Anne Faye

I was at the library today and a little boy was getting a certificate commemorating his getting a library card for the first time. I remember getting my first library card many years ago. I'm pretty sure I was eight years old. It was the Aldenville Branch Library in Chicopee, MA. Back then, they were still paper cards and you had to sign out library books. Anyway, I remember that the librarian asked me if I knew what year I would graduate from high school and she was very impressed that I actually knew! My parents actually weren't very big on going to libraries. The only times I was able to go was for school related research, but it was love at first sight for me. Libraries were (and are) magical places! All those books just begging to be read. Once I was able to go on my own, I became a frequent visitor. Over the years, I amassed quite a collection of library cards - every library I visited required its own. Of course, now that has been rendered obsolete by a computerized ...

Nancy Brandt raises an interesting question - "What if your book sold a million copies because people thought it was the worst book ever?" on her blog What if it sold 1 million copies? I can see how that would be disheartening. After all, you want people to read your book because they enjoy it and tell their friends how they have to read this book. But, I think I'd still be happy with the money! I could do a lot of good with that kind of money. And I guess I'm really not that proud! LOL She raises the question of how one can have a writing career after that kind of notoriety - easy! Write under a different name. Writing, unlike most careers, allows for multiple personalities!

The third annual Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE will take place August 3-5, 2011, at the Scanticon Hotel Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild (CWG) and the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN), it will be held in conjunction with CMN’s annual retailer trade show. The Catholic Writers Conference LIVE provides Catholic authors with a prime opportunity to meet and share their faith with editors, publishers, fellow writers, and bookstore owners from across the globe. CWG President Ann Margaret Lewis said this year's conference will, “focus on marketing and selling one’s written work.” Highlights of the conference include: • Over 30 sessions taught by professionals in writing, marketing, blogging and publishing • Pitch Sessions where writers may meet privately with representatives from four publishers • One-on-one coaching sessions. For $35 an author can have a 30 minute private consultation with a specialist who will review their...

Colleague Karina Fabian writes about her writing goals in Writing: Setting and Keeping Realistic Goals . She's trying to write 3000 words a day on her work in progress. I started reading and thought "Wow, that would be really nice, but it isn't likely to happen for me anytime in the near future." Then I read this line: "When I first started writing, I was homeschooling two kids, had a toddler and a baby. My goal then was a sentence a night. That's all I could realistically achieve." I burst out laughing. Yup, that's my life in a nutshell these days. In all honesty, I can't really see myself writing just one sentence a night. Once some other projects are wrapped up, I hope to be able to get back to writing at least 10 minutes a day. We shall see. But, in the meantime, Karina has some really good ideas and gave me some hope that maybe all is not lost in my writing career.  

In the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest , Natalie Taylor talks about writing  Signs of Life: A Memoir about her life as a young, pregnant widow, She states "I still wish I had been even more observant. As I went back through my manuscript, I realized it was the tiniest details that were the most powerful and most important to the story. You can never have too many of those in the bank."

The National Catholic Register is featuring a wonderful article on Catholic Fiction. Check it out here: Catholic, Will Write

This is a good article on how a small purchase (provided you actually use it!) could make your writing career: How $1 Could Make You a Bestselling Author