The era of personal blogging has come to an end for me and it's time to say au revoir!

Is this sad news? Hell no!

I have to admit, this is quite bittersweet, as I started this blog way back in 2010 and met some of the most fabulous people through here whom I remain in touch with today (and some I've even met face-to-face!)

Please do not be alarmed, I am not disappearing from social media, and The Artist Unleashed has a new home! If you have written for The Artist Unleashed on this blog in the past, please rest assured that all posts will be migrated to the new website. I will also write my own posts on The Artist Unleashed now and again too, but keeping within the theme and focus of the site: to provide a wealth of information and inspiration for writers and artists.

Also, if you're worried about losing touch, please don't! I'm hardly here as myself anymore, and I am prolifically active on Facebook and Twitter, so connect with me there. You can also subscribe to my newsletter, if you haven't already, to stay up-to-date with my news. Oh, and there is always email!

And just for fun, here is the link to the very first blog post I wrote on here. Can you imagine if I had kept up this alliteration?!?!?

Well, that's all from me ... over and out ... and now I'm crying ... dammit.

The Artist Unleashed: MOST ADVICE FOR WRITERS IS DANGEROUS by Alexander M Zoltai

These days, writing advice is cheap, even free on the Web. Cheap also in the sense, “of little worth because achieved in a discreditable way requiring little effort”.

Many of my blog posts have cautioned folks about the flood of "tips" streaming on the ‘Net that’s actually dangerous and will absolutely block their best efforts…

The word “dangerous” has the root meaning “power to harm”, based on the Latin dominus, “lord” or "master".

How could advice from authors considered masters harm a writer? Primarily, I feel, by being accepted as hard and fast “rules” or “laws”.

For every “rule” in the books, some creatively written story has successfully “broken” it :-)

I’m a writer and folks might think I’d be encouraging others to write.

Well, I do; but…

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The Artist Unleashed: FINDING A COMMUNITY, by Kate Tilton

With reminders of the holiday season all around I have been thinking a lot about community, a place where you belong. Growing up I spent years in private school and homeschooling leading to an interesting transition back into the public school system when I was in the 6th grade. I spent most of my first school year back in public school trying to fit in.

It didn’t work.

I quickly learned that I wasn’t a part of the community of my peers. They had grown up together and had been in the same classes for years. I just simply wasn’t able to compete with that. So I found my own community online.

My first experience with community was ...

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The Artist Unleashed: LEADING A WRITERS' CONFERENCE WORKSHOP by Madeline Sharples

Writing and getting a book published are really less than half the battle.

Since my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On was published in 2011, I’ve spent most of every day marketing to keep my book in the public’s eye. I maintain a blog, Choices. I tend two Facebook pages. I’m connected through LinkedIn and Twitter. I speak at book clubs and library events. I sign books at book fairs and at our local indie bookstore. I’ve participated in virtual and live book tours. I also write regularly for several websites. In addition, I’ve been on panels and led workshops at writers conferences.

I recently co-led, with Eleanor Vincent, ...


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The Artist Unleashed: FIVE TIPS TO NURTURE CREATIVITY by Janice Phelps Williams

Creativity abounds! Everywhere we look people are painting, writing, sewing, knitting, baking, and recording music from their homes. Still, there are parents who would like to encourage creativity, but they’re not sure how to go about it. Here are five tips to encourage creativity in your family.

1. NOURISH THE IMAGINATION

The creative home begins with parents who nourish the imaginations of their children. "Without the playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable." ~Carl Jung

2. SAY “YES!”

Say yes to your child whenever possible. Children who hear yes most of the time develop ...

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The Artist Unleashed: WRITING A FRESH TWIST ON A CLASSIC TALE by Catherine Stine

I write YA and NA novels and also teach college lit part time. When I was assigned to teach Christopher Marlow's Doctor Faustus, I alternately balked and thrilled at the challenge. The story is about a brilliant college professor who, after earning what is now equivalent to a PhD, is bored and asks the medieval version of "Is this all there is?" He has noble ideas: he wants to enrich public education, find cures for dreadful diseases—even raise the dead. Hey, rewind ... you need superpowers for that, right?!

You sure do. Thus, he falls into temptation when he calls up Mephistopheles to grant him these superhuman powers. Dr. Faustus thinks he has nothing to worry about. He doesn't believe in the devil, or hell. He's a modern man of science. Damnation, piffle! He makes a vow with the devil's ...

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The Artist Unleashed: HOW MUCH ARE WE INFLUENCED BY WHERE WE LIVE? by Jan Ruth

The only historical event I can remember with any accuracy is good old 1066 and The Battle of Hastings. At school I was hopeless at dates, in fact anything to do with numbers, but I used to love history because sooner or later it usually involved writing a lot of essays. Now though, I suspect there may be more to it. The longer I live and the more places I visit in the world, the more connected I feel to my roots, or more specifically my spiritual home, Snowdonia.

Seventeen years ago we moved from Cheshire to North Wales. Although Cheshire has its history and pretty rural surroundings aplenty, Wales is far more extreme in both aspects. The castles and the rugged hillsides scattered with stone settlements, druid’s circles and ...

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The Artist Unleashed: WHY YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK NEEDS AN EDITOR, by Amie McCracken

That fine line between art and product is difficult to draw, but it’s essential to protect your sanity. It’s not news that artists are highly creative people, typically with a teensy bit of mental instability (it comes with the territory). I mean, doesn’t everyone have a bit of the crazy when our imagination comes into play? When you were a child, those shadows wouldn’t have turned into monsters without your brain being on the fritz. And that’s exactly why when we create something we are inherently attached to it. We love it. We hate it. But overall, it is a piece of us.

In order to get your writing out in the world though, you need to separate yourself from the art and view it as product. Your book is ...


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The Artist Unleashed: DON’T MISS YOUR BIG MOMENT! (WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE), by Lori Culwell

In case you haven’t noticed, Facebook has built a neat little widget called “Trending” that now appears on the right hand side of your news feed. This widget is supposed to act like Google Trends, informing you of the news that is popular around the world (or at least around the internet) at that moment.

Why am I telling you this?

Because, as a writer, there is going to come a time when you (the writer) will have the opportunity to be a part of a trending news topic. During this moment in time, assuming that reporters can find you and that your network is set up properly, you (and your work) will be ...


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The Artist Unleashed: KILLING THE DOG: READING (AND WRITING) GUT-WRENCHING SCENES, by Dawn Malone

Three-quarters through a critically-acclaimed young adult novel, a book that had completely taken over the spare minutes of my life for two days, I stopped reading. I not only stopped reading, I chucked the book to the other end of the couch. I even stuffed it back onto the shelf for a while. Suddenly, I hated that great book.

Why?



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The Artist Unleashed: WHO MURDERED BLOGGING? by Jeremy Hawkins

First let me thank Jessica for letting me share a little bit more of me and who I am… or at the very least whom I want to be.

I am Jeremy and I run several sites, make art books, sell t-shirts and I am sure a few more things that I just cannot think of. I started most of my sites six years ago with the intention of offering my world to you the reader, sharing my crazy obscure thoughts, and well, hope to spring a few coins.

From a cocoon to a butterfly, from design after redesign I feel ...

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The Artist Unleashed: AS A WRITER, HOW MUCH OF YOURSELF IS IN YOUR PROTAGONIST? By Julie Ryan

As a writer, how much of yourself is in your protagonist?
I have often wondered about this after reading that many writers have based their main character on themselves. This is especially true for first books apparently!

This is a case in point for my first book, Jenna’s Journey, as I originally conceived the idea whilst wondering how my life would have been different if I’d stayed in Greece instead of returning to the UK. Of course, what happens to Jenna is ...

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The Artist Unleashed: ARE YOU A PANSER? OR DO YOU HAVE A (BUSINESS) PLAN? by Jacqueline Garlick

You are talking to the most unorganized person, quite possibly in the free world. No, I’m not kidding.

I am.

I have no patience for time. I never wear a watch, and in school I HATED the idea of planners. Okay, with that said may I suggest I’m the most unlikely person EVER to write this post? It’s true, BUT, if someone like me can find value in this strategy, IMAGINE what it can do for you!!!

Let’s face it; there are too many ...

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The Artist Unleashed: MODES OF TRAVEL THROUGH TIME, by Dennis Higgins

I would like to thank Jessica Bell for having me to the Artist Unleashed event.

I am Dennis Higgins, author of time travel stories. I am the “Gone But Not Forgotten” guy. My own books are not heavily into science or sci-fi. The stories involve the intimate and detailed lives of my traveler which I call Time Pilgrims.

Today I would like to explore the many modes of travelling in time from several different ...

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The Artist Unleashed: HOW TO REFRAME A LITERARY GENRE – KARMA LIT, ANYONE? by Stephen Weinstock

The first piece of advice you read in Book Biz manuals is that a writer should choose a genre, learn all about that kind of book, and tailor their brilliantly inspired work accordingly.  Publishers organize decisions around these beloved genres, booksellers need them to put your book on an easy shelf, and readers won’t find you if Medical Thriller isn’t stamped on your forehead. I’m here to say:

LET’S STORM THE GENRE GATES!

I considered crafting this article as a practical guide to ...

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The Artist Unleashed: COMMERCE & CREATIVITY—HOW TO KEEP THE BALANCE by Pauline B Jones

When I finally ventured out and made first contact with my writing peers, I received a lot of good solid, advice about the craft and business of writing. The craft parts were easier to swallow, particularly back in the bad old days when writers had so few choices. Why spend too much time dwelling on a business model that made no sense? Like the newbies that came before me, I had a hard time believing them, so I focused on the stuff I wanted to believe.

I dreamed about that day when I’d get The Call (instead, it was The Email). I imagined how it would feel to cross the threshold from ...

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The Artist Unleashed: THE WRITER’S AGONY & ECSTASY by Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

Okay, perhaps an overly-dramatic title. A writer’s life is easy: sit down at the computer and write, make stuff up, invent a character here, a plot there. It’s not like being a deep sea fisherman, a miner, a brain surgeon. In comparison, writing is a doddle.

Maybe.

But as Ernest Hemingway said: There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

And that’s what led me to the title of this post. It’s the act of creation – of making ...

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The Artist Unleashed: OUTLASTING YOUR DEMONS: HOW TO COPE WITH ANXIETY, by Monica Bhide

Sometimes the obstacles seem insurmountable, the heartache is paralyzing, the fear is searing, the anxiety makes my head spin. It is only when I find the quiet in the fear that I find my strength and my purpose. And I write. And write and write. I am finally home.

I posted this status update on FB a few weeks ago. The private responses surprised me:

“How, how do you find the quiet place?”
“I have many dark places in my head and I fear them.”
“I have severe bouts of anxiety about my writing. How do you deal with yours?”

How I wish I had the answers to ...

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The Artist Unleashed: USING FREE SAMPLES TO INCREASE SALES: FICTION AND NON-FICTION by Susan Kaye Quinn

When you start talking about giving away your work for free, people tend to freak out.

Doesn't it devalue your work?

No.

Why would they buy something if they can get it for free?

Because the purchase has value.

But my work is worth paying for!

Of course. Using free samples will help you sell more.

No one will ever buy books again!

Sales of ebooks are up 38% over the last 2 years (AAP 2014).

All the questions above focus on a sort-of adversarial relationship with your reader. How can I get them to value my work? How can I force them to buy it? Instead, you need to look at ...

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The Artist Unleashed: WRITING THE SECOND NOVEL by Carol Cooper

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