Essay Online

The most valuable of talents is never using two words when one will do. - Thomas Jefferson

There are many books that provide tips and guidance for publishing success. This series of articles takes you directly to a trusted source of wisdom &ndash established authors. The hope is the experiences they have encountered will assist you in your writing objectives.

On Editing

There is but one art, to omit! - Robert Louis Stevenson

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. - William Strunk, Jr., from The Elements of Style

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip. - Elmore Leonard

The great art of writing is knowing when to stop. - Josh Billings

As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out. — Mark Twain

When rewriting, move quickly. It’s a little like cutting your own hair. - Robert Stone

Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light. - Joseph Pulitzer

On Writer’s Block

If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it an hour when it isn’t expecting it. - H. G. Wells

On Motivation

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly

The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also the most difficult task. - Robertson Davies

If you wish to be a writer, write. - Epictetus

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential. - Jessamyn West

You write about the thing that sank its teeth into you and wouldn’t let go. - Paul West

On Humility

Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers. - Wallace Stegner

In the third and final part in this series we will look at a few words of wisdom from authors on the naming of your work, learning from the success and failure of other writers and the inner struggles authors often face.

There’s an estimated 3 million Independent authors worldwide. If these writers join forces the potential impact is staggering.

As of right now, the print-on-demand companies estimate that over 90% of their authors sell less than 30 books per year. The question is: how do you expand the position and exposure in the bookselling market and offer Independent authors an opportunity to sell more books?

The traditional brick and mortar marketplace has an established base of approximately 10,000 retail locations large enough to warrant the attention of major New York publishers. Unit sales of individual titles are in decline and some experts suggest readers are tired of the same old thing &ndash the market lacks new authors and new titles.

Total book sales in all markets (excluding schools and textbooks) is estimated at around $20 billion dollars. One percent equals $200 million dollars. All that is required for Independent titles to capture this one percent in sales is to form an online market, a central location, totally independent from any established publishing entity. That new creation would allow the Independently published book to be shopped by readers from around the world. The potential increase in sales is dramatic. The key is the development of this community, a destination for readers interested in purchasing the finest Independently written and published books from around the world: A place where the potential for Independent writers would open up to the world.

The concept is to open the market for Independently written books and offer readers the opportunity to shop for new titles, never before seen by the public at large. One community, bringing voices never heard and stories never told to the world.

The biggest problem with selling more Independent books is that an individual cannot imitate what the bigger publishers do in a market they control. The best opportunity to sell more Independently published books is to create your own market. Big publishing houses don’t use the Internet to sell their books. Exploit their weaknesses, and help establish your own online destination for selling book(s).

It is not economically feasible to establish a brick and mortar presence for Independently published books. The hurdles to even the smallest market share is cost prohibitive. The best strategy is through the use of technology, the Internet, to create a combined web presence, a community, where writers can market themselves and their book(s).

The strength of the Independent writer and author is the combined size of the group. When we create the community and develop a following, the old adage “build it and they will come,” will ring true. Major New York publishers relish in the fact the market for Independent books is fragmented and floundering. The last thing they want to see is a joining of forces into one location where readers can shop for books. The creation of a single community of Independent authors would send shock waves throughout the business! Let’s create our own market and stop trying to break into theirs.

It’s free, and the first step toward total independence in the marketplace for bookselling.

Why would anyone want to create a printed book, when then can create eBooks a lot more easily — and cheaply? Why would anyone want to get mired in the process of printing and shipping physical books that take time to deliver to customers, when they can deliver a digital information product immediately, with no additional production or shipping costs? What’s the point of having a tree-killing artifact of yesteryear in your creative portfolio?

Well, like it or not, a lot of people still prefer printed books to eBooks. They like — no, they love — the feel of a printed copy in their hands. It gives them a sense of well-being and solidity, to have a physical work they can carry with them and put on their bookshelves. They’re “old school” and they like it that way. Or, they just never warmed up to eBooks or digital media.

I had a conversation with an international television reporter about one of my books that was coming out soon — I didn’t yet have the printed version in my hands, but I had a PDF eBook I could send him. He said many times over that he hated to read eBooks, but that was all I had at the time, and so I sent it to him. It would have been a whole lot better if I could have sent him a printed copy, instead. Of course, I made do with what I had, but if only…

Now, there’s a very good reason some people like printed books better than eBooks — they can read them anywhere, anytime, without needing a computer to do it. For all the talk about “portable media,” these days, a book is really the ultimate in portable media! It fits in your hand, it doesn’t require batteries, and there are no complicated instructions to figure out! As advanced as our technology may be, there’s nothing like a book to truly “transport information” quickly and efficiently, across the bounds of time and space.

Ironic, isn’t it, that the ultimate medium for portable, instantaneous information sharing is just the thing that a lot of us thought was on its way out, with the advent of the internet!

Books are not “reserved” for the technologically gifted. They’re not available only to people with a computer and a broadband connection. They’re easy to use, easy to transport, and — unlike some of the cutting-edge entertainment technology available today — everybody understands what they’re all about.

When you publish a printed book, you level the playing field for potential customers, and you make it possible for a wider variety of people to access and enjoy your work.

Another reason to create a printed book, is for credibility. With a printed book in hand — especially one with an ISBN — you can approach magazines and newspapers and radio and television hosts and have something in hand to talk about with them. You can mail your book to reviewers and reporters, and you can hold up your creation for the camera, when it comes time to tell the audience what all the excitement is about. And when members of your audience go to their local bookstore to see if they carry your book (depending on what service you use to publish your book), they can put in a request for the book from the bookstore, and potentially help you get it stocked on the bookshelf stores. (Though you may already be convinced, like many other infopreneurs, that bookstores are not the place to sell books, still, it doesn’t hurt to see your book on the shelves of a brick-and-mortar store.)

Probably my favorite reason to publish in print, is how it can take your ideas to a whole new level and get you the kind of exposure once reserved only for the connected elite. Having a book in print has a way of instantly establishing you as an expert, in ways that producing (even getting rich from) digital information products can’t, in the “real world” offline. When people hear you’ve written a book, and they see that book in your hands, a connection kicks in, somewhere inside their heads, that says you must be pretty smart. Chances are, it’s true — you are! But the perception of others that you must be one smart cookie, since you’ve written this book, usually doesn’t get so far as to delve into the nature of your book, if it’s any “good,” or if your work is widely accepted and respected in academic or commercial circles.

Everyday folks have an innate respect for people who can write down enough coherent thought, and organize it completely enough, to produce a book. An awful lot of people never get that far. Some may think about it, but never do it. As a published author, as far as a lot of folks are concerned, you’re in a league of your own. And that’s a pretty good feeling!

I’ve gotten a bit of practice having that feeling. To my friends and family, I’m “just Kay” and that’s fine with me. All that fame business just kind of gets in the way, when it comes to my personal relationships. But to people who read the international press in the areas I publish in (technology and cross-cultural concerns), I have a somewhat different persona — I’m a published author who has caught the attention of folks from Asia and Europe with a controversial and rabble-rousing work that hit the presses in the fall of 2006. It’s pretty cool, to come across people from far away, who have read reviews of my books in magazines and newspapers I’ve never heard of. And I’ve got some pretty cool clippings of articles that mention me — and my book — exclusively, or in passing. That was all possible, because I published a printed book. It doesn’t matter that I have eBook versions of my works available for instant download. Most of the time, that’s not even on the radar of the mainstream international press. In fact, if anything, they kind of turn up their noses when I mention my eBook. But my printed version of that same book… well, that’s another story.

Publishing a printed book widens the reach of your ideas in ways that digital media can’t quite do. You open up your ideas to a whole different audience, and you get the chance to make even more of an impact with your concepts and your unique “take” on the world… taking a position of true thought leadership in a hurting world that’s sorely in need of fresh, new ideas. In fact, now is really the perfect time to be stepping out as a innovative new author in the print publishing world. The old formulas and the old ways of seeing the world and talking about it and conceptualizing it and relating to it, are pretty tired and worn out. We need fresh new ideas, brilliant new insights, and innovative ways of thinking about our world. You may have distilled everything you know and popped it into an eBook, but the print world offers you yet another medium (or “channel,” if you prefer marketing lingo) for your ideas.

My favorite reason of all for publishing a printed book, is the profound satisfaction that comes from holding a real, honest-to-goodness tangible book in your hands. I’ve been a book reader for over 30 years, and I’ve never lost my love for the sight of words on a printed page. All the better, when those words are mine! Some would call it vanity, but I call it doing my talents justice… and having something to show for all my work, all those live-long years of writing, writing, and writing some more, against all odds, hope against hope. I’m a very tactile person, when it comes to words, too, so I like to have something to hang onto. Digital is great — it’s my medium of choice, these days — but I can’t flip through the pages of a PDF quite the same way I can thumb through a book.

It really is an incredibly exciting time to be a writer and independent publisher! I’m so deeply grateful to have been born at this point in history, with my love of language and books — and the ability to put that love into manifest product. The possibilities really are endless… provided, of course, you know how to explore them. And that’s what this guide is about — getting you, an infopreneur or digital product creator, the tools and the skills and the orientation you need, to turn your digital content into print format, so you can reach a wider audience and more firmly establish yourself in your own niche of thought leadership.

You know? When you publish a book and send it out into the world, it’s like giving birth to a baby. Everyone checks out your baby. Is it breath-taking? Does it have ten toes and ten fingers? Is it pink and sweet or does it look like an extra from “Alien?” We writers are baring our souls, our deepest thoughts, and our feelings lay open like a cavernous wound. We can’t hide anymore. They know us inside and out. Now they see our baby, and they get to pick it to pieces, bit by bit, until the only thing left is a fuzzy blanket.

Oh, hell, we know that and go right on writing, don’t we? It’s in our DNA. We can’t help ourselves, we’re masochists.

When I started this whole book-writing process, I had full intentions of finding an agent and/or a traditional publisher; they’d do all the work while I sat back and listened to “Ca-ching, Ca-ching.” However my journey to that end has been long and stress-filled and I ended up doing just the opposite…I’d kept a daily journal while living in Thailand in the 90s. When I returned to the States, I copied my journal onto a floppy and had it printed, spiral-bound, and mailed it out to friends and family so they could read about all my trials and tribs while abroad. One of the friends who read it insisted that I make a book out of it.

“You know,” she said, “like the book ‘A Year in Provence.’” I immediately ran out and bought the book and was amazed at the problems that the author had endured in a short year. I just knew that if his book sold, then mine would also, however, life got in the way of living and I put it aside.

I joined some creative writing classes a few years later, and with encouragement from my peers I began the long road of putting the journal into book form. In 2003, when I finally thought I’d finished it, I entered it into the Southern California Writers Conference in San Diego. While there, I read chapters from my story in the Read and Critique groups and the attendees laughed in all the right places and even clapped, (I’d hoped it wasn’t because they were happy I’d finished). At the end of the conference I was notified that I’d won the Best Nonfiction award for my story and an agent asked for my manuscript. Wow! That just doesn’t happen unless they love it! I knew I was ready for the Pulitzer.

Then I began to panic. What if it isn’t perfect? I had talked to a “book doctor” at the conference who advised me that my story “…needed some conflict. Who really cares about a housewife who’s having a good time in Thailand? Give them a reason to turn the page.” Okay, that’s what I’ll do. There certainly was plenty of conflict in my life in Thailand, but I’d left it out; it was painful to relive and I wanted it to be a humorous book. I emailed the agent and told her I wasn’t ready. Take your time, she’d said. It’s not time sensitive.

So began the journey of “weaving” the conflict into my story. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. It was three years before I felt it was good enough to be a real book. But, those three years were not only spent rewriting. I took online writing classes and signed up at the local college for creative writing classes, I attended a critique group every week, putting my chapters up to their scrutiny as they tore it apart and helped put it back together. The rest of the time I was editing my life away. But as Stephen King says in his book On Writing: edit, edit and edit. And when you think it’s perfect, edit some more. My husband had a name for my constant editing: “Paralysis by analysis.”

When I felt I had everything in place, I looked for professional editing. I first paid the book doctor $500 to tell me that it needed help. He didn’t give me any, just told me it needed it. I found a line-editor in Canada, who did a great job, and then I hired a freelance editor; total for both $600; quite inexpensive in today’s editing market.

During those three years, I also did a lot of reading on the publishing world; agents, print-on-demand (PODs) and off-set printing companies. I attended conferences specifically on “How to get published.” The more I heard and read, the more I thought: From all the conferences I’d attended, the agent panels were the most disillusioning. I learned that agents don’t want you if you’ve not been published, and publishers don’t want you if you’ve not been published, or don’t have an agent, who doesn’t want you either. Who needs ‘em?

Publishers don’t want you if you don’t have a “platform!” A what? To my dismay I learned that I needed to have my own buying public. There was no publisher that was going to run out and sell my book for me, pay for my cross-country book signings and hotel rooms, unless of course I was a King or a Grisham or a Joyce Carol Oates. Then of course, there’s the eighteen month wait for the book to appear on the shelves after the publisher accepts it (if the publisher doesn’t decide to pull the plug at the last minute), and don’t forget the two years that it takes the agent to shop around for a publisher who might decide to pull the plug at the last minute. Who has that long? I don’t even buy green bananas anymore.

Wow! I remember my table mates and I frowning as we listened to the dire answers of this panel of agents and publishers. So how do we get published? Well, we have two options so it seemed: 1) have an agent living next door who loves your home cooked brownies or has a crush on your husband, or 2) know a publisher whose kid mows your lawn or has a crush on you. Not living in New York was going to be a definite drawback. Should I move? Okay, how about a POD? I was fortunate to have a friend who is a small press publisher of railroad books. He offered to put my manuscript into a Quark Express PDF file (which is the format printers prefer). He did an incredible job putting it together for me. He felt that if I had the print setup taken care of, I could approach a POD and save some money.

I signed up for the POD classes at the conferences I attended, where they explained everything I needed to know about their business ─ except how they kept most of the author’s money while they got big and rich and the author got $3.09 per book. Okay, well, $3.09 a book is not that bad. Maybe I could make it. But, wait, I had to pay them to print my book, and then pay them to buy my book back from them; too many “thems” going on here. Something didn’t compute. Maybe I should chuck the book and go into the POD business.

Well, I succumbed. I bought a book called The Fine Print of Self Publishing by Mark Levine, an attorney, then sat down to do some homework. After going over all the PODs he listed with a fine-tooth calculator, I realized that I could pay as much as $30,000 to one such POD group, but hey, my books would be free. How generous of them. Or, I could choose a POD group charging as low as $299, but I’d still have to buy my own books back at about $8.00 each.

I finally settled on a firm I’ll call “Dewey Cheatem & Howe” (name changed to protect the guilty), and thought I’d finally get on with this damn book printing. They sent me a sample of their work that was done beautifully. I signed on the dotted line, waited three more weeks and then my author’s copy was delivered. And there it sat. On my desk. Opened to the first page, which I couldn’t read. I started bawling. Where is my baby? The font was so garbled that it was illegible. There was a space after every capital letter and the other letters were so piled on each other you couldn’t make out the words.

When I’d used all the Kleenex in my desk drawer, I called them. Of course, no one was on the other end, save for the automated voice of their mailboxes. But at least I got rid of my postpartum anger. I cried and said very imperiously, “HOLD THE PRESSES! I will not accept this book. I will call Visa (of course they already had my money) and stop payment and …” I felt like an inner tube impaled on a sharp rock. Then I called my friend, the publisher. “Of course you can do this on your own. You have the file, just find a good printing company.”

I inquired around and found out that I could get my book printed overseas at half the cost of stateside. I began to get phone numbers and surfed websites. There were some good deals to be made overseas; however, the problem was I needed a broker. So after the broker took his cut, and the shipping charges were added, a stateside printer looked better. Plus, the thought of having a problem and not being able to connect at once with your printer was worrisome.

I searched the Internet and found many websites where you could input the details of your book, number of pages, size of book, print run, etc., and within a week I got a bid from ten printing companies. After picking one printer (not the cheapest), I felt we had a fit. I spoke to the owner, who offered to throw in a hundred free books, which might have had something to do with my decision. He checked out my website while we were speaking, loved the site and the look of my book and of course, he had me. He also offered storage and order fulfillment. Now, all I had to do was put our house on the market and clear out our 401K.

I know what you’re thinking. Sure, maybe she has it, but not everyone can come up with that much money. Yes, you can if you want to. We took an equity line on our home and as the money comes rolling in, I’ll be making payments on the equity line. We authors must be optimists. Really! If you don’t believe in your book, who will?

I ran off my own bookmarks and saved a few hundred dollars. I used the cover of the book, wrote a short synopsis on the back, and had 500 printed. I have handed out those bookmarks on airplanes and in airports; Seattle, Palm Desert, San Diego, Portugal, New York, Australia, New England… well maybe not personally, but I’ve given them to people who live in those places and they were happy to have them and said they’d pass them on. I’ve handed them out in restaurants to women sitting around me; two of them bought my book right on the spot. My friends call me “A self-promoting slut.”

I have to leave you now, as that’s where I am in this wonderful world of the written word, where the writing was easy… now comes the hard part ─ marketing!

Ms. Preble is an award-winning teacher, a jazz singer and pianist, and the author of The Queen Geek Social Club and its just-published sequel Queen Geeks In Love (both available from Penguin Books). A self-admitted geek, Laura is a science fiction fan and currently lives in the San Diego area with her husband, jazz saxophonist Chris Klich and her sons Austin and Noel.

T.E. Pouncey: I thoroughly enjoyed your novel. Are any of the elements in The Queen Geek Social Club autobiographical?

Laura Preble: Actually, the book is sort of like how I would have been in high school if I’d had better clothes and more confidence. Other than that, a lot of it is based on various elements of the schools where I’ve taught (West Hills High and Mar Vista High in San Diego, CA). I study my students, then take pieces of various kids, stitch them together, and create new characters. It’s kind of like Frankenstein, but with less lightning.

TEP: Do you create a character and then visualize what they look like, or do you visualize a character and then create their personality?

LP: I think I usually have a voice in mind first. For Queen Geeks, I woke up one morning at 3 a.m. and just had this idea, and the character of Shelby in mind. Her appearance developed as I developed her personality; the smart-ass attitude and wry observations definitely shaped her appearance. Plus, she looks a little like me if I’m having a really good day and have access to a foggy mirror.

TEP: The character Shelby Chappelle in TQGSC has a great robot sidekick named Euphoria. Which robot would you rather hang out with, R2-D2 or C-3PO?

LP: Geez. That’s like asking someone to choose which child they’d abandon on The Titanic … but if I had to pick, I think I’d go with C-3P0 because he actually talks. R2-D2 is much more down-to-earth and actually more intelligent, but since he just beeps and sounds like static from a faint radio station, it would probably bug me.

TEP: Speaking of movies, if TQGSC was optioned as a movie, would you want to write the screenplay?

LP: Yes, and if you happen to know of some really powerful Hollywood mover and/or shaker, please hook me up. I love to write dialog, so I think I’d do really well with a screenplay.

TEP: You once said you grew up in Ohio on a diet of hot chocolate and science fiction. Who were some of your favorite authors?

LP: I used to work at the local library, and my job was to go to the basement and bring up back copies of old magazines (this was before Internet … arghgh!). Anyway, when I wasn’t busy, I’d hide in the stacks and read Isaac Asimov and Amazing Stories, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverburg, Spider Robinson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, plus fantasy like Tolkien and Piers Anthony. I’m really a sci-fi whore and will read anything anybody puts in front of me.

TEP: Any plans for a TQGSC sequel or do you want to work with a brand new group of characters?

LP: Well, I do have a sequel coming out in November of this year, and it’s called Queen Geeks in Love. It follows the exploits of the same geeky characters (as well as Euphoria), and tackles the thorny problem of what happens when geeks date. Some highlights: attending Comic-Con as homemade superheroes, and putting on Geek Fest, a celebration of talent designed to humiliate those involved as well as those watching.

TEP: You have two sons. How do THEY react to Mom’s being a self-admitted geek?

LP: Ah! They are little geeks in training. The oldest one, Austin, goes with me to Comic-Con. In fact, we did a singing contest together there on a new lip-sync video game. It was also great this year, because Penguin (my publisher) sold the first book at Comic-Con and gave postcards out for Queen Geeks in Love, so Austin would go up to people near the booth, hand them postcards, and say “Buy my mom’s book so she’ll feed me!” Noel, the youngest, is too young to understand the true meaning of the word ‘geek,’ but he’s obsessed with space, aliens, and Harry Potter (at age 4) so I think it’s destiny that he’ll be a little geek himself.

TEP: Is your first novel, Lica’s Angel, still in print?

LP: Yes … I self published it a few years ago when I thought I’d never get a publishing contract. It’s available on Barnes and Noble’s website as well as Amazon and iUniverse. When I do book signings, they often have it in the store also. I started a sequel to that book also, but never got to finish it.

TEP: How did you become interested in jazz music?

LP: My dad had a killer collection of jazz, swing, and Big Band music, and when I moved away to college, I stole all his Duke Ellington records. Then I met my husband, Chris Klich, a consummate jazz professional (sax player), and now we make beautiful music together (yuck! Overt sentimentality!) Our most recent album, Blue Skies, still sells lots on CD BABY (and you can hear it at his website chrisklich dot com). We also had an originals band where I wrote all the music and lyrics, and that album is still floating around out there too, and can be heard at laurapreble dot com, my music site.

TEP: Which is harder to be: a good teacher, a good writer, or a good musician?

LP: It’s hardest to be all three at the same time, which is what I go for. Plus good mom, good wife, and good Olympic discus thrower. (No, that last one was just to see if you were paying attention.)

TEP: Can you tell us about any new projects that will be published before the end of the year?

LP: In addition to Queen Geeks in Love, which comes out November 6 &ndash and I’m hoping every person in the United States, Canada, and all English-speaking countries will buy a copy &ndash I’m also working on a novel titled Punk Boy Mysterious which is not within the Queen Geek series, and I am in the process of finishing Prom Queen Geeks, the third book in the Queen Geek series, which will be out in Fall 2008. I’ve also been writing for Writer’s Digest, and will be doing a workshop at the Southern California Writer’s Conference. And I’m still hoping for a TV show, a movie, an appearance on Ellen, and perhaps a Pulitzer Prize for humorous literature featuring a robot. (Is that a category? It should be!)

Interview by T.E. Pouncey, and reprinted with permission from GeeksofDoom.

One of the difficulties a writer faces is reviewing their work in an attempt to locate all errors. There are generally two forces that work against a writer who attempts to ensure their work is error-free.

1. Being too close to the work you have difficulty concentrating on the writing.

2. You know what you want to say so it is possible you read over mistakes simply because your mind only sees your impression of the article.

In order to be effective in proofreading your own material you have to work hard at reading every word…

Refuse to speed through simply because you know what the writing says.

Consider each word, then each phrase and then the context of the thought.

Does the article flow or are there phrases that bog it down?

Check punctuation and grammar.

Look at the headline and make sure it is correct.

Do the above all over again.

Most often the best personal proofing requires multiple readings and ongoing edits. The key to the entire process is discipline &ndash personal and professional discipline.

Check and recheck the facts in your story and when possible allow another set of eyes to proofread your writing. They will likely see things that you missed.

There is another myth that is closely linked to proofreading and that is the myth of the perfect story. Anything we write will either have a shelf life because styles and accepted practices change or we have missed something in the arena of consistency, grammar, spelling or word use.

If we keep a piece of writing under lock and key until such time as we think it’s perfect we will likely find that the article will never see publication. You can go over your article with a fine tooth comb and you are likely to see some error when it is finally published.

Writing should be taken seriously, yet not so seriously that the stress of word crafting removes the joy that caused you to become a writer in the first place.

The best advice may be to simply write your story first and worry about fixing any problems afterward. If you stop writing in the midst of your story in order to correct trouble spots you are likely to lose the spontaneity of the storyline. This can ultimately have a detrimental effect on the overall reading satisfaction of the consumer.

If you have to be a perfectionist wait until the story is complete and then get out your red pen and make a few alterations.

Sylvian Browne’s Bio

Sylvia Browne is a self-proclaimed medium and psychic from Kansas City, Missouri. She was born in 1936, started her career as a psychic in 1973, and founded the Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research. Browne has now authored several books on spirituality (published in paperback and audio), and has been regularly featured on The Montel Williams Show.

She has also made her appearances on TV shows such as Larry King Live, Montel, Unsolved Mysteries, and Entertainment Tonight; and has been featured in Cosmopolitan and People magazine. She is the president of the Sylvia Browne Corporation, and founder of her church called the Society of Novus Spiritus, based in Campbell, California.

Well-Known Predictions:

Sylvia Browne has predicted certain events in her career as a psychic, some considerably accurate and some questionable. One was the Clinton-Lewinsky affair in which she predicted that Clinton was falsely accused, which turned out to prove incorrect. Other well-known predictions include the 2000 U.S. presidential election and victory to Bill Bradley, the death of Bin Laden, the “hiding in caves” of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, a verdict of “not guilty” in the Robert Blake case, September 11 attacks, and the emergence of extraterrestrial life on Earth by the year 2010. According to police officials and family members, in all 35 police cases she has worked on, she didn’t play any significant role.

Criticism and Controversies:

Browne has been criticized in her career as a psychic by skeptics such as James Randi, who asserts that there is no distinction between Browne’s reading and those made by mentalists using cold reading and hot reading methods. There have also been a number of controversies surrounding this famous psychic. In 1992, Sylvia Browne was convicted of investment fraud and was asked to perform 200 hours of community service.

In addition, there were reported contradictions in her stories on the subject of “Visits from the Afterlife” and “In Life on the Other Side”. More famous controversies were the Sago Mine controversy and the Montel Williams controversies, in which several skeptics raged battles against Browne, questioning the credibility of her predictions and her career as a psychic.

Sylvia Browne Audio Books:

Sylvia Browne’s audio books are available for purchase in downloadable formats such as MP3, on CD/DVD sets, and on tapes. Each set of Sylvia Browne audio books lasts several hours, and is priced from $9 to $24. These audio books include &ndash

1.Adventures Of A Psychic

2.Angels and Spirit Guides: How to Call Upon Your Angels and Spirit Guide for Help

3.Angels, Guides & Ghosts

4.Blessings from the Other Side

5.If You Could See What I See: The Tenets of Novus Spiritus

6.Insight: Case Files from the Psychic World

7.Life on the Other Side

8.Past Lives, Future Healing

9.Phenomenon

10.Prophecy: What the Future Holds for You

11.Secrets And Mysteries Of The World

12.Book of Angels

13.Sylvia Browne’s Tools for Life

14.Visits from the Afterlife: Truth about Ghosts, Spirits, Hauntings and Reunions of Loved Ones

What’s a major deity to do when he finds himself washed up on Mt Olympus? Jupiter, once mighty Roman God has spent two millennia sulking about his defeat at the hands of Yahweh and the loss of the great Roman Empire. Jupiter and his motley assortment of gods have become complacent, even the eternal fountains have mildew on them and are in need of a good clean.

Shedding his robes in favor of an expensive Brooks Bros pin stripe three piece suit and Harvard Business School MBA in hand, the reinvented J. J. Jones is ready to reclaim his throne, the world is ripe for the picking, he rationalizes “…All the old religions are fighting each other, especially the Christians and Muslims. We can come up the middle and be everybody’s second choice.”

He does however realize that the path to glory is not an easy one, the world is a considerably different place in the 21st century than ancient Rome. Also his fellow Gods are going to need a makeover, not only in their appearances but in their attitudes as well, if they are going to fit in.

J. J. realizes that what he needs is a management consultant! Enter Alex Webster. Alex and his sometime girlfriend Victoria take on the daunting task of removing 2000 years of stagnation, of course there are some bumps along the road. Old habits die hard, and it is not long before Carmen Cupido (Cupid) gets the nickname of Dr. Love in a local night club where he has been practicing the art of matchmaking, and coming to the attention of the local police as the likely purveyor of date rape drugs.

J. J’s scheme for ‘world domination’ is to ease into it slowly by becoming the CEO of a global company. To facilitate this he engineers a scheme to merge two companies and become the head. What he doesn’t realize is how much resistance he is going to encounter from a mere mortal. Gerry Shilling CEO of Pharmaglobe has no intentions of stepping aside gently, and sees this merger as a stepping stone for himself!

I found Alex Webster And The Gods to be a thoroughly enjoyable romp. David Dent’s style of writing reminded me a lot of the late Douglas Adams, another master of putting characters in the most unlikely and bizarre situations. The humor is mostly dark and very well executed. Juno for example likens her marriage to Jupiter, to that of Bill and Hillary, and because Jupiter is off chasing every bit of skirt in the universe, “we only have sex every hundred years”.

Every chapter starts with a little quote, some words of wisdom, from Carl Sagen, to Yoda, everyone gets their say, but my personal favorite is from William S. Burroughs “Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts”.

If I have a criticism of the book, it is that it is too short. The ending is very cute, and certainly paves the way for a second book, and I’ll bet J.J.’s Brooks Bros suit that David Dent is typing away as you read this. All in all, I give this book very high marks, it is a fabulously crafted concept and one that would transition well into the big screen, or a TV series. The characters are larger than life, the plotlines outrageous, this is what I class as great entertainment.

Although it is officially classified as Science Fiction, it should appeal to everyone that enjoys a light and funny read.

Review by Simon Barrett

zzsimonb.blogspot.com

Someone said: “Writing is either easy, or it’s impossible.”

He was lying.

I can’t tell you how to finish your book, but I can tell you how I finished mine. Please apply these simple, difficult steps to your writing process.

1. Appropriate aptitudes and psychopathology

I’ve always scored highly on the verbal portions of standardized aptitude tests&ndash&ndashthe SAT, GRE, etc. I’ve always been able to write. I have an obsessive tendency, which adds get-it-done-ness to my personality, as well as a bit of mania for inspiration. Many years of education have honed my obsessive streak to full-blown workaholism. These are necessary, but not sufficient, ingredients of a writing career.

2. Kundalini Shakti and the worst things that ever happened to me

In 1975, I began meditating using a form of kundalini yoga. Kundalini is conceptualized as energy coiled at the base of the spine, lying dormant until awakened. When awakened, it moves up the spinal column, purifying the individual’s energy centers and psyche. My experience of kundalini is like sitting on the business end of a cosmic fire hose. It produced ecstasy, as well as kicking out memories of the worst things that ever happened to me.

3. The right circumstances, and motivation becomes sufficient

During an extended healing after step 2, I went to a meditation retreat, coming home spiritually renewed and sparkling. Two days later, I had a cataclysmic experience: The plot of a book was injected into my brain in a second. After that, I wrote for nine years straight, completing drafts of nine novels. The drafts are mostly drivel, but they’ll rewrite nicely. My spiritual awakening unleashed my writing and fueled my creativity, also imparting the drive to complete what I started.

4. The material will finish the book

The book that I’ve published wasn’t one of my novels; it was a freebie, leaping out of me by surprise. I went to a Native American spiritual retreat, had an incredible experience, and started writing about it. Voila! Three years of single-minded work later, I had a book. (That’s the second retreat to jump-start my writing. Neither was a writers’ retreat. No cogitating for hours about technique or critiquing anyone’s writing. Just spiritual regeneration.) I could not stop until I finished Stepping Off the Edge. The material drove me until the book was published, and beyond, into marketing.

5. Paying dues

Would I write better if I an MFA in creative writing or a PhD in literature? Probably, but I’m sixty years old and can’t afford the time. Writing is a skill that demands training. In that, I have paid my dues. I’ve been in writers’ groups for more than ten years. I’ve worked with a number of editors, ranging from great to horrid. I walked away from one publisher and have had my share of scathing critiques. I’ve written queries, gotten rejected, and had “experts” try to scam me. I’ve rewritten, reframed, and thrown out. Had too many migraines and worked myself into a frazzle. I’ve also made dear friends, met fabulous professionals, and finished a book that I love.

How did I complete my book? It took all of my craziness and sanity, the worst things I that happened to me, applying myself to wellness with all my soul, and doing everything necessary to see it born: a lot of work, commitment and much love. And a touch of the divine.

Writing is not easy. Even so, if your highest and deepest self drives you, it’s impossible not to finish.