Archive of ‘See Jane Write Magazine’ category

See Jane Write See Jane Write Magazine speaking

Join See Jane Write at the Birmingham Authors Expo

 authorexpologoCOLOR

Birmingham writers, mark your calendars for Saturday, Feb. 1. On this day the Birmingham Public Library will present its annual Local Authors Expo. This expo gives local authors an opportunity to sell their books, network with other writers, and attend free workshops. This year, See Jane Write will present a workshop on how authors can use social media to reach readers and promote their work.

The See Jane Write social media workshop, set for 1 p.m., will be led by yours truly and authors Stephanie Naman and Kathryn Lang. Naman, author of the novel Murder on the First Day of Christmas, has not only had great success with social media networks such as Twitter and Pinterest but she also blogs as the main character of her book at Chloe Gets a Clue. Naman will discuss best practices for blogging and using social media. Lang, who has published ten books, has a knack for helping people develop self-marketing plans that get to the heart of their writing goals. She will share her writing wisdom at the session, too.

I’m also quite excited about the morning workshop “How to Write While Having a Life.” This session is set for 10 a.m. and will be led by young adult author and full-time teacher Anne Riley. Riley will explain how to make writing a book a manageable task when you also have a job and a family.

See Jane Write Magazine contributor Chanda Temple had a chat with Riley and the prolific author shared that one of the best pieces of writing advice she’s ever received is “Write the book you want to read.” 

Saturday she’ll share tips on how to actually find time to do so. 

You can read Temple’s entire interview with Riley at See Jane Write Magazine. 

The Birmingham Public Library Local Authors Expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Central branch of the Birmingham Public Library, located at 2100 Park Place in downtown Birmingham. Nearly 100 authors will be on site selling their books. This event is free and open to the public. For more information visit bplonline.org.

 

*Originally published at SeeJaneWriteBham.com on January 27, 2014.

goals See Jane Write Magazine

We Need a Resolution

 

Image by Dan Moyle via Flickr/Creative Commons

Image by Dan Moyle via Flickr/Creative Commons

Some people hate all the hype surrounding New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. And many people will tell you making resolutions for 2014 is a waste of time. I’m not one of those people.

New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday. And New Year’s Day is a close second. I call them a night of hope and a day of dreams. I love spending New Year’s Eve partying with my pals, reflecting on the year we’ve had. And I kick off each New Year by having brunch (my favorite meal) and putting the finishing touches on my list of goals for the year ahead.

I understand why many people are reluctant to set goals and make resolutions at the start of the year. You’ve resolved to write a book before, but the words just wouldn’t come. You tried to exercise daily last year but failed.

But this year I invite you to view resolutions in a new way.

I’m a lady of letters so I turn to the dictionary for help with this. Yes, to resolve does me to make a firm decision about something, but it also means to find an answer or solution to something, to make something clear and understandable, and it can mean to separate something into constituent parts.

Let’s make use of this definition as we set our sights on the year ahead. Instead of simply resolving to write a book or lose weight, break down your goals into steps and helpful habits. Consider what you can do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to make your dreams come true.

This year I want to increase the readership for See Jane Write Magazine and my personal blog, WriteousBabe.com. I want to grow See Jane Write Birmingham and I want to promote myself more as a freelance writer and public speaker through my new website Javacia.com. Just staring at those goals can be intimidating, but breaking them down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks makes them much more manageable.

Here are my writing resolutions for 2014:

  • Engage on social media (specifically Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+) daily.
  • Comment on someone else’s blog daily.
  • Update WriteousBabe.com at least three days a week.
  • Update SeeJaneWriteMagazine.com weekly.
  • Update SeeJaneWriteBham.com weekly (with announcements about events and magazine content).
  • Share a blog post on BlogHer weekly.
  • Host a See Jane Write Birmingham event each month.
  • Pitch a story idea to one of my favorite publications every month.
  • Guest blog or be featured on a blog at least once a month.
  • In December 2014 let go of any projects that aren’t working.

WHAT HELPFUL HABITS WILL YOU ADOPT THIS YEAR?

* This post was originally published at SeeJaneWriteMgazine.com on Dec. 30, 2013.