Welcome to the forum and Ni How to you. I don't know if this forum accepts foreign scripts, but let's try: 很高興認識你! (happy to meet you)

My two YA books are both fantasy/mythology set in ancient China. I lived in east Asia for a few years and learned Mandarin just by talking with people and studying on my own. That sounds impressive, but spoken Mandarin is actually easier than spoken English, in my opinion. There are fewer sounds and...

I love writing, but I absolutely detest marketing. I had a small business years ago, and that's one of the reasons I got out of that—I couldn't stand marketing. But to be a successful author, you have to market yourself. It's not so tough if you've signed with a big publisher that will help do the m...

I've heard positives and negatives of using a pen name. If you have a lot of acquaintances that know your real name, then they're less likely to pick up a book authored by your pen name. But I'd hope that I can sell to more people than just my acquaintances, so that's not an issue for me. A pen name...

When I was a newlywed, my wife and I were talking about what I should pursue as a career. (I know, I should have thought about that BEFORE getting married.) She suggested I write, so I tried it and enjoyed it, but my writing was pretty bad. Actually very bad. After many false starts and stops, and a...

I wrote this about twenty years ago and happened to come across it recently. It's kind of amateurish and not well written, but maybe it will resonate with someone. Memories and Photos – The Beach The warm sun was still high in the afternoon sky, but it was invisible through the thin ocean clouds. I...

I'm just joining this conversation. I recently re-published a previously published (on paper) novel, and two new novels. I spent a lot of time getting an agent and she worked very hard to get my books published traditionally but was unsuccessful. Part of it was the economy, part was the length of on...

An appendix to my last post . . . I should add that I really like when artists mix traditional music with modern music. Two good examples are Cornershop and the 80s British pop group Monsoon.

When people ask what songs I have in my iTunes, I often joke "all of them" (currently over 14,000). I like everything from screaming guitar like Dream Theater (I love Octavarium) to old time American folk (check out Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome for a fresh take on old time songs) ...

I've made business cards with my covers on them and information about where to get the book and hand those out at supermarket checkout stands, to restaurant waiters, people in elevators, etc. It's kind of fun, but not sure how successful yet as my books just came out. I went to a big city library an...