Writer Senses

Collect and celebrate the small victories. We reach our goals one hill at a time. I'm happy to report that I received an honorable mention in 2018's Writing Contest for the category of *Prose: First Chapter (Novel).* This contest is judged by professional authors from outside Utah, so that's something. If you don't follow my FB author page, Daniel Rodrigues-Martin , I'd love your support. I'm also on Twitter , but only because I have to. The honorably-mentioned chapter, "The Fates of Stars and People," comes from the beginning of my third book in the Ark Saga , Goddess from the Machine , and is included below. THE FATES OF STARS AND PEOPLE (c) 2014-19 by Daniel Rodrigues-Martin. All rights reserved. It was poetry to die like this, rain falling in sheets from the mouth of an angry sky, all the cosmos peering through the cloud cover at the man’s last moments. Did the stars ponder the fates of humanity as humanity pondered the fates o...

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com. On June 16, 2018, the League of Utah Writers (LUW) held its Summer Writers Symposium at the University of Utah. The symposium covered a broad spectrum of topics from the value of poetry to the agenting vs. independent publishing debate. I had two main takeaways from the event. #1 Success at Self-Publishing Means Sustained Hard Work (…And Probably Isn’t for Me) Indie romance author Cami Checketts led a session titled: “Self-Publishing: Is It Right for You?” She provided some practical advice about different marketing sites ( Bookbub ) and the importance of sharing success and building a friendly community of co-writers and “cheerleaders.” Before taking the self-publishing path, Ms. Checketts had a literary agent and was traditionally published, but found consistent success challenging and traditional pathways restrictive. She was also not a fan of the publisher’s sizable cut . The main takeaway of Checketts’s talk for me was that self-publis...