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Join me this Saturday, October 26th for Nightmare on Second Street at Chillicothe City Park (Chillicothe, IL) in support of brain tumor awareness. I’ll be selling and signing my books along with lots of other bookish and spooky gifts at my vendor booth.
I’ve been excitedly awaiting this event for WEEKS! If you’re in the Louisville, Kentucky area today and tomorrow, I hope you’ll stop by to see me and around 100 other authors at the 2024 Louisville Book Festival!
This event takes place at the Kentucky International Convention Center, and admission is FREE! I’ll have copies of my two latest novels, It Had to Happen and One Bad Cat to sell and sign. I am also scheduled to present at a “Speed Dating with a Book” session at 3:00 p.m. today!
Continue reading “Come see me today or tomorrow at the 2024 Louisville Book Festival!”Would you like to meet me in person and get a signed copy of one of my books? Check out my events calendar for the next few weeks to find out how!
I’m excited to announce that I will be at the 2024 Louisville Book Festival – with about 100 other authors – Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at the Kentucky International Convention Center! I’ll have copies of my two latest novels, It Had to Happen and One Bad Cat to sell and sign. I am also scheduled to present at a “Speed Dating with a Book” session at 3:00 p.m. on the 18th!
You can follow the event using the following social media hashtags: #LouisvilleBookFestival #WeBringBooksToLife. To watch my personal festival journey, follow me on Instagram @Mandy_Raine!
Continue reading “Come see me at the 2024 Louisville Book Festival October 18-19!”
This afternoon, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation titled, Keep that Smile: The Booker Wright Story at Moraine Park Technical College in West Bend, Wisconsin. The presentation was conducted by Booker Wright’s granddaughter, writer and filmmaker Yvette Johnson.
Booker Wright was an African-American waiter who worked in a white-only restaurant in Greenwood, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. In 1965, he appeared in a short NBC television documentary titled, Mississippi: A Self Portrait: Continue reading “Keep That Smile: The Booker Wright Story”
Guess what, everyone – You are officially reading an award-winning blog! This morning, I found out Write on the World won the Sigma Tau Delta – International English Honor Society Individual Blog Award at the 2012-2013 Convention that took place in Portland, Oregon in March.
Sigma Tau Delta presents awards “annually in the areas of writing, performance, service, and website and blog construction.” According to their website, “individual blogs are judged on creativity, usability of design, and content, as well as how well they support or advance the purposes and principles of Sigma Tau Delta as outlined in the Society’s Constitution.” Continue reading “Write on the World wins Sigma Tau Delta Individual Blog Award”
Is it April already? I meant to write a ton of compelling blog posts about all of the sessions I attended at the March 2012 APW Convention in Chicago, but I didn’t get past describing the first session. Although I’m a bit behind, I think a lot of the lessons I learned at the convention are essential. So today, I’ll take a peek backward and tell you about the second session I attended, titled, “Out There and In Here: Creative Writing in the Real World.”
This session was presented by Abby Bardi, Rick Kemp, Janice Meer, and Adeena Reitberger in the Astoria room of the Hilton Chicago. The AWP’s official description of the session follows: Continue reading “AWP 2012 | Creative Writing in the Real World”
Welcome to Part 4 of my blog series on the 2012 AWP Conference session titled, Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs. I’m assuming you’ve at least read my introductory post, so I’ll just jump right in today and talk about the panelists’ views on query letters and agent-hunting.
First of all, what is a query letter, and why do you need one? Well, these days most publishers do not want to see your entire novel manuscript if they don’t already have a working relationship with you. In most cases, they want nothing more than a query letter, and possibly a short synopsis. The publisher will then use that information to decide if they think it’s worth their time to request a copy of the full manuscript. So, it’s important to write a query letter that really sells your manuscript.
Our session panelists provided the following tips for writing an effective query letter: Continue reading “AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 4)”
Yesterday, I began my discussion on the 2012 AWP Conference session titled, “Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs.” Today I’d like to share some of the panelists’ advice on approaching the early stages of writing a novel.
Before I start, I should tell you that I arrived at this session late after getting lost trying to find my way to registration upon arriving at the conference. So, I missed out on the introductions and am unable to attribute some of the quotes I wrote down during the session. (Thankfully, I’m no journalist; otherwise I would probably be in big trouble!) I’ll do my best to give credit where credit is due, but if I get something wrong, please tell me so I can fix it.
One of the speakers at this session recommends that you write a synopsis of your novel early in the process to make sure you have a clear picture of what your novel is about. The synopsis will also help you sell your story to potential buyers (agents, editors, publishers, etc.) Remember, they won’t be interested in your novel if you can’t sufficiently tell them what the novel is about. Continue reading “AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 2)”
It’s been more than a week since I attended the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference and Book Fair in Chicago, IL. So far, I’ve only barely scratched the surface of the convention. Today I’d like to dive into my notes and talk about one session I attended, which was titled, “Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs.” Continue reading “AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 1)”
Write on the World 