I love seeing what questions people ask the internet. Google auto complete has given me marvelous blog fodder in the past, but you can find great questions in other places too.

Yahoo Answers contains some real doozies, but I found a simple one today from a young girl who wanted to know:

“What do writers wear/look like?”

Apparently her school was doing something about a reality town and she was to dress as a writer. As a professional writer, I suppose I’m qualified to answer this query. Sure, we look a lot different in public than when we’re at home crafting brilliant prose. *snicker* Continue Reading…

A little while back I was fortunate to be Freshly Pressed for a second time by the good story wranglers at WordPress (here’s the first). As I reacted to this development I realized how much more prepared I was the second time around. Whether you’ve been Pressed before or are waiting for that first time, you can make the experience even more beneficial by capitalizing on that wonderful publicity. All you need is a little foresight and planning.

In just a few simple steps, anyone can be ready to really maximize the impact of thousands of readers showing up from the WordPress home page. So I’m going to give you a few key steps to take for when your number gets called. The list builds from beginner to veteran, so a couple of these might be familiar to you if you’ve already been Pressed in the past.

1. Figure out what Freshly Pressed is

Capture a screen shot when you get Pressed

I didn’t have any idea what was happening when my post first got selected. I suddenly had dozens of comments out of nowhere. In case you don’t know about FP, here’s the official WordPress breakdown.

2. Celebrate!

Make excited noises. I mean, don’t go all Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. Or do. Unless you’re at work. Then again you might work at home. So go nuts.

3. Stat gaze

It’s pretty cool to watch those view counts soaring when you’re used to 40 views a day!

4. Tell people

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But then you get past that initial cool stuff. Here’s the strategy part. Continue Reading…

Image by secretagent007 via Flickr

Many of you know that I’ve been hitting it hard on the writing side of things. In addition to this site I’ve also been getting after some freelance opportunities. Most of all, I’ve been developing a book idea that first hit me in the brain (a fitting metaphor as you’ll see in a moment) last summer.

I’ve also gone to my first two writer’s conferences this year. In June I spent a week at Wheaton College for 5 days of sessions, networking, and the best food I’ve ever had in what is technically called a cafeteria. Gourmet I say! During that week I met a lot of editors, agents, and authors and was excited by the interest they showed in my work.

If you have no idea what a writer’s conference is like, take a look at how I compared the process to hitting on strangers. Enough happened during that week to write a chapter about, but basically I came home knowing people wanted to see my work. I set out about the task of writing a book proposal and some sample chapters in between more travel and a full summer teaching load.

So far, the work has paid off.

That’s why I’m super excited to tell you that I now have an agent! Her name is Amanda Luedeke and she’s with MacGregor Literary. In my opinion, Amanda and MacGregor are the best fit for the type of stuff I do which, as many of you know, can include some weirdification. To celebrate our phone call, I hopped in my car and went to Barnes & Noble where I bought my favorite drink (caramel frappucino) and allowed myself to stare at the shelf where my own book might one day be. M-O-O, M-O-P, M-O-R… Then I drove home and wrote until 2 a.m. Continue Reading…

What a week. Thanks to everyone who checked out my Freshly Pressed post on the worst dressed cities in America. That pleasant surprise hit less than an hour after my guest post showed up at Kristen Lamb’s site.

In the midst of all the writing activity I spoke for three days at a great youth event called Teen Madness. What an amazing experience that was capped off when a couple of sneaky peeps got me good by dumping an entire 5 gallon cooler of pink lemonade on me! Now I know how those coaches feel. So cold. I repaid one of the culprits with a big, wet bear hug.

You can’t help but experience raw joy during the closing spectacle called Muckfest. Here’s a short roundup video complete with some snapshots as well as the hilarious clip my friends made to introduce me each night.

Have you ever done anything like a Muckfest?