Francine Silverman was Our Guest on June 4th

Talk Radio Advocate Francine Silverman was our guest on June 4th. Listen to the Podcast now:

Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

“Talk Radio Advocate” Francine Silverman is an author/publicist and radio host, whose latest book is Talk Radio Wants You: An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited (McFarland & Co. 2009), a National "Best Books 2009" award winner in the Business: Reference category. The book contains everything a potential guest needs to know before contacting a host, including the theme of the show and guest criteria. She is now offering 16 ebooks of talk radio shows that follow that pattern and are in the following categories: Authors, Animals, Business, Entertainment, Environment, Food & Travel, Health, House and Garden, Men & Women, New Age, Parenting, Politics, Relationships, Science & Technology, Self-Help, and Sports.

http://www.talkradioadvocate.com

Aggie Villanueva was Our Guest on May 28th

Author and Book Marketing Coach Aggie Villanueva was our special guest on May 28th. Listen to the Podcast now:

Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

The Rewritten Word: How to Sculpt Literacy Art no Matter the Genre - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

`There is more to writing than putting many words to paper and more to rewriting than rearranging those words. Dreaming about writing won't get you anywhere, and writing a thousand words a day won't help unless you know what to do with those words.'

I don't write novels but do occasionally write short articles pertaining to a dish I've just created or some other food related topic. So when Aggie Villanueva requested that I review her book The Rewritten Word, I had my doubts about the information pertaining to a cookbook writer like myself. I was wrong.

The Rewritten Word is broken into five lessons with the first four pertaining to all writings. Her 1st lesson `Organization' talks about "cutting to the chase" by eliminating rambling and teaches the writer to put their words in order of importance. In lesson 2 you will learn how to cut unnecessary words to create a better flow. I'm sure we are all guilty of over wording not just our writings but even our conversations. Lesson 3 talks about passive phrases giving examples in "past tense vs. present." I've often noticed, through my reading as well as listening to speakers, the use of the word "I". This overuse tends to make me feel that the person speaking or writing thinks entirely too much of themselves. Lesson 4 stresses the use of the right words. Aggie shares the importance of using a thesaurus when choosing words. I find this to be of value to me when choosing a name for a new recipe. It needs to be simple and understandable but catchy at the same time. And Lesson 5 brings all lessons together in the writing of fiction and setting moods.

Rewritten Word is only 35 pages (electronic version, 60 pages in Amazon Paperback, 75 pages at Lulu) long but those 35 pages are packed full of useful information that all writers, I feel sure, will find useful.

The Rewritten Word
2010
Cielos Rojos Publishing
35 pages
ISBN# 978-0-9825914-2-0
http://www.amazon.com/Rewritten-Word-Sculpt-Literary-ebook/dp/B0045JK48A/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Barbara Forte Abate was Our Guest on May 22nd

Author Barbara Forte Abate was our divine guest on May 22nd. Listen to the Podcast now:

Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

BIO: Barbara Forte Abate was born in Millbrook, New York, the middle of five children. After graduating from Millbrook High School, she married young and promptly launched into the joys of family life, in short order becoming the mother of four very fabulous children, and along the way earning a doctorate from the University of Real Life.



Initially having settled in Franklin, New Jersey, she has lived with her family in a wonderful historic home in Chester County, PA, for the past fifteen years.

While increasingly challenged for several years by old house renovations and raising her children, Barbara never considered abandoning her dreams of writing. Most often composing her stories on yellow legal pads while babies napped and supper simmered (and sometimes burned) on the stove; piling up the pages until the time at last arrived to borrow a friend's typewriter and transfer her longhand scribbles onto finished pages.

While that particular milestone transpired some twenty years ago, and the aforementioned first novel has since lived a quietly rejected life in a rarely visited closet, Barbara's passion for writing has continued at a gallop. Her debut novel, "The Secret of Lies" was released on June 30, 2010.

http://www.barbaraforteabate.com/

Judith Kendall was Our Guest on April 30th

Author Judith Kendall was our special guest on April 30th. Listen to the Podcast now:

Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

In 1965, three members of the Nielsen Electronics staff were paying little attention to the many social changes occurring in their era. For John Hampton, senior engineer, his invention of an airline cockpit recorder had his career spiraling forward and held the promise of a secure future.

General Manager, Loren Slaton, was close to achieving his goal of becoming the major stockholder in the corporation, and he was looking forward to running the company on his own terms. Robin Nichols had just about mastered the art of balancing a career with that of being a single parent and was finally settling into a comfortable routine with her two sons. Certainly these three were aware of the flower children promoting their free-love lifestyle…the underground use of illegal drugs seeping subtly into regular society…the mounting apprehension about the Vietnam struggle. These subjects had prompted many animated discussions around the water cooler, but they did not seem an apparent threat to their own existence. Or were they?

One rocky marriage would soon take a terrible turn, sending one of its participants scrambling to pick up the pieces. One formerly docile wife would not only surprise her husband by taking a bold stand, she would change the course of his life. One overconfident man would be blindsided by a puzzle that only the woman in his long-standing affair could solve. One woman’s principles would cast her into a struggle between right and wrong, complicating every aspect of her future. One tragic act would stun employees and have an unforeseen effect on management.

These incidents happened so rapidly that everyone was deep into the heady issues of the era before they even realized it, each of them struggling to survive the latest crisis, not one of them knowing how it would all end.

About Judith Kendall

Having lived and worked through the sixties, Judith Kendall was not only a witness to the significant changes occurring, she was part of them. Her own career launched during this period and over the next generations, she developed a seasoned perspective on the subtle and not-so-subtle distinctions between local neighborhood companies and large city organizations, knowledge that has lent itself well to her first novel, Overtime.

Put on the back burner for many years, her fascination for the sixties never dwindled, causing her to return again and again to finish the book. Each time, she was that much older, that much wiser, and had many more experiences to add. Her challenge was to keep the story in its time period and interweave the complexities of business relationships with the personal dynamics of the era, and that she has done.

www.judithkendall.com