Whiskey (or whisky) improves with a bit of age. Be it bourbon, scotch, American, Irish, or Japanese whiskey, they all improve with some time. If you open a bottle of whiskey and pour a dram straight off, you may not like it. Cork the bottle and give it a week or so, the new air will let the lovely breathe. Then try again. You’ll be surprised when what you dismissed first off as shite is now mellow, smooth, heavenly sipping. Air your first draft the same way. With fresh eyes, dig in and start editing…. Read Article →
Posts by: Bowen
Yes! With a Slight Correction Pikes Peak Writers is an organization nearly thirty years old. Since its inception PPW has served writers through education, networking, and promotion. The organization posts a regular author promotional called Sweet Success, highlighting recent publications or events in the lives of member authors. I love PPW. It’s my author home. Well, the latest Sweet Success featured me and my quirky novella A Night to Remember, which came out in paperback last month and scored really high in several genre categories on Amazon.com. My thanks to you, my friends and readers…. Read Article →
Today I did something for the first time. I drove a particular back mountain road from start to finish. I’ve driven past the entrance to this road hundreds of times in my dozen years in Colorado. Today I took the family and we drove it. We saw views we’d never seen, stopped at a historic marker commemorating those from the Civilian Conservation Corps who built the road back in 1938, and gained a new perspective on the natural beauty surrounding us. Doing something for the first time can be scary, exciting, rewarding, or possibly disappointing…. Read Article →
Life throws opportunities at us every day and it’s our job to recognize them and take advantage. Not in a greedy, selfish way, but in a this-may-never-happen-again sort of way. Today, I got to shake hands and trade stories with NYT best selling author and creator of the Walt Longmire series, Craig Johnson. Now, Craig and I talked for all of sixty seconds, but I got a photo op and managed to tell him A) thank you for coming to Colorado and B) that Pikes Peak Writers Conference (my home con) has long sought him… Read Article →
Some writers have what it takes to design their own covers. I don’t. I don’t have the patience to get the details exactly right. I get impatient when the tools I want aren’t right there (or right where I think they should be). I’m not a cover artist. An author friend of mine designs her own covers. She designs great covers that totally work for her genre. Don’t believe me, check out Kameron Claire’s work right here. Be prepared for some great, steamy romance. You looked, right? They’re perfect covers for her genre. And she… Read Article →
Know that You Know Nothing To be a master, one must always be a student Today I finished my first read of this awesome little yellow nugget of motivational gold. Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work serves as something of a daily devotional for creatives. You can pick it up, flip to any page and garner wisdom to take on the day. I liken it to Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual in that respect. Only, I don’t feel like shouting OO-RAH! after reading it. Or maybe I do. OO-RAH! One of the tips/lessons Austin… Read Article →
Can writers allow themselves to miss a day when they’re under the weather? I didn’t feel too hot yesterday. I had a sore throat and was a bit groggy. Last night I barely slept as I went from hot to cold and my throat became sandpaper brushing a metal rasp. So today I called in sick to the day job. One, I could barely talk and my job involves talking A LOT. Two, after three years of COVID-19 paranoia no one wants a sick coworker showing up for their shift. That meant I had the… Read Article →