I love spring right now more than I ever have. Last year, we moved to a warmer climate and not only did I not experience the "winter dread" of Minnesota, I actually enjoyed winter much like I used to when I was younger. Yesterday, after three days of heavy rains (you can see how heavy here ), the sun was shining and the air smelled so fresh and clean that my teenage boys commented on how good it smelled when we opened a window. You know if teenage boys notice a fresh smell, it must really be fresh! In honor of spring and all things fresh, The Total Writer website has a whole new look! I can't say it was because of some spring-like desire to make things fresh. No, I changed it up because my web-hosting situation changed and I had to come up with a new design really fast. In celebration of this new, updated look, I'm running a special on my book on writing, Write, then Publish. Today ! The book is on sale for just 99¢ for a limited time! Take advantage of this of...

It's been too long since I posted on the Total Writer, but we just moved across the country, so blogging had to take a back seat. However, I have thought of all my fellow writers, my writing students and others who read the blog, so know you were not forgotten! Just yesterday in the mail, I received copies of my latest articles published by Regular Baptist Press . I've been a regular writer for RBP for over 25 years and have thoroughly enjoyed the process. It never fails, no matter how many times I see one of my articles published, I get a big smile on my face. It makes my day. My two latest: Writing articles is a great way to stay fresh, get published, keep your name out there in front of potential readers and stay in practice as a writer between major projects. If you haven't before, I strongly encourage you to write articles. Search out different publications which might be looking for writers and start submitting your work. You might just be surprised at the ...

Revision is a necessary tool for successful writing. We write, we edit, we revise. Then, we revise again. And again. And again. Sometimes, our content needs less revision than our title, however. This was the case with my new e-book, Writing for Publication .  I wrote, edited, revised, had an outside editor look at it, revised again, rewrote part of it and updated other parts. After all that was done, I created a title page, using my own photography as I always do on my e-books, and uploaded the project to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing . I waited a couple of days, then did a search for my e-book. Clicking through to page five in the list of books on writing, mine simply did not show up. I gave it another day. Nothing. My e-book still did not show up in any searches! So, I had to rethink my project and revise once again.  This time, revision involved my title and book cover. I spent a little time searching for writing e-books and made notes on what was showing up in sea...