DFWCon - Lessons Learned

October 3-5, I attended a writer’s conference in Dallas, called DFWCon. I learned a lot of great information, met great people and I had the pleasure to sit down with Sara J. Henry and pitch Shelf Life of Lies to her.

After hearing the first sentence, she immediately became interested and asked lots of great questions. At the end of our time, she asked me to email it to her, which I did as soon as I arrived back home in Houston.

Another great thing was I was able to meet my editor, Carrie Turner, IN PERSON at this event. She has helped me get Shelf Life of Lies where it is today. Love her dearly!

I had a great time hanging out with Carrie Turner, editor extraordinaire!

I got goosebumps when I saw the word “author” above my name.

Book Updates

• Shelf Life of Lies is still with my editor for copy edits.

• The 5H-3EP Project is about 10,000 words written.

• Still not sure if this will be a 2 book or 3 book series.

Quick Writing Lesson

The definition of voice in creative writing is a speaker and the way in which they communicate. Voice can influence the mood of a scene, the cadence, even the pacing!

The hardest part is to make sure to differentiate between my voice as an author and the voices of the characters I create. They must become their own people with their own thoughts and feelings.

I know this is a strange concept for non-writers, but this is critical to avoid self-insertion in your books. An easy way to use voice to set the mood of the scene is to pay attention to the vowels in the dialogue.

“E” & “I” vowels add intensity and speed, while “O” & “U” adds calmness and slows down the scene. “A” vowels add an evenness to the scene, creating balance.

Next time you read, try to find these vowels and how they impact the scene!