Inspiration

(I try not to re-post too much of what I write for Bark, but this time I just had to. This calendar is a must have for all literature lovers. Pun intended.) ~ Forget sexy firemen or Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit calendars. What you really want is to have the Men of the Stacks keep track of 2012 for you. All proceeds go to the It Gets Better Fund, as a dedication to Jeffries Morrisey, the deceased Head of Reference and Research Services at the University of San Francisco Library, and a driving force behind the calendar project. In the Men of the …

The last few weeks I’ve been obsessed about e-pub vs. print and self publish vs. traditional houses. Over at Bark I blogged about how I learned that the term “self-published” is too filled with negativity, so the hip new term is “indie author.” I also wrote about how a writer friend emailed me Jim C. Hall’s very funny cartoon to get me to shut up about the whole thing. Well, I’m happy to report that I’m not longer obsessing. The Rose City Spring Intensive has renewed my enthusiasm for writing, given me new hope about getting published, and shown me—yet …

My last blog was ages and ages ago, sorry about that. Work took up all time last quarter because I decided to teach an overload—bad decision—of a class I’d never taught before. Then Christmas came, then my computer crashed, and the normal cycle of life happened where writing seems to take a backseat. The good news is I’m still writing and meeting with my critique group; the bad news is I still don’t have a book deal. Or is that actually bad news? I have a few writer friends who are very successful and have been churning out at least …

We so often put writing last on our priority list. We feel guilty for “stealing” writing time from our day job, our family, and our friends. Taking the time and the money to go to a writing conference seems selfish. After all, we can learn writing techniques and marketing tips from books and blogs, so why spend the money? Isn’t the time you’d spend at the conference better spent on writing? Sure, you can spend that time on you writing; slogging away at the keyword, pulling the prose out of your soul while you worry about all the other things on …

Frank Zafiro is the author of the River City crime novels and also writes mainstream fiction under the name Frank Scalise, which is his actual name. Born and raised in Spokane, he joined the U.S. Army after high school graduation and served in Military Intelligence. He’s been a Spokane police officer since 1993 and has served as patrol officer, corporal, detective, sergeant and lieutenant. His current title is captain. Zafiro has written seriously since he was thirteen, starting out with short stories and poetry. Last week I reviewed his River City series for Bark. If you didn’t read that post, …