Video Games are Real

Tag: Emporia State University

  • Writing a Book Doesn’t Make You an Author

    Writing a Book Doesn’t Make You an Author

    The first of my hopefully long-running contributions to Phil Jourdan’s Slothrop blog is now live. The title, Writing a Book Doesn’t Make You an Author, isn’t meant only to be an attention grabber, but is actually true. I know, truth, right. Here’s a taste:

    The role of author has transformed almost as drastically as has media distribution support system. Authors can no longer be expected to simply produce content. Anyone with $10, a manuscript, and access to the internet can get a book listed on Amazon within minutes. Rather, the role of the author is to be an active, participating member of a book-loving community—by both consuming and creating content—and most importantly by legitimizing the importance of the literary community itself to those who may not be a part of it.

    Head over to Slothrop to read the post. Leave a comment. Let Phil know how much you love the article. Maybe he will have me back.

    Also, as a bonus, this article can act as a glimpse of what I’ll be teaching for June’s Tallgrass Writing Workshop at Emporia State University. If you like the article and will be in Kansas in June, sign up for the workshop.

  • Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June.

    If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!!

    I’ll be teaching:

    PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed

    Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block.

    SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors

    Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for exchanging ideas (primarily by text, I might add). This session will focus on how the entrepreneurial author, even without a book yet to promote, can use social media not just for nurturing a potential readership but for nurturing story ideas as well.

    Other workshop faculty include Thomas Fox Averill, Thomas Fox Averill, Linda Apple, Max McCoy, Jim Hoy, Cheryl Unruh, and Annie Wilson

    See full details at the Tallgrass Writers Workshop website or by downloading the workshop brochure.