This piece speaks for itself. Thank you Logan for being beautifully brave !
What Autism Means to Me Logan Beck
It is awesome to be different. It’s genetics. Our DNA makes us all unique, that is what God wanted. Acceptance is a big word but it’s really easy to do. Why would God place us all on the earth to be the same, I don’t want to be like everyone else. Why do some accept people in books and movies like Harry Potter, people who aren’t real but I’m real and some don’t accept me? I do awesome things.
I’m a great friend. I’m a gamer, love all things science, and creating new theories. I’m proud to be a quirky nerd.
We all have special powers. Others aren’t any better than mine, unless they can fly or shoot lasers from their eyes, that’d be cool. My mom and dad’s special…
After reading Shadow People, Book 1, and African Me & Satellite TV, I decided to contact author/blogger Jo Robinson, and see if she would consent to an interview by email. To my delight, she not only agreed, but candidly answered all my questions. (Two of the questions were quoted in an earlier post where I reviewed African Me & Satellite TV.) Here is our complete interview for you to enjoy.
Q: African Me and Satellite TV is quite a departure from your science fiction work, Shadow People. It’s quite an amazing story and, clearly, one that is deeply felt. Is there something in your personal past that made you write about this subject matter? Is there something of yourself in your main character, Suzette?
A: Definitely. I grew up in apartheid South Africa. I was born in Port Elizabeth but lived in Johannesburg from the…
Today is the sixth day of Traci Sanders’ It’s Reining Men Tour. I am over there pontificating about the six things a writer should know. These were learned by me through the efficient and time-honored tradition of Trial & Error. (Tongue in cheek) Visit if you can
Traci has authored a number of books, but her first foray into fiction for adults is When Darkness Breaks
Local news anchor, Amber Woods, seemed to have it all – a thriving career, two beautiful children, and a doting husband named Drake. Life was perfect…until her world was turned upside down in one fateful night. While the incident causes Amber to renew her priorities; unable to deal with what happened, Drake begins sinking into a deep depression laced with infidelity and alcohol.
Hoping a change of scenery will salvage her quickly deteriorating marriage, Amber agrees that a move to New York may…
First a big thanks for Sally Ember, L. Marie, and M.T. McGuire for hosting me on Wednesday. The one for Sally was a joint post with Nicholas Rossis too, so click on these links for a look. Those were a lot of fun and hit on a day where I was feeling like a garbage truck ran me over. Feeling better now . . . at least physically.
Mentally is another story since this was a chaotic week. Repeatedly hitting the ground running every morning, feeling sick one day, snow day after that, and just all around stress. Some personal issues are looming, which I’m not going to go into here. Yet it still plays into the fact that I end the week exhausted and depressed. So I guess I’m still teetering over a blue place that I can slip into with ease. Bad sales, crazy rankings, arguing people, negativity, uncertainty of next book release, feeling like a failure, not knowing who to trust, blah, blah, blah. It’s taking a toll on me that I’m trying hard not to let seep into my writing.
As far as the writing goes, I about 4.5 chapters done. I’ll finish that other one over the weekend if I’m lucky. Kind of left some characters falling over a waterfall and I think I repeated a joke of ‘it’s always a damn waterfall!’ Though I think I want to make it a running gag. I still feel anxious when I get into writing and it takes a bit of unbroken time to get into the flow. The action and banter parts are still natural, but I find myself second guessing the serious parts. Doubt is not an author’s friend. On the plus side, the alpha reader on ‘The Mercenary Prince’ is enjoying it. So I’m hoping to get through another 4-5 chapters this week. A lot of them are 4 sections instead of 3, so I’ll probably hit the low end of the scale.
I’m getting a new author photo tomorrow, so fingers crossed that it comes out good. I don’t smile in pictures. As a few friends have mentioned, I lack the ability to smile on command. Either I’m genuinely happy or I’m trying not to look like a serial killer, mope, or asleep. Still aiming for the black and white to counter the face. Thank you to my best friend for the nice clothes too. Connected to this, I can’t do any other advertising sign ups because I want to use the new pic. Not that anything I’ve done for the last 2 months seem to be working. I get attention, but not many sales and I’m nearly pulling my hair out at this point. Really need that next book to be released, but even that won’t do much because of it being a long series.
That brings me to my other project, which I might start writing during my son’s April Break. Only at night, but it’s a short story/novella at about 30-70 pages. A friend pointed me toward a site where I can find a cover artist, so this project could turn up on Amazon in July. Depends on the other releases. This is the fantasy adventure pulp fiction thing and the title is:
Ichabod Jones & the City of Beasts
(Apparently someone made a comic with this character name in 2011. I wrote the name down in 2006, but that’s just a coincidence that I can’t prove since I don’t date my notes. So this project might take longer or die since the name was a big piece of it. I need something equally catchy that sticks in the mind. Ichabod Jones simply popped out while I was goofing off. Maybe I just need to change the first name.)
I came up with the name years ago and I’ve had this guy repeatedly transform in roles and stories. It’s a catchy name to me, so I think he’ll work here. Just repeated adventures and the reader can go in any order. I’ll be looking over my Conan novel to see how the structure and length went. Still, we’ll see what happens. As long as the next book goes live on time, I can jump on this early. Though I might do it anyway even if I’m stuck in a holding pattern.
So the goals of the week?
Write more of Book 10.
Stop checking numbers every hour because I’m only hurting myself.
New author photo and use it on any new promo sites I find.
Hype week posts in advance. Considering doing another Twubs chat, but I’ll post about that to see if there’s interest.
Put clocks back an hour. Curse the practice.
Biking as usual.
Outlining future books and reading if I find myself unable to work on the book.
I asked today’s Guest Author to fill in my Friday spot because she’s done something I think is pretty amazing. Published at 16, contract, then all gone, and then here we are. LitWorldInterviews has the reputation as the Indie Authors place but I also think there is an Indie Author attitude. Today’s guest has that to me. I suggested a number of topics but one idea kept seeping in, even into other ideas. Welcome, Author Shannon A. Thompson.
The holidays are usually a very happy time for me as a writer. Extra time to write and watch the snow at the same time? Sign me up. I am a lover of snow…which is probably why my first novel, November Snow, revolves around the fluffy stuff. But the winter of 2014 wasn’t filled with smiles and snow and writing adventures. It was wet with rain, and it seemed quite suiting to…
How many tales have been lost?
To history’s brutal ways
Burned for blasphemy
Torn apart by fear
Never to return to the page
Knowledge buried
So deep it suffocates to death
Stories shredded
Cast to the winds and tides
All that will never be again
One chance to make them last
Destroyed by mindless beasts
Masquerading as men
How much of us has been lost?
Inspired by hearing someone mention the Library of Alexandria and other events that resulted in the destruction of books. Makes me wonder how many of those tomes held knowledge that could advance us to a new age or stories that could change the way we look at fiction. Ever think that the secret to happiness or the key to global peace had been written long ago, but somebody had the information destroyed?
Traci Sanders is hosting the It’s Reining Men Tour for the month of March. I am lucky to be the kick-off guest and have had a great time. Today I have posted an excerpt from my next book titled His Revenge for release in May. (At least that was the last word). Traci has a beautiful site and well worth a visit. http://awordwithtraci.com/guest-author-john-howell-3
Author and mother of three, Traci Sanders has been composing poetry, songs, and children’s stories since the young age of ten. In 2003, she opened her home to young children in her community offering “beyond the basics” teachings. In 2008, she was recognized by the Child Care Resource and Referral Agency as Family Childcare Provider of the Year and was featured in two local newspapers.
In 2010, she furthered her education by earning her Child Development Associates degree and was a recipient of the FIRST (First Incentive for…
