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Subject: Newschat Jan. 2012 Book deal and Webinar
Dearest Correspondent,
Thank you for your friendship. You’re what helps me get through the challenges of burrowing armadillos, howling coyotes (it’s true), and the responsibilities of being an aging child (that’s how I feel sometimes) of an aging parent who forgets to eat but still kicks ass at bridge. Marcia and I have reloed to Florida to the extent that we now have driver’s licenses. We are determined to make the Gulf Coast ours. As Joan Didion imperishably said:
"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image."
Now, in answer to your latest FAQs:
Q: My friends and I write, but we’ve got the winter blues. Feeling stale. Can you help?
A: Does a murderer fear detectives? Join me on Thursday, February 2 at 1 p.m. EST for my live webinar presented by Writer’s Digest: HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE LIKE A PRO. http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/how-to-write-dialogue-like-a-pro-webinar?r=sims
This one is back by popular demand and includes a free constructive critique on two pages of your work by me. The cost is $89, which entitles you to access to the live session as well as to the recording of the whole webinar for a year. You need not hook up live to take full advantage of it. If you sign up for it but can’t join in at 1 p.m. that day, you can view the recording at any time convenient to you, plus you can STILL send me your dialogue sample, and you can STILL send me questions afterward, so you really get the whole thing. A number of students have done this and report happiness. Except if I choke to death on my coffee or if an asteroid crashes into my study, you’ll miss hearing that live.
Can you guess which two of these three comments were written by participants from last time?:
I attended your Writer’s Digest webinar yesterday on "How to Write Dialogue like a Pro." I thought it was great and I took away some key elements. You did a great job in explaining the mechanics and gave some great examples of books that I now have on my reading list.
Thank you for the outstanding dialogue webinar today. I've read books on dialogue, but I feel like I learned more from you in 1-1/2 hours than I did from the books.
Elizabeth, you are the most terrific writer and teacher in the world, plus you’re hot.
Q: The first two are real, right?
A: Damn.
Q: I heard a rumor about a book deal. What gives?
A: YES! My agent, Cameron McClure of the Donald Maass Agency reached an agreement with Writer’s Digest Books for YOU’VE GOT A BOOK IN YOU: THE STRESS-FREE GUIDE TO WRITING THE BOOK OF YOUR DREAMS. From the proposal:
Writing is not hard! Writers struggle and bleed only when they get in their own way, though few of us admit it. Few of us even realize it! That's what's most misunderstood about the writing process: it isn't the writing that's hard, it's allowing yourself to do it freely that seems so impossible at times. Sadly, pessimism is the food of most writers.
Thus YOU'VE GOT A BOOK IN YOU: THE STRESS-FREE GUIDE TO WRITING THE BOOK OF YOUR DREAMS. It will be a fundamental, from-the-ground-up guide that presupposes no prior writing experience or success: a helping hand from someone with total belief in the power of writing. Intermediate writers, too, will be buoyed by this book, finding themselves working more easily, supported by the knowledge that they can write their book—any book in narrative form, be it fiction, memoir, or narrative non-fiction. Because they'll have the tools they need to bring their book to completion, starting with the first tool, confidence.
I’m working on the book (in a stress-free way, of course) and would love to hear from you about it. What writing issues are important to you? What would you like to see in the book? Email back to me at esims@elizabethsims.com.
Q: Makes me want to stop reading this newschat and do some writing.
A: Would it kill you to gimme a minute? You have options. If you’re local to the Tampa area, my friend Jamie Morris is offering a one-day writing marathon in Land O’ Lakes on March 17. She’s a terrific teacher and coach, who works mostly in the Orlando area. See more at http://woodstreamwriters.com/
Plus, take a look at the new CRAFTING NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES http://amzn.to/yaMrbu, just released from Writer’s Digest Books. I had the honor of joining such writing gurus as Don Maass, Hallie Ephron and Nancy Kress in contributing to it. James Scott Bell writes a charming introduction involving a painful youthful lesson.
Q: When are you going to write more fiction?
A: Soon. Meanwhile, check out new books by some of my friends:
COME AND FIND ME by Hallie Ephron. http://hallieephron.com/
SLAY BELLS AND SATCHELS by Dorothy Howell. http://www.dorothyhowellnovels.com/
THE LOST WOMEN OF LOST LAKE by Ellen Hart. http://ellenhart.com/
BUYER’S REMORSE by Lori L. Lake. http://www.lorillake.com/
HIDE AND SNAKE MURDER by Jessie Chandler. http://www.jessiechandler.com/
If you’re an author and have a book coming out this year, let me know, OK? Especially if you’re a guy. (Because I realize all those above are gals.) OK, the last FAQ:
Q: I’m looking to buy a beautiful house on a golf course in Florida for half of what I’d have paid a few years ago.
A: So incredibly coincidental! I’ve got one for you. Check out my mom’s place:
http://www.movoto.com/real-estate/homes-for-sale/FL/Bradenton/4119-Pinar-Dr-431_M5824541.htm
With thanks for being there (and for buying my Lillian Byrd books on Kindle, which at various times keep cracking the top 100 on Amazon’s Bestselling Lesbian Fiction list).
Elizabeth Sims
Novelist and Contributing Editor, Writer's Digest Magazine
www.elizabethsims.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Elizabeth.Sims.Author
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ESimsAuthor
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