Downloading this FREE BOOK = a donation to the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra!

Can you believe that the epic motion picture advertising music production house, audiomachine, will make a donation to the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra with every free download of the PHENOMENA album companion collection? It's true, and oh so generous!

Heroes of PHENOMENA is a global, cross-industry collaborative campaign encouraging the next generation of authors, artists & musicians!

A dedicated youth section showcases talented aspiring artists and authors from Elevate’s Life & Art Studios, alongside an amazing cast of inspiring industry professionals and the winning entries of PHENOMENA’s Epic Heroes Event!

I’m thrilled to announce the ebook anthology is FREE on Smashwords & Kobo! Available for $0.99 on Amazon. *help us push Amazon to price-match by reporting the FREE listings*

Inside you'll find a short story of mine alongside the work of these fabulous authors: Alex J. Cavanaugh, Amy Michele, C. Lee McKenzie, Crystal Collier, Darynda Jones, M. Pax, Ruth Long and Susan Kaye Quinn.

Coming soon to iTunes & B&N!

Here is the book trailer created by the writing students from Elevate Life & Art Studios which blends the music of PHENOMENA with the boundless creativity of the next generation—inspiring their peers in a humorous tribute to authors, musicians, artists and dreamers.

What are you waiting for? Download it now!

KOBO (FREE)

SMASHWORDS (FREE)

AMAZON ($0.99)

Daniel Pennystone

ms. annegirl

Brennah Whiteside

Carter Lundgren

Braelyn Whiteside

Emma Schneider

Caleb Lotz

Sarah Aisling

Alayna Fairman

Nitish Raina

Melissa Muhlenkamp

Ryo Ishido

Lukas Jurco

Camille Cabezas

Elizabeth Ann Watts

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The Artist Unleashed: THE ROAD MAP TO “THE END”: MIND-MAPPING YOUR NOVEL by Sandra Schwab

The Artist Unleashed posts have moved to a new domain. Please click HERE to read the rest of this post and for the opportunity to comment. Just search for the title of the post in the search bar on the new site.

What is the most efficient way to edit a manuscript?

Holly likes to help!

The most efficient way to edit your manuscript is piece by piece. I've been an editor for more than ten years, and this is the one rule I live by which gets excellent results every time.

Sound ambiguous? Let me explain.

When we read a manuscript from beginning to end, we aren't able to concentrate on every detail at once. For example, let's say at the beginning of your manuscript, you realize you have used the word cafe without the accent on the e. You make a mental note to catch that as you go along. But the next time you see the word cafe without an accent on the e, you forget to change it, because you are concentrating on fixing that awkward grammatical error on that same page.

When editing, you can't expect to do a good job if you read through your book from beginning to end and hope to see the mistakes. You are bound to miss things. Many things. The best way to edit, is to isolate all the things you need to fix, and focus on fixing one thing on your list, before moving onto the next.

Have no idea where to begin? Well, look at that, I seem to have written a book on how to do it! :-D

In Polish Your Fiction: A Quick & Easy Self-Editing Guide, I offer you my tried and tested advice on the quickest and easiest ways to polish different areas of Writing Style, Consistency of Prose, Grammar, Punctuation, Typography, and Layout.

Each section is armed with a numbered checklist for moments when you need that “at-a-glance” reminder and nifty Microsoft Word tricks that will save you time. At the end of the book there are also magnificent accounts of editorial mistakes other authors have made during their careers, to show you that no matter how many times a book is edited, something always slips through—so don’t be so hard on yourself!

Kindle edition available NOW. The paperback and ePub will be released on June 30, but they are available for pre-order. All purchase links are available HERE.

Happy editing! <3

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The Artist Unleashed: CHANGING GENRES … AND THE JOY OF BEING INDEPENDENT, by Gillian Hamer

The Artist Unleashed posts have moved to a new domain. Please click HERE to read the rest of this post and for the opportunity to comment. Just search for the title of the post in the search bar on the new site.

The Artist Unleashed: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH IN FICTION, by Dario Ciriello

The Artist Unleashed posts have moved to a new domain. Please click HERE to read the rest of this post and for the opportunity to comment. Just search for the title of the post in the search bar on the new site.

Off to Germany (on Hiatus until May 19)

Just letting you all know that I'm going to be away until Monday May 19 and so this blog will be on hiatus until then.

If you are keen for something to read here during that time, you may be interested in all the fabulous Artist Unleashed posts in which a variety of artists and writers share fabulous articles and information just for you. You can access all these posts by clicking HERE.

Also, if you are interested in being an Artist Unleashed guest, click HERE to find out how.

So ... you wanna see where I'm headed?

First stop: Berlin

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Second stop: Rehau

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Third stop: Aschaffenburg

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Fourth stop: Bayreuth

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Then ... we head to PRAGUE in the Czech Republic!!!

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See you on May 19!!!

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The Artist Unleashed: THE SECRET TO CREATIVE SUCCESS by Derek Murphy

In a speech about creativity, John Cleese begins by admitting creativity is "literally inexplicable"—it just can't be explained. Freud denied that psychoanalysis could shed any light on creativity. Creativity is not a talent, he continues, it is a way of operating.

It's not an ability that you either have or not have, and it is absolutely unrelated to your IQ.

Cleese concludes that creativity is a way of putting yourself in a certain mood—an "ability to play" with ideas, not for any immediate practical purpose, but just for fun.

I disagree on a pretty fundamental level.

Sorry for the interruption, but The Artist Unleashed posts have moved to a new domain. Please click HERE to read the rest of this post and for the opportunity to comment.