Guest blogging

I've been doing a lot of guest blogging lately. It is a great way to reach out to new audiences and familiarize them with what you do. I've been fortunate to meet some great bloggers who have invited me to share information with their readers.

Today I'm visiting Bob Sanchez and talking about writing creative non-fiction. That almost seems like an oxymoron, but it isn't. It is the art of embellishing true stories or incidents with bits of exaggeration or info that---well,  isn't quite the truth but generally based in truth.

Anyway, it is a very interesting genre to work with. My upcoming novel, Confessions of a Cougar, is a good example as are a few of the stories in my new collection of short stories, The MAFIA FUNERAL and Other Short Stories, now available in Kindle and paperback. The title story in Mafia Funeral is about 95% true--I know because the character Sue was actually me. See the yellow car on the cover? It was like a daisy in a black sea. Our yellow Pontiac convertible and 40 black limousines for the mobsters who flew in for this funeral in an off-duty police escorted procession to the cemetery. You can bet people driving the freeway that day rubbernecked.

Likewise, for another story in the collection, the award-winning story, The Second Time Around is the story of when my former mother-in-law remarried her first husband 36 years after they were divorced and she had to figure out how to tell my husband his "dead" father was alive and kicking. The wedding scene could not have been funnier if written by a comedy screenwriter for a movie. I've been told it would make a great movie or TV comedy.

Creative non-fiction can really be fun as well as a walk down Memory Lane. Since you are the director of this tale, you can yell "cut" whenever you want to or slide in a rewrite of what actually happened, tweaking it to be the way you would have liked it to be.

Looking through my photos for this post, I came across this one. Now this could be the basis for a fun story--the time Phyllice and I got to go inside an Oscar Meyer Weenie Wagon. We both were given "weenie whistles" as a memento of our visit.

Have fun and visit Bob Sanchez/ blog to read what I have to say about creative non-fiction. Comments welcome. http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com/

A MONTH WITH TWO NEW BOOKS

After lots of hard work, WRITERS' TRICKS OF THE TRADE (the book)  is finally available as a Kindle on Amazon. Look for the eBook and paperback to pop up on most online bookseller sites nationally and internationally by the end of the month.  The paperback will also be available for order at your favorite local bookstore.


My greatest thrill is when someone emails me to say that something I wrote in my Writers Tricks' of the Trade column helped them or got them past a bump in the road. Yesterday I received thanks from a few fans.

Writers' Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know About the ABCs of Writing is a handy reference about 39 things a fiction writer needs to know in a field filled with challenges.

In addition to my columns in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas editions of examiner.com and this new book, I've also launched a new blog: Writers' Tricks of the Trade at http://writerstricksofthetrade.blogspot.com. Every month on the 15th the latest issue of the new Writers' Tricks of the Trade newsletter will be uploaded to the site with the debut issue on August 15.  SUBSCRIBE to the blog for all the postings and the newsletter.

I'm delighted that many people in the industry have jumped on the bandwagon, and the blog and newsletter will feature several guest contributors in addition to many of my own articles. SO PAY A VISIT AND CHECK IT OUT.

As if having one book release wasn't enough, the third comical Silver Sisters Mystery VANISHING ACT IN VEGAS also releases this month with the Kindle and eBook first, followed by the paperback. And, my sister Phyllice Bradner and I are already working on #4, DIAMONDS IN THE DUMPSTER.

When Beverly Hills advice columnist Godiva Olivia DuBois' son Torch, an Academy Award winning FX expert, moves to Las Vegas to work on a new show about imploding buildings, his 80-year-old grandmother and great-uncle, former vaudeville magicians, fire up their '59 Caddy and take a road trip to Sin City. Flossie is determined to make his new condo at the High Rollers Plaza feel homey.

When they introduce him to beautiful magician Mara the Magnificent, star of the show at the Glitz Palace, the comical crime caper begins. Filled with typical high comedy from Godiva and her over-the-hill flower child twin Goldie Silver, the quartet is led on a merry chase when a mystery surrounds Mara. Don't miss this one!