In December 2020’s In Style magazine, writer, producer, and comedian Jordon Firstman said, life is “…all about finding the balance between letting change happen and pushing yourself to achieve major progress…” I agree, but how does one find the balance between taking charge and letting go, between pushing and allowing, between will and surrender? In…
Visionary writers are incredibly important to the publishing landscape. And yet, the “visionary” label of this broad set of writers can confuse unfamiliar readers or put off publishers afraid to take risks.
Visionary writers are incredibly important to the publishing landscape. And yet, the “visionary” label of this broad set of writers can confuse unfamiliar readers or put off publishers afraid to take risks.
Visionary Fiction entertains, which is, after all, the main purpose of fiction as a literary form. But visionary fiction goes one step further; it nourishes the mind. Not all visionary fiction, though, nourishes the mind in the same way. Some novels in this category are profound and literary, others deceptively simple and straightforward. Visionary novels…
While selecting from among big-list-best-sellers for the VFA bookstore, I grappled with the question: What books are appropriate to the visionary fiction category? In order to resolve my query and narrow my choices, I relied on the expertise of three people familiar with the genre: John Alegeo, lecturer and writer in the Theosophical world; Hal…
Editor’s note: We are re-posting an article originally published in 2014, one worth repeating in that it encourages visionary fiction readers and writers to take heart. Good works of visionary fiction can—and do—become word-of-mouth hits. ***************** What if I were to tell you that one of the best selling books in history is visionary fiction? Say what? Yep, The…
In Part One of my Q&A with writer, soul-community creator, poet, spiritual field guide, and deep soul explorer, Janet Conner, we discussed the techniques she outlined in her book Writing Down Your Soul, including the four steps to activating the Voice within. In Part Two, Janet Conner shares the primary guides that helped her find…
What makes writers happy, besides working on their craft, of course, is connecting with other writers to delve into the unknown and explore one another’s minds for fresh ideas. Add to that a team of experts and inspirational speakers and you kick up the happiness factor a notch or two. You can imagine my reaction…
I can’t begin to tell you how many frustrating hours, days, and months I worked to create the website header for my original author website. I went as far as to purchase a program called Photo Shop Elements 10 and then spent months learning how to use the program in order to come up with an image…
In Build Your Own Author Website–Step 5, I showed you how to check the WordPress Theme Directory for free author themes via your Administration Panel Dashboard>Appearance>Themes. In Build Your Own Author Website–Step 9 and Build Your Own Author Website–Step 10, I introduced you to the Book-Snapper author theme. Now, it’s time to execute the theme installation of your choice. Did the…
It seems with each post I write in the Build Your Own Author Website series, the road parts like Robert Frost’s two roads diverging in a yellow wood. And, believe me, when it comes to the selecting the theme for your author website, the road you choose will make all the difference. There are many excellent author themes…
Changing the WordPress theme once you’ve invested valuable time and energy into building and customizing your author website is not advisable. I know because, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I learn things the hard way. When I set up my original author website, I used the Twenty-Eleven WordPress default theme, only to discover later that there were…
It’s time to show you how to put your new website in maintenance mode, in case you don’t want anyone to see it while you’re still in the process of tweaking it. Let me introduce three WordPress Plugins that do the job for you. Ultimate Maintenance Mode This plugin displays a screenshot of your website…
A big welcome to Karan Bajaj, #1 bestselling novelist in India of KEEP OFF THE GRASS (HarperCollins: 2008) and JOHNNY GONE DOWN (HarperCollins: 2010) with more than 200,000 copies of his novels in print. He was selected as one of the “Top 35 Under 35 Indian” by India Today and was nominated for all of…
One of the most rewarding things about Self-Hosting with WordPress.org is the ability to install powerful plugins to extend your website’s functionality. Compare it to accessorizing your home with all the latest gadgets and fashions to make it uniquely your own. Plugins are little programs that interact with your WordPress software in all kinds of…
Before we get to the fun part of decorating your new cyber home, let’s take care of some general housekeeping tasks via the navigation menu on the left side of your WordPress Administration panel. Hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the very bottom of the vertical menu below your Dashboard and a submenu…
For a super quick review of what we’ve covered so far in “Build Your Own Author Website” steps one through five, here’s a video created by Daniel Piechnick, a professional web designer and trainer. In less than ten minutes, he’ll explain Domain Name Web Hosting WordPress He’ll then take you step-by-step from purchasing your domain…
This is the day you log into your WordPress.org Administration Panel. For those of you who’d prefer instead to stick with WordPress.com, we part ways here, and I leave you with the following message: WordPress.com is a hosted service, which means that you don’t have to deal with finding a web host or downloading and installing the WordPress software. All is done for you….
Now that you’ve registered your domain name and found a home (Web host) for your website, you only need to follow one more step before you can begin working with WordPress.org., which is: Installing WordPress on your domain and hosting account. This is a one-time procedure, so hang in there. You’ll be amazed at how…
When you hear the word “domain,” you likely think of something you own or master like an estate or territory. In most cases, your domain amounts to your home, to which you attach a name and address so that people can locate you. When it comes to your website, you, too, need to claim ownership…
If you’re still with me after Build Your Own Author Website – Step One, I assume you agree that, as an author, you need a marketing hub open twenty-four seven as the foundation for your marketing platform. With an author website as your base, you can incorporate all the strategies available to you as an Internet…
When I was asked to speak at the California Writer’s Club/Sacramento last year about how I’d built my website and decided on my platform and marketing strategy, my first thought was: Hold it! You’re talking to a technological greenhorn here—Miss trial and error, Miss whoops that didn’t work out too well, Miss if you don’t at first succeed, try, try again. In…
Have you ever wished that you could preview and proofread your Microsoft Word (.DOC, .DOCX) manuscript on your Kindle before uploading it to Amazon KDP, or maybe find a convenient, low-cost way to ship your manuscript to beta readers for their feedback and have them ship their notes and highlights back to you? Less than…
How does one create a successful author event–you know, the book launch, the coming out party, the please buy my book fair? Back in 2011, I drove to Chateau LaMair in Granite Bay to find out. Former senior editor at Random House and co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published, Jennifer Basye Sander, and certified special…
While reading an article by Kathleen McCleary titled “5 Ways To Get Luckier,” it hit me that the very same strategies she listed for shaping the good fortune in your life could also be used to shape your success as a writer. Take, for instance, McCleary’s first way to open yourself to good luck and…
Genre is a subjective marketing category that often misleads rather than informs. Some books defy classification, especially books by Dean Koontz. How do you pin down stories that fit at least a dozen marketing labels, including: Action, Adventure, Crime, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Philosophical, Science Fiction, Speculative, Thriller, Urban, and, yes, Visionary Fiction? No one could…
Dean Koontz prefers to avoid genre labels. By his own admission, he writes “cross-genre novels in a mainstream style, with elements of comedy and social commentary and philosophical speculation.” That said, I hold firm to my conviction that much of Dean Koontz’s work contains elements of visionary fiction as detailed in the Wikipedia article written by our…