Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: COFFEE HOUSE TOURS SIGNING AT GROUCHY JOHN'S

Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: COFFEE HOUSE TOURS SIGNING AT GROUCHY JOHN'S: Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing a signing table with fellow writer and Coffee House Tours member Cynthia DeBoers. It was my first e...

COFFEE HOUSE TOURS SIGNING AT GROUCHY JOHN'S

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing a signing table with fellow writer and Coffee House Tours member Cynthia DeBoers. It was my first experience of doing a signing with this group. Kudos to Vickie Ann Bush and her team for putting together and maintaining this unique way for writers to meet their public.

Book stores and libraries are always a good venue, but there is so much more. With an organization managing alternative bookings, it allows the writers to do what they have to do--write books and promote them. I am so glad I discovered this group.

Thanks to those who stopped by to chat and buy books. Talking about writing is one of my favorite things. As we gear up for Christmas, it's nice to be able to sit at a table in a very cool coffee house and chat with a fellow writer and the customers. Be sure to watch for postings for upcoming events from CHT. I understand there are now 40 members and 2020 will be a very active year..

This was the first time for me to use my new table runner, and I loved it. What fun to have a photo of me looking just about identical to the runner that draped my side of the table as I held up WRITERS' TRICKS OF THE TRADE.

I would be remiss if I didn't add a plug for the new edition of WRITERS' TRICKS OF THE TRADE, the book, updated and added to for 2020. It was originally compiled from my most read columns when I was writing for examiner.com while it was in publication. Totally, I've written over 600 published articles and 18 books, so you can feel confident that the information I offer in this book will be of value to writers at all stages of their career. Plain language, some humor, what worked and what didn't alerts you to pitfalls, and there is something for everyone. http://bit.ly/WTT-2020-4. If you buy a paperback on Amazon to keep handy for quick reference at your desk, you can get the Kindle edition free. The introductory prices will be good through January 31, 2020.

Happy holidays to all.

Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: PLANS FOR 2020

Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: PLANS FOR 2020: In 2020 I intend to spend more time giving talks and workshops. One of the things I realized as I honed my writing skills and knowledge thr...

PLANS FOR 2020

In 2020 I intend to spend more time giving talks and workshops. One of the things I realized as I honed my writing skills and knowledge through the years is that I really enjoy sharing with writers at all stages. The other thing is the fun I have by being an energetic, entertaining speaker. Hey, not bad for someone who spent her youth afraid to speak in public. You might relate to those old symptoms---sweaty hands, shaky voice and a pounding heart. Definitely doesn't happen any more.

I also want to spend more time staying in touch with family and friends. Writing can consume you. The hours fly by and suddenly all of the things to do and contacts you want to make are moved to the next day---then the next. Hours fly by when it seems only minutes have passed.

Yes, I will be working on new projects, but will try to split my time in several directions. I say "try" because sometimes the best laid plans fall by the wayside.

A wonderful friend, Virginia Hawthorne, who was around my age passed away a few weeks ago. It made me take stock and decide to change a few things. Next year I want to put some time into something her husband and I discussed yesterday, but it is not open for discussion yet. All I can say, is that he plans to carry on with the amazing "giving back" that couple has done for all the years I've known them and I will offer assistance as I can.

I did spend a lot of time writing this year, and the result was 3 books released:

New Silver Sisters Mystery Murder on the Menu, written with my real life sister Phyllice Bradner. Always a fun thing to do and a real bonding for sisters who live in different states. #Kindle #ePub and #Paperback

5th Silver Sisters book

Scammed, the 5th book in the Revenge is Fun series #Kindle  #ePub #Paperback #Large Print Paperback  I finally got to implement the portion of a plot that I'd been trying to settle upon for several years. I was ripped off by a nasty president of the HOA for tens of thousands of dollars when I lived in California. I got to pay back a character in this book inspired by him, but the fellow had the nerve to actually die many years back so I can't send him a copy to see if he recognizes himself. LOL

4th Edition of Writers' Tricks of the Trade, updated for 2020. #Kindle #ePub and #Paperback Things and sources are constantly changing and this book gets updated periodically. Always a cool book for writers to keep handy for info, technique or inspiration. Heck, I actually learned from my own book while doing the editing.

I didn't include links to these books here, because the point of this post wasn't to sell books. It was to talk about future plans and past endeavors. If you really want to find them, they are on most online bookseller sites.

2019 IS ALMOST OVER

It is hard to believe that 2019 is almost over, and what a year it has been. It is cool living in Las Vegas but not being addicted to going to the Strip for entertainment. In fact, so many locals really avoid the Strip but it's like an adult Disneyland for visitors.

This year I've seen lots of good acts, many from Yesteryear, at the local South Point Casino. Last weekend there was a great Bee Gees tribute group. I mean really great. By the end of the show at least 80% of the audience was up on their feet dancing in the aisles. And yes, I was shakin' my booty, too.

We've had the pleasure of seeing acts like The Lettermen, Frankie Avalon, James Darren, Donny Edwards (a fantastic Elvis tribute), The Four Freshmen, Wes Winters, Deja Vu, and so many more. The showroom is a nice intimate showroom, parking is no hassle and that makes it easy to say "Let's see a show" on the weekend.

On the writing front, three new books were released in the past few months: Scammed (in the Revenge is Fun series), Murder on the Menu (in the Silver Sisters Mysteries) and the 4th edition of my handbook for writers, Writers Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know About the ABCs of Writing. Would you believe
that while I was editing it for 2020, I was actually learning from my own book? I would read through chapters with valuable information that I'd actually forgotten and go, "Why aren't I using that?" There I was feeling amazed that with 18 books in publication now, I'm still learning from my own book. Who would have thought it?

Dylan the Dog continues to be my little buddy and the light of my life. He still looks like a Golden puppy, but according to the vet my rescue dog is probably about 11 now. He is diabetic, but that doesn't slow him down. Insulin shots twice a day and he's good as new. He loves playing with his friend Sparky, a rescue rat terrier who is about the same age.

That's all for today. MORGAN

GREAT LAS VEGAS DAY

Today was the kind of day I would love to have all year around. A little cool in the morning, great temperature until it got dark (don't like going off Daylight Savings Time) and it will be a little cool tonight. Okay, that's the weather forecast from Las Vegas.

Speaking of being on Pacific Standard Time, it is a real bummer for it to begin getting dark at 4:30-5:00. That's a little earlier than when I lived in LA because we are farther north, but I wish we could stay on Daylight Savings Time all year. It seems like lots of other people feel the same way from what I see posted on Facebook and the like.

Did this year go fast for you? I was thinking that Easter wasn't that long ago, and now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. Where did the time go? Stores are putting out Christmas decorations even before Halloween.

Thanksgiving several years ago in LA at Cousin Barbara's house

Would you believe, we go to Baja Miguel, the Mexican restaurant in the South Point Casino for our holiday meals now? They not only offer their regular menu, but have special menus for holidays. For Thanksgiving you can choose traditional turkey, all the fixings and pumpkin pie or pumpkin flan for dessert. Not like the days back in LA when we had a pretty big family there and we traded off hosting the holiday dinners.

Mine was generally Christmas, my cousin Barbara who passed away a few years ago took Thanksgiving and my cousin Trisja generally made the Easter dinner. We usually had about 20 people. Those were great times with a fun loving family. My own kids are spread out all over now- Jason in Northern California, Jakki and my two grandsons in England and Scott in Australia, and my sister Phyllice lives in Oregon, so the memories of those big dinners are just that -- memories to be treasured. I am grateful for all of the years I was able to be part of a wonderful family experience, and happy to have friends and a cousin here to enjoy the holidays with.

LIFE'S LITTLE FRUSTRATIONS

Life in this cyber-world can get awfully confusing sometimes, even to someone who is computer savvy. I was attacked full force this week as I tried to use a mail merge on Outlook. I won't go into details, but I spent a full day trying to get it right. Finally gave up and decided that when I'm ready, I will use a service. Of course, being the bulldog that I am I will try it one more time when my head is clear before doing that.

Thank goodness for my little Dylan. Holding him and petting him returns me to reality.

Okay, so that one was out of the way. Time to devote time to final corrections to the print proof of MURDER ON THE MENU, to be released November 26---but the Kindle and ePub editions are available for PreOrder. So, since my sister Phyllice and I write this series together, we edit and correct together. I received my print proof first and set to work. What I do is create a matrix table with all of my edits or suggestions and send it to her so we don't duplicate. If I've found it and fixed it, that let's her know. This applies to missing words, bad punctuation--things like that. Simple right.

Yep, simple if somewhere along the line the file with the table was not corrupted. I had no idea that was what happened, finished going through the whole book and had a complete table to send her, hit SAVE, and Word shut down without notice, dumping all of my entries. And, yes, I do have Autosave set for every 5 minutes. Those files did not go into Autosave or if they did, they are floating around in cyberspace somewhere.

Back to the drawing board as the saying goes. So, fortunately I use little stickies to indicate every place I find a glitch. Back through the book, but this time I only made a few entries before I tried SAVE. Nope. Word crashed again. And again.

Dumb me. Never thought about a corrupted file and kept trying to retrieve the missing complete one. By the way, that also meant that all the corrections on the manuscript were lost too. By the end of a very frustrating day I finally began from scratch with a new file, when through the book yet another time and  viola! The SAVE  worked and I sent the table to Phyllice.

The good news? We should still be on time.

Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: OMG! This is the first post since July 2018

Morgan's World with Morgan St. James: OMG! This is the first post since July 2018: I guess when I said I wouldn't post every day, that was an understatement. Good Grief! A year-and-a-half? Where does the time go, an...

OMG! This is the first post since July 2018

I guess when I said I wouldn't post every day, that was an understatement. Good Grief! A year-and-a-half? Where does the time go, anyway?

This month I joined the new website Coffee House Tours, and have my own page on that website. They schedule book signings all around the area, so I hope to be appearing at various venues in the coming year. I will keep the locations and dates posted.

It is amazing to think that my first book was published in 2006, 13 years ago, and now there are 18 books in publication. Everyone always said I was prolific. But, I look at some of the authors with 30 and 40 and even 50 books, and then it seems like small potatoes.

Maybe no excuse, but I have been very busy. Two new books released this year, 5 new issues of Writers Tricks of the Trade online magazine since the last post (http://writerstricksofthetrade.blogspot.com for more info), and a myriad of other things.


Dylan, my little associate editor is always at his post under my desk when I am writing. At about eleven years old he, like me, is a senior. We don't know how old he really is, but I adopted him on October 21, 2013 and the vet thinks he is a healthy senior at eleven. He has diabetes and has had his challenges but it is all under control. Dylan is my little best friend.

Here is a promise. No way will another year and a half go by before I post. Even though it isn't New Years yet, I am resolving to post at least every few weeks.

More later, and thanks for following me.