C. M. Skiera's Blog

I know this is shocking (not!), but February is not my favorite month (sorry Valentine's Day). Seems between back-to-back flu bugs and a myriad of other distractions, my writing (including blogging) is crawling through a deepening mud bog. The good news is I've managed to power through the first draft of the yet untitled Volume II of The Oxbow Kingdom Trilogy. The bad news is that the novel is still under 60,000 words, so I've been debating with myself on where to go next. Should I consider the first draft done, or do I keep adding until the word count is closer to where it should be? There are some spots where I left placeholders in the manuscript knowing I had to go back and add details and backstory, but I'm finding this "jumping around and patching holes" to be rather difficult and inefficient. Sitting here writing this post, I think I've convinced myself to start the revision process. I'm going to read the book from start to finish and try to wr...

Wow, another fast week--2013 is off to the races.  This week's post focuses more on blogging than writing, but for most of us indies, blogging is part of the package of being a self-published author.  If you're very observant, you may have noticed a little addition to the bottom of my blog posts.  I read an interesting article on maximizing your old blog content, but for the life of me, can't find it on my Google Reader lists.  I intended to link to it, but, you know, the best laid plans . . . Anyhow, the gist of the article was that some of your newer blog readers might be interested in your older posts, especially if they're similar to, or pertain to, your current post.  This is where a free ( and add free) little widget called LinkWithin comes in.  If you look below, I've cut-and-pasted exactly what LinkWithin looks like when you add it to your blog. You might also like: Novelnook - New! - What is it? Holiday Potluck Hol...