The LAST Word

March 3 is the day dedicated to encouraging literacy through reading. It used to be known as Reading Across America. March 3 was chosen because it was Dr. Seuss' birthday. He was instrumental in increasing literacy among American youth. This year, many areas chose not to include Dr. Seuss books in favor of ones that are indoctrinating children with an agenda instead of teaching them how to read. This is wrong for many reasons.  As a journalist and author , I am concerned about the precedent set by taking Dr. Seuss from schools and libraries. Banning books is the first step toward having a government telling us what we are allowed to read, what we are allowed to think and what we are allowed to say. His books might offend some people, but they have a right be available. He is allowed to have his say. And, the replacements might offend more people. When does it stop? Huckleberry Finn will be next or To Kill a Mockingbird will be found offensive, but at the times they were w

    In June, rainbows are used for ugly references to people who do things they shouldn't. Instead of using rainbows as symbols for that, try using rainbows for inspiration for your writing. 1. Beautiful Colors -- If you have ever seen rainbows after a storm in the sky, the colors are vivid against a dark stormy sky . These can make you think of colorful descriptions for your settings. Everyone knows the seven colors of a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and indigo). However, the colors of the sky can range from a bluish gray to a deep charcoal when a rainbow appears. Those bright colors against the deep charcoal can be impactful.  2. Resilience -- They also can represent resilience of your characters. When a rainbow appears, it is usually after much destruction has happened. In your stories , the characters might have had to endure something similar and came through the problem with stronger life. They are shown to be resilient. In addition to fiction, rainbows

  Easter is just a few weeks away. Instead of writing about marketing or editing tips, I thought I would highlight some Christian books that you could buy for gifts. The Thief, the Harlot and the Healer tells a fictional story of strength and courage in 33 A.D. of a woman who had no rights. The main character by Mike E Clements was abducted as a young woman and forced into prostitution. She has the courage to leave the brothel and is looking for salvation, but she doesn't believe her life is worth saving despite what people tell her. The story leads the reader to Rachel kneeling before the cross and understanding how much God loves her. Words in Red: Witness for the Prosecution thinks about the people around Jesus and what they did for a living. The main character is a scribe for a leader in the Jewish religion who is trying to get evidence he can use to prosecute Jesus to death. The writer follows Jesus throughout his life and listens to His teachings. Colin Rank captures how

  It started when libraries banned Dr. Seuss . This is violating the 14th Amendment. Now, "Sensitivity Committees" want to rewrite Roald Dahl's books to make them "sensitive" to today's audiences. How can they know what Dahl wanted his characters to be. They are his characters. Only he knows what they are thinking and doing. No one can say, "It was meant to say this." That is the first problem.  The second problem is that if "Sensitivity Committees" rewrite characters and books, they are making everyone the same. That will read quite boring. In the real world, people say negative things, do negative things, do not care about being sensitive or politically correct, and act whatever way they want. Most people know what is right and wrong. Therefore, fiction should reflect life. That is why these stories stand the test of time. They reflect life, and readers can relate because they know people like the characters. The third problem is rewri

When you are looking for ideas for stories, blogs, poems or press releases, you should consider holidays, such as Valentine's Day or Presidents Day. You can find ways to use them in your writing or business marketing.  You might be surprised to know that I write romance novels but hate Valentine's Day. This might seem odd. I write about love, but I don't like the day dedicated to love. The reason I don't like Valentine's Day stems from being alone in high school and college. In high school, one of the fundraisers was to sell heart-shaped lollipops with messages on them. It was hard to watch many of my friends get messages and I didn't. In college, everyone on my floor was given something for Valentine's Day except me.  To me, Valentine's Day is set aside to make those without a significant other feel bad about himself or herself. Even after I met my future husband, I asked him not to give me anything on Valentine's Day. To this day, he will give me

    People who know me, know that I love football. I went to Eagles games as a kid with my grandfather and father. I still support my Eagles. I supported them when they didn't win games, and now, they head to divisional playoff round. However, I think we can pull some ideas from football to improve your business marketing and your writing . 1. Get First Downs -- In football, the goal is to get into the End Zone for a touchdown, but before that, you need to march down field 10 yards at a time. This relates to business. You have keep moving, being consistent with your marketing and being patient to trust your marketing will work in the long-term. Nothing happens overnight. Many people think they can get a quick score. Sometimes, in football, that happens, but usually it doesn't. Same is true in business. You can't expect people to know you and buy from you immediately. This is also true in writing. Your main goal is to finish a book, but you need to remember to break down

Writers are always looking for inspiration. They will use art, nature, family life and quotes. They even get inspired from other writers. Marketers also are looking for inspiration for blog ideas or places to sell your products or services. My favorite way to get inspired is through watching television or movies. Here are my favorites. Year Without a Santa Claus – This will inspire you to do whatever it takes to reach a goal. If you don't know the movie, Santa is sick and doesn't want to travel around the world to deliver the gifts. He thinks no one cares about him. Two elves, Jingle and Jangle, go to Southtown USA to find children who care about Santa. They have to get their reindeer from the pound, talk to the mayor and deal with the Miser brothers, but they are successful. The mayors declare a holiday for Santa and show him that children still care about him. They kept trying new ideas until they got what they needed. You can keep trying new things to be succ

  We visited Klamath Falls, Ore., at the beginning of May. We had hoped to see Crater Lake, which is about an hour from the town. Unfortunately, while we were in Oregon, a snowstorm, which was unusual for May, hit the state. The road to Crater Lake was blocked, and the National Park Service staff couldn't let cars through the gate to the lake. The staff had not plowed the road. We were disappointed, but we got to see the beautiful snow and landscape of Oregon. We were cold, but we enjoyed our trip anyway. This week in Florida, the Department of Transportation closed a highway to continue its work on the new bridge. While the roadblock was at 11 p.m. and didn't affect me, I started thinking about roadblocks. In business and in writing, you will be hit with roadblocks. How you deal with those roadblocks will determine whether you become a successful writer or business person. Figure Out a Solution When you are hit with a roadblock, take time to think through the problem. If it i

  Recently, politicians have attacked our freedoms and rights in the name of public health. The most recent was the removal of the intellectual property on the vaccines against the coronavirus disease. The idea is that it is available to all, but already, the vaccine is given freely to Americans, but pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to protect their formula so they could license it to other countries or companies. It was removed to protect health, but it sets a dangerous precedent and authors should be outraged. If pharmaceutical companies could lose their intellectual property, authors could too, namely their copyrights on books or cookbooks .  The Constitution guarantees Americans the right to pursue property. Intellectual property is still property. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, software coding, music, art, formulas and much more are protected and should be allowed to be retained. In Sept. 11, 2001, we started losing rights in the name of security. Now, we are losing

    January is a great time to reflect on the previous year and revise your marketing plans for the next year. You can decide where to focus your marketing and what you can do differently. It always is a good idea to try something different in the new year. This is true whether you are an author, small business owner or employee. Although employees are told what to do every day, they do have to market themselves to land the job in the first place and to keep their job. Here are my tips for your market plans this year. 1. Do Video Marketing -- Authors often don't like being in front of the camera, but they should do some videos about their books. Having someone interview you on their podcast or YouTube channel would be great. Creating your own YouTube channel also works. I started posting to my YouTube channel regularly last year and posted the first two this year. Search for The LAST Word on YouTube to find the tips I give on video. You also could search for LAST Research and Edi

  Writers are always looking for inspiration. They will use art, nature, family life and quotes. They even get inspired from other writers. Marketers also are looking for inspiration for blog ideas or places to sell your products or services. My favorite way to get inspired is through watching television or movies. Here are my favorites. Year Without a Santa Claus – This will inspire you to do whatever it takes to reach a goal. If you don't know the movie, Santa is sick and doesn't want to travel around the world to deliver the gifts. He thinks no one cares about him. Two elves, Jingle and Jangle, go to Southtown USA to find children who care about Santa. They have to get their reindeer from the pound, talk to the mayor and deal with the Miser brothers, but they are successful. The mayors declare a holiday for Santa and show him that children still care about him. They kept trying new ideas until they got what they needed. You can keep trying new things to be succ

      November is a time to remember. On Nov. 1, we remember the saints. On Nov. 2, we remember those who have gone before us. On Veterans Day, we remember those who serve our country and those served many years ago. We remember the wars that are represented by Veterans Day, which used to be Armistice Day and still is in Europe. That was the day World War I ended. On Thanksgiving, we remember to thank God for our blessings. We remember family, and we remember those who couldn't be part of our celebrations. Therefore, November is a perfect time to remember our writing and add remembrances in writing. Memoirs – Writing down events that took place in your life is called a memoir or autobiography. You can write these books to pass down your family for future generations to know what happened in your life and in the world when you were alive. You can write these books to pass on knowledge that you have that others do not. And, you can write them for yourself to remember the e

  I recently met with a potential book client. She asked me about query letters and what she needs to do to get published by a traditional publisher, such as Random House or Simon and Schuster, etc. I answered her honestly. Traditional publishers are difficult to reach. They are picky and get slammed with book proposals. They can't read all of them. Here are some tips for publishing. 1. Traditional Publishers -- They want best-selling authors, celebrities, great stories for fiction and a high market potential for nonfiction. They don't want memoirs, unknown authors and women's literature. These don't sell. Traditional publishers want books they know will sell because of how the book industry works. In retail, companies buy from manufacturers at wholesale and sell. They can't return the items to the manufacturer unless there are defects. In book industry, bookstores are allowed to buy at wholesale and send back whatever doesn't sell back to the publisher. So, l

  Many people like the colors of autumn. They enjoy the vivid reds, yellows and oranges. Some people also like the purple and black associated with Halloween. I am not one of those people. I don't like fall for two reasons. It means that we are at the end of the year, and the vivid colors means things are dying. I prefer the colors of spring: yellows, light purple, white, pink, light green, etc. They are the colors of new life. However, I do know that things have to die to produce new life. And, you should use this metaphor in your writing. Let it die to bring the work to life again. What do I mean? Continue reading. Characters – Sometimes, characters have to die even if you like them. To move the story and make it flow, you might have to kill a character. In my first novel, The 1776 Scroll of Secrets , no one was killed even the villain. However, in The 1776 Bed and Breakfast , the villains were killed, but I also killed Buck's (the main character) mother. She had

  I often from people that they want to write a book, but most of them never will publish anything. They aren't committed to creating a book. They think that some day, they might get something together. To author a book, you have to be committed to the project with your heart and soul. You have to be willing to follow through on the steps: idea, outline, research, compiling, book cover design, editing and marketing. Often, people are overwhelmed and think writing a book is daunting. It doesn't have to be that hard. Break up the project in to smaller pieces to make it less overwhelming. This is exactly what teachers tell their students who feel overwhelmed. The same is true with writing. Idea – Whether you want to write about ministry or persecution , think about your idea. Brainstorm how you can fertilize the idea. Write down the key points you want to make and determine whether your idea has merit. Pray about it.  Write about it in a journal . Eventually, you will se

  I used to attend career days when my children were in middle school. They wanted me to talk about careers in writing. It never failed that the children thought writers made a lot of money. Some do. J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy, James Patterson and others have made so much money they are set for life. Others make enough to live comfortably. However, most authors struggle and don't go into writing for the paycheck. For me, I became a journalist because I wanted to tell people the information they needed to know. That was true when I was an environmental editor , state government reporter or other editor. It is still true today even though I write for clients. I am still giving people information they need to know. I still offer ways to help my clients market through my writing and editing. Patience Is a Virtue Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction , you need patience. Success doesn't happen immediately, except for a few. You have so much competition. You have to keep

This pandemic has changed how we do things. We can't shop or get our hair cut the same way we used to do. We have to be constantly on guard. It makes all of us uneasy. We don't feel like we are in control. However, the situation reminds us that success comes when we break from our comfort zone. Motivational speakers will tell you to do just that. Breaking from our comfort zone also is important to writing. If you are too comfortable or you have too much of a routine, your writing will get stale or you might not reach for that opportunity that could open doors for you. Here are ways to improve your writing and marketing . Go Online – The pandemic has moved almost everything online. Meetings, work and shopping are now happening from the comforts of our home. If you are afraid to market your book via online channels, you are missing a major opportunity to reach more people who might want to buy your book. Digital marketing has increased over the last f