CMF ADS is proud to announce an open beta for anyone interested in trying out it’s new service called CMF DIRECT. The beta test is open to any blog written in the English language. They inspect all blogs before activating their account, so no spam, porn, made for AdSense, pop-ups, or sites that I find annoying in any way please. To sign up, visit the CMF DIRECT website. But first, what exactly is CMF DIRECT?

Plotdog Press is jealous and envious to be a stop on  Cody McFadyen’s, The Face of Death book tour, brought to you by PUMP UP YOUR BOOK PROMOTION VIRTUAL BOOK TOURS. 
This might be a good time for you to ask why jealous and envious? I am not an easy reader to get to try a new author, but when I am out of my favorites I will read into a new author just to see what might be out there.  As a reader I tend towards thrillers and suspense so my eyes usually head right for those novels on the shelves or tables.  While I see myself as a writer after my book and screenplays, I am more than ever a fan of authors.  I hope that never changes.  When I wander into my favorite book stores, I literally stroll, allowing my eyes to catch covers and titles that strike me as interesting. 

Every writer seems to develop some individual quirks and talents that are almost so strong as to almost be a super power in their craft. New writers, like me occasionally take some time developing their superpowers in the best way, at least that is my perspective. (And there are many perspectives on PERSPECTIVE)

My use of “perspective”, is apparently close to but not spot on with a PhD in English level use of the term. The word doctors seem to interchange perspective in literary circles with the term Point of View or POV.

Sometimes, I Can’t Help Myself.  This is one of those times; Jenn at Before I am Famous asks, “How do you write?” 

Hmmmm, with a computer, one word at a time, with my fingers, with my eyes closed, not well, with a muse and of course with immense pleasure.

See, couldn’t help it, I hope at least one of those responses made you smile.  The truth of how I write is inarguably much less pretty than I think it is for most other people.

I can’t wait to tell you about The AdSpace Contest I found!

The idea is simple and easy: Get as many entries as you can (very easy to do) over the next 30 days. The more entries you get, the better chance you have of winning! At the end of the 30 days, they announce the winner.

The prize?
A 125×125 pixel ad spot (above the fold) on at least TEN DIFFERENT BLOGS that will run for one month. That’s at least a $100 value!

There are lots of reasons to get stopped in your writing process.  Some are terrible, some are pretty good, and some are great reasons.  In my humble opinion, none of the reasons is good enough to keep a true writer down for more than a bit.  The amount of down time is directly correlated to the severity of the reason for stopping. 

(Blogging and the persons of otherwise good repute that seem to like PlotDog Press)

Now and again, I go back and re-evaluate my stories, my scripts and my reasons for all this writing.  For the last, oh say 10 years, the reasons have the pretty traditional.  Highest on the list was pretty much the same of most prose slingers; I write cause I have to. 

A two-part review of “Cell” and Stephen King’s “On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft”

Part II (See Part I)

I picked up “On Writing” and looked for inspiration.  This was a re-read for me, when I first got the book, I kept thinking, “well this guy just doesn’t understand me as a writer (even though I wasn’t a writer yet, I was a wanna be).  Turns out, he understood me too well and I didn’t like it at the time.  Ah, the lessons we learn as we grow.

A two-part review of “Cell” and Stephen King’s “On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft”

Part I:

Forget the circle of life, how about the shotgun of shoulda.  Sometimes you have an inspiration on writing because a single little thing pops up on your radar and you see it and you are off and running.  Sometimes a friend says, “You know you should write about…” Sometimes you just have to get some words down and you hope the topic comes to you after you flounder a bit in the writing pool.  But then there are times when the universe gives you so many head slaps you just know you best get to that topic, even if it doesn’t make any sense as to why now.  This post is one of the latter.

Most Bloggers love comments, I mean, without comments you might as well be a static website.  Unfortunately, bloggers have alot of things they need to do to promote their blog, and commenting takes the most time.  What if you could comment, link those comments to you, your blog, your other comments on other blogs AND [...]

So, what do you think?  Do you like the new look?  Yes, we stumbled into new digs (hoping for new Diggs AND Stumbles) but also hoping that it is much easier to take a stroll through PlotDog’s cyber house.  So, let me give you some back story, take you on a bit of a tour, and show you future plans and see what differences it all makes in our blog ranking and reader’s happiness with the blog.

Ironic that it takes nearly thirteen hundred words to write about one great sentence.
I just learned about stumbling, something that until this point in time, I thought was only done after having imbibed too many large long island ice teas (I know they sound like an innocent concoction, what with tea in the name) but [...]

Some days you ask a question, expecting it to never be answered and the next day, BAM the answer hits you right between the eyes.  I have (along with my occasionally smart mouthed and very smart webgoddess/ procrastinating editor) been working this blog for about 2.5 months.  I make it really about 2 months of [...]

The Risk of Reading While Writing

I wonder if it is any other writer but me.  What I read impacts what I write.  It seems like the voices in my head give just a bit of an accent to my writing.  It feels like spending a few months in England, the patterns, tones, turns of phrase [...]

We were honored to get this award from Jennifer M Scott at "Before I Am Famous".  Thank you Jennifer, we truly enjoy your blog and enjoy your support of PlotDog Press’ WOOF Contest.  Based on the rules of this award (see below) we are asked to pass it on to 5 of our favorite blogs.  [...]

The Adventures of Writer Boy: A look at pitching a script at Screenwriting Expo
(First published in part on Blog Critic Magazine)
Writer Boy was battling his arch nemesis, Captain Disorder.  Captain Disorder was a short villain with a Napoleon complex.  Writer Boy simply refused to submit to Captain Disorder’s demand to be called by his full [...]

I have been thinking a lot about being a writer and what “type” of writer I am lately.  What with the blog post on “It’s All Write to Blog” and working on my methods for writing and my bits of well intentioned suggestions on how to go about the craft, well, one’s mind does tend [...]

(How I get killer visualizations and shorter more cohesive story lines)
As you might have guessed (if you have read any of my other posts) I just ain’t normal. Ask my Mom, Ex-wife, Professors, and most anyone who knows me, I definitely do things differently. On the upside to that, I [...]

Review of The Screenwriter’s Bible by David Trottier - 5 @@@@@ at-a-boys As first seen on BlogCritics Magazine. Writer Boy was having a less than thrilling realization. As an emerging writer and not a fella who felt he had yet conquered his chosen craft of being a wordsmith, he had been [...]

It’s dark out now, the sun is down, the house is quiet and I scope the hallway. I need to make sure everyone is settled. I close the drapes, turn on a favorite video, fire up the internet and shamefaced click into areas of the internet I never knew existed.
Rate this: 2.5

The Battles We Face and Compromises We Make. I have been writing for a very long time; sometimes with more intensity than others, sometimes less. I have written non-fiction, Fiction, Screenplays, Short Stories, Legal Articles and more. Some have been printed, some sold, most ignored and some I remain hopeful on.
Rate this: [...]

I want to start with an admission; I am a recovering lawyer. No that doesn’t mean I don’t drink, hell, I am Irish, a Writer AND a Lawyer, I HAVE to drink. “Recovering Lawyer” means I used to practice law. Don’t hate me yet; I USED to practice law and I only [...]

The pressure was on again, I thought is was about it being time to write… another blog post. Sure, I could procrastinate a bit if I wanted. I was three posts ahead, more than plenty of space for most writers, maybe too much more. I didn’t have time pressure. I didn’t have [...]

How to make Readers throw your book, THAT’S A GOOD THING Everyone writes for different reasons, I have at least one reason for each voice in my head. (Come on writers, you know about the voices in your head.) Each author has a favorite reason to write. My favorite involves a [...]

TotallyWrite Development Suite - LTW Productions Canada Inc. Review - @@@@ at-a-boys
It would be a better story if I could say I started writing on an old typewriter with a used ribbon and had to ink in letters that didn’t work on the keyboard, but this review is non-ficton, or at least faction.
Rate [...]

Writing teaches me.  Not the things you would imagine it teaches me.  Not better grammar or spelling, just ask my first draft readers.  Not about story structure, that happens mostly when I am putting together the puzzle that ends up being my final work.
Rate this: 2.5

*Start Copy Here* You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules.
1. Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here*
2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post the "Big Bang" at each site you add.
3. Tag or don’t [...]

@@@ and a half at-a-boys
Theasauraus. A good one is harder to find than it is to even spell it
Word up! (Apologies to my urban buddies). Word (the Microsoft Office affliated product) sucks in the thesaurus department, they didn’t even bother to put some of Microsoft’s or Apple’s own terminology in there, but this isn’t [...]

Big Bang List cont’d
 
334-Work At Home Opportunities 335-VirusHead 336-Gracie de Guzman 337-Jollyjo 338-Jollyjo.tv 339-Ev Nucci’s THE CAREER STRATEGIST 340-Ev Nucci’s Resource Economics..Grease your brain 341-MARKETING MYSELF 342-NORTE 343-ACROSS THIS BRIDGE 344-STRUGGLING PARENTS 345-Read Between the Lines
Rate this: 2.5

Big Bang List cont’d (again) 668-Shopping Fashion Style 669-Nonsense 670-Pinaywifespeaks 671-Pinaywifeatbp 672-Daily Tipper 673-I said what You Thought 674-Adventure Journey World 675-Candid Yammering 676-Prove Me Wrong
Rate this: 2.5

Save the Cat, Software and Book - @@@@@ at-a-boys

I am going to age myself here. I have been using computers since monitors had back ground screens that were black and letters that were either gold or green flashing dots. I remember when Word Perfect (it was NOT perfect but it did do words) had that really odd blue (Click on title to read entire post.)

Who but a writer could do this thing; talk about an art and craft as if he or she had any knowledge whatsoever about that most mercurial of things, the using the written word to express and emote; who but critics, who are, in a Satanist sort of manner, writers in and of themselves.  It [...]

I now fancy myself a writer. Not a wannabe, not a person who buys the “The Writer’s Market” each year with every intent to start that magazine article, screenplay or great American novel. When I was that person, I decided it wasn’t until I had some amount of work completed, that I could consider myself to be a writer. (Click on the title to read the entire post.)