In the last post, I briefly touched on bookcover design based on what grabs a reader’s attention. How what we as readers find aesthetically pleasing piques our interest about the book itself. Basically, the bookcover design serves as the gateway to the possible acquisition of the product, the book.
 
However, what happens when this time around you’re not the reader? After plugging away at your manuscript(s), whether it is fiction, non-fiction, literary fiction or historical fiction , poetry, ect. , your work has been accepted for publication. You are about to become a debut author and with all the marketing, promotion, editing/revision process, all of these are no less important that how you’re going to present your work to the public. What face should you give it?

Credit for this image goes to Kelley Lynn- Young Adult Author, Adventures Between the Book Ends blog.
 
We've all heard the saying that ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover.’ Yet, that’s
exactly what we do as soon as we walk through the doors of a book store. Or at the screen of a tablet, kindle, nook and or mobile phone for the digitally savvy reader. In this day and age where we’re bombarded by images every day, wouldn't thinking that you can’t judge a book by its cover be considered as nonsensical? For example, say you’re going to the bookstore like Barnes and Noble, Borders or an independent bookstore, to find a new book. Since you already know what genre(s) you like, you immediately head to that section, let’s say young adult. Now you stand there, arms folded with pursed lips, and one by one, row by row, you look at all the books on display. By now, other readers have picked up the books you weren’t interested in. Why? Aside from the possibility that they might know and follow
that particular author, the only solid answer is that they were not aesthetically pleasing to your eye. (It’s a conundrum I’m currently facing as I’m both trying to come up with a book cover I love, that readers will also love and grab their attention).

Credit for this image goes to the 
Maya Angelou official website

Author and poet, Maya Angelou died last week May 28, 2014 at the age of 86. Today’s blog post is dedicated to Dr. Angelou and however you might want to pay tribute, be it by an original poem, sharing your favorite poems and/or how she inspired you, and if you've had the honor to be in her presence, please share in the comments section.

Woohoo! The sun is shining. The sky is a wonderful zammed, empyrean blue. And the clouds looked like vanilla cotton candy. Basically, it was the perfect day to spend my one year (and one day anniversary) of this blog.

First and foremost, I'd like to give special thanks to those who've liked my posts through FB. MI LUV YA!
Second, I'd also like to give thanks to my first commenters: MI LUV YA!

In recognition of my blog's birthday, I've decided to make some changes. Can you spot what's different? (Easier than Where's Waldo right?)...

Anyways, I've been considering some additional changes to the blog. For example, doing book reviews.

But what kind of books should I review? Fiction or non-fiction? All types of genre or genre specific? eg. fantasy, mystery, thriller.. Or non-fiction books on writing, revising and publication?

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. While most of you were out celebrating I was at home putting the laundry away, getting my sons bathed, clothed and fed, cooking and preparing tomorrow’s lunches and outfits, as I ate my own dinner. 

By 9pm I am done with everything. I sit down to do some editing/revisions and turn on the TV because now it’s gotten a little too quiet. So can you guess what first popped onto the screen? Let me tell you. It was Tank Girl.

Now to all Tank Girl movie fans out there, I’d first like to say I’m sorry. But Tank Girl is one crazy mess of a movie. I don’t know how it became a film in the first place. I mean, what were they thinking when they made and released this?

I admit that I'd always watch the film for a few moments. Don’t ask me why, but I think it’s because I’m trying to get my head around it somehow. Eventually I give up and change the channel. But then it got me
thinking about books being adapted to the big screen. If you don’t already know, Tank Girl is loosely based on a British comic book and was released in theatres in 1995.

It’s been 19 years since then, and not discounting the films before it, but there’s been a slew of films based on books, comics, etc. There’s been X-men, Fantastic Four, Harry Potter (loved it and the books), Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Oilver Twist, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code and most recently The Hunger Games, Thor and The Avengers, just to name a few. And then there’s Divergent which is set to release in theaters in July 2014.

To me it looks a lot like that Hollywood has drastically decreased making movies based on original scripts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But in your opinion, what books do you believe should’ve just been left alone? (Ahem, Tank Girl) 

 Or, what books do you believe would make a great movie? Why?

Off the top of my head, I wholeheartedly believe that the Harry Potter movies are the best book adaptations to film of all time. 

What do you believe?

Image taken from www.impawards.com
Poster designed by Dawn Patrol

There are several things to celebrate today. One is that we’re officially 7 days away from the end of April and the Poetry A Day Challenge, and whew it’s about damn time. Although I’ve contributed 22 days worth of poems, it came at the expense of playing catch up for the past two weeks. Writing 3-4 poems in one day to keep myself up to date with the daily poem prompts brought me back to my college days. Junior year, I made the mistake of taking 19th century British Poetry, 20th Century American Poetry, Advanced Poetry Workshop and a Shakespeare Tragedy class in one semester. And I think I took a Poetry and Short Story class at the
same time too. Halfway through, my brain was so fried I couldn’t write a simple essay on a short story. Don’t know why I did that to myself. So in a way, I guess I’m very proud of myself. Although it was just one poem a day (some people answered the challenge with more than one) the fact that I stuck to it with no hiccups along the way to Day 23 feels very rewarding. I’ve come a long way.

Another reason to celebrate is that today is William Shakespeare’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, was born in April 1564 and baptized on the 26th. His actually date of birth is unknown but is traditionally celebrated and honored on April 23rd. He died at the age of 52 on April 23, 1616. Today’s poetry prompt is a location poem and in honor of Mr. Shakespeare I’m  answering the challenge with a Shakespearean sonnet. (Something tells me that I  might get backed up again). Anyways, feel free to visit the link and remember  it’s not too late to participate in the challenge. There’s still 7 days and even  1 poem should be something to be proud of.

And in other news, once again the poems I’ve submitted have been  rejected, although I was informed from the poetry editor that my works had made  it to the last round of consideration. She even went on to say to please  consider them as a home for my works in the future. All right, I didn’t get  published but the fact that I was tthhhhiiiiisssssssss close to possibly seeing my name and poem in print in a journal, to be read by hundreds of people, makes me a little bit happy. Disappointed but still happy. Regardless, I will definitely send them more of my poetry for consideration. Like the saying goes, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again’- William Edward Hickson.

PS I’m still debating about attending the Writer’s Digest conference in NYC. I’m very interested in the Pitch Slam conference package in particular but I’m hesitating over the registration fees. There’s bills to pay but it’s an opportunity to meet, greet and query a large group of authors (aspiring, emerging & established), publishers, agents and editors. How do you measure that on a scale? As this is the first time I’ve generated a real interest in attending this year, should I strike while the iron is hot and go? Or forego it this year and go next year?

It’s day 16 of the Poem A Day challenge! This weekend I was particularly more busy than usual what with grocery shopping, cooking two dinners worth of food and laundry. I’ve made it a habit to do most of these half way into the week but that did not happen, so it spilled into the weekend. Also, it did not help that my family and I went out to eat and then saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s very good by the way. A definite must see if you haven’t watched it already.

So as you can imagine, Monday rolled around and I had 3 days worth of poetry prompts to catch up on. I posted day 12 and 13 yesterday and I’m nearly finished with yesterday’s day 15’s prompt which I’ll post later  today, which will also be spent on stewing over today’s PAD prompt.

Another thing worthy of stewing over today is how a month ½ from now marks this blog’s 1 year anniversary! So what should I do to celebrate? I’ve been thinking of posting book reviews so if anyone has suggestions, feel free to post in the comments. You have until the end of May.

Lastly, I’ve been thinking about attending this year’s Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in NYC from August 1-3, 2014. There’s an early bird deadline to register by May 19th. Of course the fees rises after the date, so would need to hurry up and make up my mind. I plan to research local writer conferences as well. Looks like this summer will be the season of stimuli.

If you don't know it already then now you will. April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate Writer's Digest is having a Poem-A-Day challenge. Click here to check for the daily prompts.

I've been doing well for the first five poeming days. I'm just a teensy bit behind, but Sunday's poem will surely be posted today and today's poem will be posted tonight, since I'll have the whole day to stew on it. 

The PAD challenge has thirty guest judges. And the best poems of the day has the chance to appear in an anthology created by World Dance Publishing. Click here for more facts and tips.

If you like writing poetry and you're not already participating, then it's not too late to start. Besides, you can benefit from doing the challenge in many ways. As for me, I plan to use the poems I've written during the challenge for my second chapbook. And I've also receieved praise for my Day Three message poem by a published poet, which made me so happy and gave me lots of encouragement. 

Hope to see you there, even if it's just one poem, or 5 or 10.

The countdown is on! 25 days of poetry to go!

Again, I did not know what I should post but then I received quite the revelation in my email today. As a sbscriber to Writer’s Digest, my mailbox is filled with updates on webinars, competitions, agents, publishers  and presses, and author posts, etc. I mostly discard some of the emails, however the ones that mention competitions and agents and publishers looking for writers, gets more of my focus. 

And then every once in a while an article catches my eye that I can not not continue reading. And today’s post, The Pros and Cons of Writing in Present Tense , was one of those posts. Brian Klems makes no distinction on which tense usage is right or wrong, but rather discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using present tense. As well as comparing and contrasting the benefits of using past tense over present tense.

Besides the points taken to illustrate the usage and benefits of either tense, the best part of the article was how it made me think about my writing. I mostly write in past tense but why is that? I’ve often been told that I sometimes switch between writing in past tense and present tense.  I’d have to pick and use one or the other, so why am I using both? It can be a variable of reasons but what comes to mind is that a great deal of what I want to write is more like a retelling of a past event in present time. And that is why I’m switching from
past to present but then what tense should I be using? Present perfect tense or simple past tense? Sigh; no wonder they say that English is the hardest language on Earth.

A second possibility might be because I'm writing how I live and that I'm living in the present (as its counterproductive to live in the past), influences the tense I write in. Or I'm just grabbing at straws trying to clarify it all.

 Or it may be due to the mass amount of books I’ve read which were pre-self publishing/E publishing boom, were mostly written in past tense. Ex. Aside from Harry Potter, I love and have reread such books as Huckleberry Finn and Bram Stoker’s Dracula an infinite amount of times since junior high school, when I’d first gotten my hands on them.

If  you are what you eat, then maybe you write what you’ve read. If so, then explain to me why do we write how we write? What tense do you prefer to write in? Is it that you have no preference but let the story dictate the tense form used? Does genre or subject matter influences the tense of the story? The point of view? Or all of the above?