Barbara V Evers

Hey Everyone! Yes, I'm from the South, so I say, "hey!" I'm running a quick book swag giveaway on TikTok this week. It ends at 11:59 pm EDT on 9/30/22, so you want to jump over there and check it out. Here's the contest link: How Many Giraffes? Here's some hints at the possible prize you could win: Book Swag While you're there, I would love it if you'd Follow me on TikTok , too! Don't get caught with your eyes closed!

Remember my post last week? The one where I said it was hard to get things done ? A few hours after I posted it, I had to slam the brakes on in my life. Yep, it's like my post managed to stop almost all activity in its tracks. Wellllll, I didn't do it singlehandedly, but it's almost like a jinxed myself. Have you ever felt that way? Like you just put something out there and the mere suggestion tweaked your life for the next few days? Oddly, I do teach a concept to my corporate training clients called self-fulfilling prophecy, so there's actually some basis of fact based on the idea, but I'll tell you about that another day. Anyway, this is a short and sweet post because things happened last week that put the brakes on. And I don't mean a gentle slow down. More like, you look up and see the car in front of you stopped, and you almost stand up while slamming the brakes down. We're all ok. No one's sick or injured or anything horrible, so no worries please.

I'm having one of those weeks. You know the kind. The week where you can't seem to get energized about anything. Because that's definitely happening, I'm not succeeding at much. Big surprise there, right? Instead, my focus--which usually is on target--is all over the place. First the good news. I just got confirmation from CONjuration for November, so I'll be headed there in a couple of months, and Imaginarium has already asked me back for next July. Hmm. I need to update my appearances page on this website. Look for those updates next week though. I don't think I can focus to get it done today. I'm just all over the place. For instance, I signed up for some webinars this week. Luckily, I get the recordings because I've only been able to handle short periods of attendance at any of them so far. Then there's the audiobooks I've been listening to. Occasionally, I find something outside of the fantasy genre that appeals to me. The timing has to be r

Yesterday, Faith Hunter, one of my favorite authors, released  Final Heir ,  the final book in her Jane Yellowrock series. I've blogged about this series before and about Faith , so I wanted to share this milestone with you. The End of a Series I saw Faith at a writers' conference right before COVID shut us all down. At the time, she was working on the fourteenth book and told me there would be fifteen in all. Final Heir is that fifteenth and final book. (If that's not enough, there are several short stories and novellas in the series, too!) I haven't read it yet, but it's on the top of my TBR list. I always read Faith's books soon after they come out. They're that good. She could take several directions with this story of the vampire hunter who ends up working for the vampires--if you haven't read the series, I don't want to say more than that here. So much can happen in fifteen books, and I'm sure many of her fans have their own speculations ab

Recently, an aspiring novelist who attended one of my workshops at Imaginarium contacted me for advice. She had just finished writing her book and wanted some guidance. I love to help people when I can, so I promised to respond as soon as things calmed down. After answering her questions, I realized I haven't posted about getting your book published in a LONG time, so I'm taking a lot of what I told her and sharing it here. Hopefully, it will help several of you. First of all, if you've finished writing a book, CONGRATULATIONS! The percentage of people writing a book who actually finish the book is very small. It's a major milestone most people will never achieve. Next Steps I shared with her what I've learned and wished I knew at the beginning of my journey to get THE WATCHERS OF MONIAH trilogy published. Depending on your publication goals, some of this might apply and some might not. Attend workshops, conferences, and critique groups Often writers finish their n