Barbara V Evers

My High School Graduation (A long time ago) Depending on where you live, the summer break may have started or you're a few days from the final day. We have a little over a week left here. This means my schedule looks a bit crazy. There's work, writing, awards days, field day, and for my oldest granddaughter, Fifth Grade Day, a celebration she's anticipated for several years. As the "seniors" in her school, the fifth graders, celebrate the end of grade school with bounce houses, water games, and tons of fun. It marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence. New responsibilities hover on the horizon for these kids. What coming-of-age celebrations do you celebrate? Have you considered using these events in your writing? All societies mark milestones with special days and events. I love writing speculative fiction because my imagination gets to create everything about the event: When it occurs Where it occurs Who gets to celebrate it What t...

© Barbara V Evers, All Rights Reserved The new European Union's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into effect on May 25, 2018. It's purpose is to protect your data and privacy. Although I'm based in the US, I do have readers in the countries where this policy applies. For that reason, I want my readers to know that I don't collect your data personally, but most blog sites capture the following personal data: Blog post comments data (name, email, IP) Traffic stats plugins/tools such as Google Analytics 3rd party hosted services such as Jetpack, Bloglovin’ and Disqus Email signup forms such as Mailchimp or FeedBurner Contact forms Issues relating to the location of your web host. E.g. data is transferred to servers outside the EU I am not a legal expert, but these are the steps I've taken: Mailchimp made it simple. If you regularly receive SCWA Greenville chapter emails from me , please watch for an email asking for your consent to r...

I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not an expert on publishing contracts. I've dealt with a few when my essays or short stories have been accepted. They tend to be basic and straightforward with the rights reverting back to me after the first publication. A while back, I ran across Writer Beware, a blog sponsored by Science Fiction Writers of America with support from three other reputable writing associations. It focuses on revealing the underbelly of the publishing world and helping aspiring writers protect themselves. The first post I read on this site talked about piracy of in-copyright books by the Internet Archive . If you have anything published, you might want to check out that post and the link to the Internet Archive's Search page. Recently, I received a post about a questionable practice occurring in contracts with magazines and a few established markets:  perpetual derivative rights. First of all, you should always check what rights any contract g...

Note:  I wrote this post prior to the firestorm created by #cockygate. My post expresses empathy for newbie writers who worry about their work being stolen. I understand why they worry, but I, also, advise them not to get caught up in the paranoia. It's ironic that the day I scheduled this post to go live occurs on the heels of this issue. For those who are curious, I'm sharing two links at the bottom of this post with information concerning the #cockygate issue. ___________________________________________________________ My training career puts me in front of new people many times during a month. Sometimes, my interest in creative writing comes up. About half of the times it's mentioned, someone from the workshop approaches me later with questions about getting started or finding resources to help them. First, I ask them what they write. About half of them haven't started. They just want to write. My advice to them is start. Then, I invite them to our local c...

Image courtesy of Pixabay Every week, I create a To Do list. Sometimes, I create a second one before the week ends if I get a lot of the first list done OR if I run out of room to add new things that crop up. It works for me. Why does a writer need a To Do list?  There are many reasons why a writer should use a To Do list. For me, writing is one of the things I do. Plus I work from home. I juggle a training career which includes developing materials and conducting workshops, a speaking career which involves marketing and developing contacts as well as materials, posting to two blogs weekly, and, of course, my writing and freelance editing. All of these activities and tasks need to be documented, so I have a spreadsheet that tracks activity, invoices, expenses, and payments. If I don't schedule all of these items, I might let something slip or use my time unwisely. Add to this the responsibilities of raising grandchildren and the home and school-related tasks associate...