the boll weevil ate through the pocketbooks of southern farmers, Jimmy's health declined. After a long, dry summer of dying crops and dying dreams, he to ...

  What do you do at 2 am when you can’t sleep? Tonight, or should I say this morning, I got up, logged on and caught up on “Words with Friends,” email, Facebook and Twitter. Found some interesting new ideas for marketing. Now, since I’m still not sleepy I’m writing. I recently went up to North Carolina, as I tend to do at least once a month.& ...

The leaves were changing, the barbecue was spicy, the air was nippy. It was the perfect October day for an outdoor literary festival up in the mountains. Whenever I attend or present at a writers conference or book festival, I always leave with a smile on my face at having met so many awesome writers and readers (the gas that makes us go!) Last wee ...

Q: I just wrote up an account of an event that happened to me when we first moved to Georgia. I want to know if it qualifies as an essay. It is not a series of musings on a central theme, as in some essays I’ve read. It is the true story of what happened and what I learned from it. I looked up how to write an essay, and the information told how to ...

Q: I read an article in the newspaper that referred to the season of autumn, which we also refer to as fall. In the article, the word “fall” was not capitalized. I have always wondered about this issue, usually capitalizing it, but never feeling sure of what’s right. A: To answer your question, I'll quote from my own book doctor's desk reference b ...

Q: What formula do agents and editors use to come up with the word count? A: The word count is estimation, not exact science, so almost any formula will work, especially once your manuscript is in standard manuscript format. I can’t speak for each agent and editor, for they differ in opinions, but usually any one of the following methods will work ...

The Book Doctor, Bobbie Christmas is in: Q: What are the rules for capitalizing government and military titles? For instance, would I write “Hold him,” the general said, or would this be correct: “Hold him,” the General said. What about when using the characters name? “Hold him,” General Smith said. The same would apply for senators, representati ...

Q: I'm thinking about writing a controversial book about [subject deleted for privacy]. There have probably been a number of books already written on this subject, and there is a ton of information about the subject on the Internet.I have two concerns. One, could plagiarism be involved if I take information from the Internet? My next concern has to ...