Favorite Literary & Writing Quote #23

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

Favorite Literary & Writing Quote #22

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
 —George Orwell

Moving Launch of New Book on the Air India Tragedy

On July 21, 2012, I was honored to be one of the speakers at the memorable book launch of Fighting Hatred with Love: Voices of the Air India Victims' Families, by Helping You Get Published author Gurpreet Singh (Chetana Parkashan, publisher).

At the launch, which took place at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, family members and others close to the tragedy spoke out against the fundamentalism and extremism that led to the 1985 terrorist bombing that killed 331 innocent people. The roster of speakers included: Ujjal Dosanjh, former federal Health Minister and a vocal critic of extremism; Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice; Dave Hayer, MLA; D. K. Sharma, the acting Counsel General of India, Vancouver; Major Singh Sidhu, vice president of the Khalsa Deewan Society, Vancouver, on behalf of the victims’ families; Jinny Sims, MP; and Charlie Smith, editor of the Georgia Straight, who gave the keynote address.

Stampeding Sales for Helping You Get Published Author

Helping You Get Published author Rob Lennard is the award-winning creator of three time-travel books for children. The first, written for the 2005 Alberta centennial, has been expanded to become his latest book, with new chapters that take time-travelling teen twins back to 1912 and the first Calgary Stampede.

The new book, The Amazing Alberta Time Travel Adventures of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray was launched in May and is garnering praise and selling well in bookstores and at this year's centennial Calgary Stampede.

Email Writing Syndrome...Are You at Risk?

Watch the video to find out if you are vulnerable to this contagious syndrome...

All about Genre

Most new book authors know whether they are writing nonfiction or fiction. But within these two broad categories are many genres. Nonfiction, for example, includes such genres as biography, how-to, memoir, self-help, and travel--to name just a few. Fiction includes fantasy, horror, mystery, romance, thriller, and sci-fi. To complicate things further, each of these genres has numerous subgenres.

Sometimes, therefore, authors have trouble identifying their particular genre. If you are working on a book and are not sure where it fits, check out this introductory guide to book genres...