3 Best Books on Writing

If you want to be a good writer, study your craft. You wouldn't preform brain surgery without training, don't dishonor your book/story by going in half-assed. Arm yourself with the right tools.

First, get yourself a good grammar book. I personally like Stunk & White. Just the facts here, no window dressing. Grammar is the basics of  writing and just like any other skill you can learn it. Refer to the book with any questions that pop up. Make notes in the book. I use post it notes to flag pages where I know I'm weaker. Every now and then I page through it to reinforce those rules in my mind. After all, if you don't know the rules, how ya gonna break them?

Second, Writing Down the Bones by Annie Lamott. This book will show you some ins and outs of the writing life. It ain't all tea parties and book signings. Writers work. Hard.

Third, will give you some inspiration. Stephen King's On Writing. Find out where he came from an the work he did to get there. From disgusting laundry sheets filled with maggots to how he hit it big. Then he tells you about his own tool box of writing. His writing schedule and his self imposed discipline.

The key to writing your book, finishing your book is found in your daily routine. Prolific writers know this in their heart.

More Sales!

Two more sales to the Confessions for January!
Yippy!

To E or not to E...

I've been reading a lot about authors who are now publishing their work as ebooks on Amazon and other places and it has me thinking that the face of publishing is changing.
Is this new round of self-publishing a good thing or bad?
Mr. Konrath has some very interesting thoughts on the subject. I've been reading his books since he published the first one and think he's an awesome writer. When you're looking over your shoulder at night as you read one of his books you know he has sufficiently creeped you out. And he's making money on his ebooks. We already know he's a good writer but his marketing and sales tactics continue to amaze.
We write because we love to tell the story, but for all those books that are sitting in a drawer right now, clean and ready to go, but without an agent who will take a chance on them maybe they belong as a ebook?
I have a book I love, I've written and rewritten and rewritten and now it sits there collecting dust. I'm not sure what genre it would fit in. What genre is the Marley and Me book in? It's kind of like that but from a dogs point of view. And it's more a novella size.
See?
It was a fun book to write and I love my characters, but under what label do you sell something like that?
I'm thinking .... maybe....ebook?
Do you publish your own ebooks? Would you? Where? How?
Have you reaped more problems or rewards from it?
This little pup is my new foster dog. He was found in the yard of an abandoned house. His hair was so matted they named him Marley.