advice

by

Decorating the mind…

A dear friend of mine shared a tweet that got me thinking. I’m sharing the tweet as I’ve tracked down the original author and followed him and his friend he mentions. It’s, to me at least, a very powerful way to look at two of the arts.

For myself, as I have trouble drawing stick figures, and my musical talents were left behind in high school band, I thought, how does this apply to me?

The answer became clear quickly. Writing is how we decorate the mind. Writers take a complex idea, and distill it down into words that, when ingested, fill a room within your mind, even if only for a little while.

Some of these keep these rooms throughout our life and they form a part of who we are. Perhaps they help us deal with a difficult or painful situation. Maybe they form a basis for how we react to something in our lives, or how we perceive justice or what we consider our moral right.

Writers entertain us, inform us, and, if we let them, teach us something. These lessons may be about our world, or just their world. But either way, they can leave this room within us, decorated with their words. With the emotions and images they co hire within us. These rooms are just as powerful as a master’s painting, or a composer’s magnum opus.

So if you’re a writer like me, don’t give up on your creations. Someone out there is waiting for you to decorate a room in their mind, whether they know it now or not.

Advertisement
by

On This Day – March 9th 2016

Well Gentle Readers, I am a day late on this one but it was a big day because in the year 1959, we got our first look at:
barbie

That’s right. Barbie herself arrived at the American Toy Fair in New York. Now, growing up a boy in the 80s and 90s, Barbies were for girls. As a grownup and an uncle with a couple of nieces, Barbies are for whoever asks you to play with them. My unborn child will have the option of playing with Barbies if they want regardless of gender (I am voting girl anyway but healthy is all that is important). All this gender role politically correct nonsense has poisoned this country. Sometimes you have to call

a spadespade1.pnga spade, spade2.jpeg

and an asshole hypocrite, well, you get the picture right?

Anyway. I seem to have digressed from where I was heading with this post. I just want all parents, or future parents/uncles/aunts/ANYONE who influences the lives of children to realize that a doll is a doll. The values and prejudices you instill in the child is the solution/problem, not whether the doll is proportionately healthy, or has so many designer clothes and dreams houses.

Case in point, I grew up with GI Joes, He Man, and Ninja Turtles. I am not running around New York’s sewers eating pizza and wearing a bandana. Or am I? HA! I am also not some crazed one man army fighting COBRA, or whatever villain has cropped up to threaten the US of A. I believe in this country but I am not going to pick up a gun bigger than most of my body and go toe to toe with any super soldiers.
RocknRollJoeJust look at those guns. That can’t be realistic. And I KNEW THAT. I loved GI Joes and all the toys that came with them, but I knew they were unrealistic. The villains weren’t much better.
Especially that guy with the reflective face shield.
cobracommander.jpeg
What was really his deal anyway? I don’t think he could see out of that thing. Maybe that’s why he was so angry all the time. It had nothing to do with the Joes. It was the crappy attire he had to wear. Someone higher up should have thought better about their gear designs.

What I want you to take away from this somewhat off topic post is, Congratulations and Happy Birthday to Barbie, a doll that has caused much controversy, but also been highly successful commercially for decades. If your little boy pulls you down the Barbie aisle at Wal-Mart, don’t push him towards the latest incarnation of Macho Toys. Love him for who he is and the curiosity he has. And if your little girl thinks princesses are overrated, so be it. Show her the strong side of femininity. Teach your kids to value themselves and to value others. Teach Respect for elders, our military, and other people in general. Teach them peace, not bias and hate. Don’t be an asshole and raise more assholes. This world has enough of them. Until next time my Gentle Readers. Live well, write well, be well.

 

by

Looking for help with Book Reviews…

Beginnings (Family Heritage Vol. 1) - Andrew M Ferrell

Looking for help from all my blogger friends out there. I am looking for people willing to read my book and post honest reviews to Amazon/Goodreads/Their Blog. Wherever, especially Amazon. I am planning some advertising in the next few months and want to try and get some more opinions out there that are more current than the two reviews I currently have. If you are interested just email me at andrewmferrell@gmail.com with what format you need it in. I can either gift you an ebook for your Kindle direct from Amazon, or I can try my hand at converting it into Epub/Mobi. So far the program I have has been non-cooperative. I do have a PDF copy available if that works for you. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. Any reblogs or sharing of this post would have my never ending gratitude.

by

To Pubslush or not to Pubslush?

So, as I stare at my manuscript for the second book in my Family Heritage series, and think about the other projects I want to finish in the next year or two; I wonder just how much I will need to invest in editing and cover design. I went rather cheaply on my first book and used the free templates from Createspace. I had a friend with an English lit degree do some editing/proofreading. My brother in law drew a picture that I used for the cover, which I was actually really happy with as it captured the image I wanted my readers to get of the main character. I am thinking moving forward that I need to hire some professional services to make it more marketable. I have seen posts about people using Pubslush and Kickstarter to raise funds for these services.

I am curious if anyone has any advice/thoughts they could leave in the comments. Even links back to your blog post about your experiences with either type of service would be appreciated.

by

Don’t Doubt. Don’t Fear. Just Write.

So on Twitter yesterday I saw a call to give advice to a young/new writer in 6 words or less. Without a moment’s hesitation I knew the best advice I could give anyone, because it was something told to me once. “Don’t Doubt. Don’t Fear. Just Write.”

Don’t Doubt. Doubt is the enemy of action. The enemy of genius and most importantly, the enemy of creativity. Doubt pushes away the thoughts and clouds the processes necessary to do just about anything in life, be it writing, sports, or even interacting with other people in a social setting. I always doubted whether I was wasting my time writing or if I had any talent at all. I recently received very positive feedback on my work which crushed any doubt that I have a voice to share

Don’t Fear.  Fear can be crippling. Fear of rejection is something we have all had to face in our lives I am sure. I was so scared when I finally decided to share my writing with even my own family that I kept it to myself for years. After getting rejection letters from big publishing houses, I realized that the only thing holding me back was myself. I went ahead and self published my first novel and, other than having to market my work all by myself, I have been pleased. For me the goal was to hold a book in my own two hands with my name on it. I achieved that goal and achieving a life dream like that is a great antidote for fear.

Just Write.  Phrases, sentences, whole paragraphs. Whatever comes to you in the moment. Get it down on paper or in a document. I prefer a notebook for works of poetry but my story ideas generally end up being typed as I cannot write as fast as my mind works sometimes but I am a pretty fast typist. Whatever works for you, do it and don’t look back. Keep fighting the fight and I will see you on the literary side.