Monday, August 27, 2012

Announcing New Hours for Coffee and Critique Starting in September

Due to growth in our membership and the number of writers who want to read each week, beginning with the first meeting next month, September 4, we will start our meetings at 9:30 a.m. and wrap things up around noon. Everyone is welcome to join us for lunch afterwards.

Our meetings will continue at the Rendezvous Cafe on Main Street in O'Fallon.



Thursday, August 9, 2012

Support Ghost Hand - A Young Adult Novel by Ripley Patton

My writer friend Ripley Patton is using Kickstarter to raise money to publish her young adult novel. Kickstarter is a genius website that helps us starving artists raise money to finance our projects. The artists offer rewards to their backers, and everyone who backs a project becomes a patron of the arts and helps talented people make their dreams come true.

Check out this gorgeous cover for her novel Ghost Hand! Here is the info on this soon-to-be-published book.

WHAT IS GHOST HAND ABOUT?
There are secrets we keep hidden deep inside of us. Secrets of abuse and abandonment and self-harm. No one can see them. No one can find them. No one can touch us there.

But all that is about to change.


Olivia Black just discovered that her ghost hand, a genetic defect, can do more than light up a room. It can reach into people and pull things out. Things from the darkest depths of the human psyche never meant to exist in this world.

Olivia can pickpocket the soul.

But she can't control her ability, or the strange items it extracts, and the only thing between Olivia and the men bent on taking the power of her hand is a boy she barely knows and doesn't trust.


Check out Ripley's video appeal:

I've read the first few chapters of Ghost Hand, and I love this book. You can read them yourself here. Her talent is obvious. Please join me in supporting her campaign so I can finally read the whole thing! She is already 76% funded with just 5 days left to go. But if she doesn't make her goal, she doesn't get anything. That's how Kickstarter works.

Every little bit helps, and the minimum pledge is only $5. Also, check out this excellent blog post on Karen Woodward's blog on why Ripley decided to self-publish. I think it will resonate with all you writers out there who are thinking about self-publishing. If you are interested in self-publishing, check out my new blog, Should I Self-Publish.