Looking forward to seeing everyone at the WV Book Festival. Come on down Saturday-Sunday October 10-11th at the Charleston Civic Center. Panel discussions, book signing, Agents/Publishing, and chat with local authors.
Join me and Robert Walker at 2:30 on Sunday as we discuss how to get your book ready for an agent/publishing house, methods on finding agents and publishers, a look into the publishing world, book promotion, and much more. We will have a book signing after the discussion.
The Well Meaning Killer and Dead On will be available through Borders at the Book festival. Look forward to seeing you there!!
Showing posts with label miranda phillips walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miranda phillips walker. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
I See Dead People, Life of A ER Nurse
They say truth is stranger than fiction, I can tell you coming from a nursing point of view this is very true. I am reminding of this at least three times a week while I'm working in the Emergency Room, If I used any of these examples I would have to water them down because most people would think I was really off my rocker if I told the truth. With the release of my new book "The Well Meaning Killer" I'm starting to roll in some reviews, and some reviewers are questioning Megan McKenna's injury turn around. This fun little post is part of a new nonfiction book I've been working on with amazing stories of patients I've seen cheat death.
Unless you've spent a few hours, and I mean no less than fifteen in the ER waiting to either be seen or discharged you would probably not believe this anyway. For example while on a travel assignment in a large trauma in Texas, we had this guy brought in by EMS that had an ax lodged in the top of his head. I not kidding, the guy was sitting up on the gurney talking and laughing about he was just chopping wood one minute then felt his head burning and bleeding the next. The ax was situated about one inch on the forehead back to the middle of the top of the head. Of course head injuries bleed alot, so blood was everywhere. The staff were taking bets on whether the guy would survive surgery or not with his brain intact, guess what the guy made a full recovery with no deficits! Amazing.
Here's one similar to McKenna's injury, a young male I once had in Baltimore, Md came in to ER after his brother's pet boa constrictor had got out of the cage and had coiled itself around the teen. the boy had woke to severe pressure on his chest think he was having a heart attack from the drugs he'd done earlier that evening. he started yelling, waking up his parents and brother. Long story short the snake's constricting action was giving the boy respiratory problems (like not being able to breathe) so by the time he arrived in the ER he was unconscious but after a few days in the ICU he bounced back with no problems.
I have been a nurse for eighteen years, so I could go on for pages, but every day all nurses see for a lack of a better word, miracles everyday.
Unless you've spent a few hours, and I mean no less than fifteen in the ER waiting to either be seen or discharged you would probably not believe this anyway. For example while on a travel assignment in a large trauma in Texas, we had this guy brought in by EMS that had an ax lodged in the top of his head. I not kidding, the guy was sitting up on the gurney talking and laughing about he was just chopping wood one minute then felt his head burning and bleeding the next. The ax was situated about one inch on the forehead back to the middle of the top of the head. Of course head injuries bleed alot, so blood was everywhere. The staff were taking bets on whether the guy would survive surgery or not with his brain intact, guess what the guy made a full recovery with no deficits! Amazing.
Here's one similar to McKenna's injury, a young male I once had in Baltimore, Md came in to ER after his brother's pet boa constrictor had got out of the cage and had coiled itself around the teen. the boy had woke to severe pressure on his chest think he was having a heart attack from the drugs he'd done earlier that evening. he started yelling, waking up his parents and brother. Long story short the snake's constricting action was giving the boy respiratory problems (like not being able to breathe) so by the time he arrived in the ER he was unconscious but after a few days in the ICU he bounced back with no problems.
I have been a nurse for eighteen years, so I could go on for pages, but every day all nurses see for a lack of a better word, miracles everyday.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Book Signing at Borders in Charleston Town Center Mall, Charleston, WV 2-5pm
Save the Date" August 15th 2009
Thrilled to be at Borders Express this weekend August 15 from 2-5pm in the Charleston Town Center Mall, in Charleston WV continuing the "Partners in Crime Novels Book Tour." Rob will be doing signings for his new novel, Dead On. Hope to see you there!
Thrilled to be at Borders Express this weekend August 15 from 2-5pm in the Charleston Town Center Mall, in Charleston WV continuing the "Partners in Crime Novels Book Tour." Rob will be doing signings for his new novel, Dead On. Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Ready, Set, Action: Useful Websites for Mystery Writers!
Here is a list of a few of my favorite websites I use when writing a mystery:
http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/csi-response.html Includes Crime Scene Investigation resources, training, articles and links to forensic web pages.
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml Comprehensive resource covering forensic identification.
http://www.terryburns.net/COPS_CRIME.htm Articles related to crime scene investigations, physical evidence, death investigation, and DNA.
http://www.crimeandclues.com The Art and Science of Criminal Investigation.
http://www.dplylemd.com Writer's Medical & Forensic Lab
http://www.dplylemd.com Professional Investigator's Magazine
http://www.charlottedillon.com/WritersLinks.html Every story need a little Romance
http://www.computerforensicsworld.com
http://www.writerswrite.com Great Site
Just a few I use for research, happy writing.
http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/csi-response.html Includes Crime Scene Investigation resources, training, articles and links to forensic web pages.
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml Comprehensive resource covering forensic identification.
http://www.terryburns.net/COPS_CRIME.htm Articles related to crime scene investigations, physical evidence, death investigation, and DNA.
http://www.crimeandclues.com The Art and Science of Criminal Investigation.
http://www.dplylemd.com Writer's Medical & Forensic Lab
http://www.dplylemd.com Professional Investigator's Magazine
http://www.charlottedillon.com/WritersLinks.html Every story need a little Romance
http://www.computerforensicsworld.com
http://www.writerswrite.com Great Site
Just a few I use for research, happy writing.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Book Sumission Success
Do your homework to cut down on rejections on your part. You should have gone through Writer's Market 2009, Jeff Herman's guide to book publishers, editors and agents, Preditors & Editors, Agent Query. Very important, always match the correct genre. It would would be a hugh mistake to send a romance to an agent/pubshier that only handles mysteries, but you won't believe how often this happens. Now the fun part let's all play are favorite childhood game, Simon Says, remember if you don't do what simon says you're out, only this time you'll get a cute little rejection letter for not listening. Agents and publishers are human too, they are overworked, have families and friends, and most of all if you've never been a New York office you would freak to know the stack of submissions really are piled to the ceiling on their desk. Yikes! Even with the perfect manuscript these things will make the best agent/publisher throw you manuscript in the slush pile.Take Note:Read the entire submission guideline for the agency you are sending too. Don't get cute and pull any tricks like color paper, going through three boxes till you get to the manuscript, ...you get the idea.
1. Font: Always use 12pt Times New Roman/Courier
2. Use good quality paper, speaking of paper never use paper clips, staples, or fold paper. make sure it's clean, i.e. no coffee stains, or cigerette smears.
3. Use a lazer printer, if you don't have get it copied at Kinko's or any office supply store. Unless you want immediate death never sent a hand written, or copy where your printer has run out of ink getting lighter in the last few chapters. sudden death for sure.
4. Spacing, Typos, & Margins: Check the submission guidelines/call to confirm. No cute stuff follow the rules. Some companies now are having authors use only one space between words so check guidelines. I know this sounds like I'm beating a dead horse but I'm not. take special not if yu work on one computer say, and send it to another for rewrites, the back and forth tends to cause formatting issues, you are better off to stay on one computer. I see this with say your work is on an old computer with XP and transferred to a new computer with Window's Vista.
5. As I've written before, but worth repeating:Start in the first chapter in the middle of action, you should have action/heat on every page.Use Dialog, Show don't tellBacksory is a few sentnces anymore and it's not a backstory. Salt & Pepper the back story through the book, don't hit the reader with it all at once, they'll loose interest and the book will lose momentium.Conflict is king! use it, abuse it, and anything that does not move your story along cut it!Your ending should be as strong as your opening, don't wip out now, Nail it!
6. Run the spell check, but remember the word may be correct but the the right meaning. Use Explanation points, ..., dialects, slang, sparing. Remenber to use a good word mix, Watch you POV, your repretention one one word, watch for purple prose.
7. Rememer when writing the scene to sift the five senses through the character. What is the characrter feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, gives the scene a real feeling.
8. When writing blogs like these, write them first on word, then copy them onto the blog. You will be able to run spell check and see what you're writing. I was just politely blasted on another site for my typos in this article--never mind I was trying to give helpful advice. And don't write them after doing 3 twelve hour shifts back -back in the Emergency Room, LOL.
Hope these tips were helpful Happy Writing!!
http://www.agentquery.com
http://www.litmatch.net/
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pealr.htm
http://www.agentresearch.com/cgi-bin/agent_verification/dbspace.cgi
1. Font: Always use 12pt Times New Roman/Courier
2. Use good quality paper, speaking of paper never use paper clips, staples, or fold paper. make sure it's clean, i.e. no coffee stains, or cigerette smears.
3. Use a lazer printer, if you don't have get it copied at Kinko's or any office supply store. Unless you want immediate death never sent a hand written, or copy where your printer has run out of ink getting lighter in the last few chapters. sudden death for sure.
4. Spacing, Typos, & Margins: Check the submission guidelines/call to confirm. No cute stuff follow the rules. Some companies now are having authors use only one space between words so check guidelines. I know this sounds like I'm beating a dead horse but I'm not. take special not if yu work on one computer say, and send it to another for rewrites, the back and forth tends to cause formatting issues, you are better off to stay on one computer. I see this with say your work is on an old computer with XP and transferred to a new computer with Window's Vista.
5. As I've written before, but worth repeating:Start in the first chapter in the middle of action, you should have action/heat on every page.Use Dialog, Show don't tellBacksory is a few sentnces anymore and it's not a backstory. Salt & Pepper the back story through the book, don't hit the reader with it all at once, they'll loose interest and the book will lose momentium.Conflict is king! use it, abuse it, and anything that does not move your story along cut it!Your ending should be as strong as your opening, don't wip out now, Nail it!
6. Run the spell check, but remember the word may be correct but the the right meaning. Use Explanation points, ..., dialects, slang, sparing. Remenber to use a good word mix, Watch you POV, your repretention one one word, watch for purple prose.
7. Rememer when writing the scene to sift the five senses through the character. What is the characrter feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, gives the scene a real feeling.
8. When writing blogs like these, write them first on word, then copy them onto the blog. You will be able to run spell check and see what you're writing. I was just politely blasted on another site for my typos in this article--never mind I was trying to give helpful advice. And don't write them after doing 3 twelve hour shifts back -back in the Emergency Room, LOL.
Hope these tips were helpful Happy Writing!!
http://www.agentquery.com
http://www.litmatch.net/
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pealr.htm
http://www.agentresearch.com/cgi-bin/agent_verification/dbspace.cgi
Monday, June 29, 2009
Summer Book Signings Have Started!!!
Charleston, WV 2009
Books-A-Million SouthRidge Charleston, WV July 18,2009 12-4pm
Taylor's Books Downtown Charleston, WV July 30, 2009 12-2pm
Borders Town Center Mall Charleston, WV August 15 2009 12-2
More To Follow
Books-A-Million SouthRidge Charleston, WV July 18,2009 12-4pm
Taylor's Books Downtown Charleston, WV July 30, 2009 12-2pm
Borders Town Center Mall Charleston, WV August 15 2009 12-2
More To Follow
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