The IU Polling Poll

An evil mastermind’s job is never done.

Last week, we realized a moment too late that the polling software we had for the writing exercise contest was insufficient to meet the needs of our 100 Megawatt nuclear-powered Death Star of a blog. The crack engineering team here came up with a workaround, using Facebook polling. This was suboptimal.

To address this problem, we put in place different polling software. We blew that up too when we tried to test it out, as helpfully pointed out by the first three comments below.

Damn soviet surplus.

As a result, some personnel changes have been made. The surviving members of our crack engineering team are hard at work finding a polling plug-in that will meet our needs. In the mean time, if anyone knows of some nice free polling plug-in that works well in WordPress, let me know.

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Video Trailer: The Marshall Connors Series, by Allen Schatz

This is the book video trailer for Allen Schatz’ Marshall Connors series. Allen started writing formally in 2008 and released his first novel, Game 7: Dead Ball, in February 2011. He followed that up with two sequels (7th Inning Death and Rally Killer). The stories are mysteries with a baseball canvas.

You can find out more at Allen’s website. You can also find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

Feedback for Writers by Harry Bingham

Author Harry Bingham
Author Harry Bingham

I run a business whose core service is simple. We offer feedback to writers. We work on everything from picture books through to memoirs, but probably ninety percent of what we deal with is novels.

Needless to say the same old issues come up time and again. They’re issues which writers could easily correct themselves. That’s not to say that getting feedback isn’t massively worthwhile – it is – it’s just that you’ll get better value from feedback if you’ve put in the hard yards yourself first.

And naturally, like all professional authors, I practice what I preach. Although I’ve had more than ten books published over the years, I still rely deeply on the feedback I get from my literary agent and from my editors. My most recent novel, probably the best one I’ve written, still benefitted from some 6,000 words of written notes from my editor. I didn’t need those notes because I’m a poor writer. I needed them because feedback makes a good book better.

But enough of that. If most writers coming to us are making the same old mistakes – what exactly are those mistakes? And how do you avoid making them? Continue reading “Feedback for Writers by Harry Bingham”

Sneak Peek: Assegid Habtewold’s Redefining Leadership

Redefining Leadership CoverToday we get a sneak peek of author Assegid Habtewold’s book Redefining Leadership:

It’s time to think outside the box about leadership and how you perceive it.

Redefining Leadership is available in print on Amazon.com and can also be ordered from Infinity Publishing

From Redefining Leadership:

The purpose of this book is to declare the fact that we all were designed, and birthed into this world to lead a distinct path, nothing else. It enlightens all of us that leadership is the untapped heritage we all receive as we are born into this world. The book emphasizes that leadership plays a critical role in pursuing the reason of our respective existence as human beings, and enables us not only to succeed but also fulfill in life. If this knowledge is embraced and practiced, the author hopes that the honor of humankind would be restored. The whole creation would then be in a position to achieve its fullest and prestigious potential or realize its great expectations. Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Assegid Habtewold’s Redefining Leadership”