PRESS RELEASES

As a new writer, you’ve been advised to send out a press release. What does this mean? Let’s answer your questions one at a time.

WHEN DO YOU WRITE A PRESS RELEASE?

Write one when you have a first sale to announce, when you contract a multi-book deal, when you win a major award, when you hit a bestseller list, or when you have upcoming appearances.

WHAT SHOULD YOU INCLUDE?

Think of the five W’s: Who, What, Why, Where, and When. Include your contact info, what news you have to share, why readers should care, when they can meet you in person, where to buy your books. If you do give your book info, don’t forget the ISBN, format, publisher, and price.

WHAT FORMAT SHOULD YOU FOLLOW?

Here’s a sample letter publicizing my signing dates. It always helps to find a local hook or angle that will capture the reader’s attention. Tying your release in to a current issue in the news will also help gain interest.

For Immediate Release

Plantation author of Bad Hair Day Mysteries to sign PERISH BY PEDICURE and DEAD ROOTS at local events.

 

“A mystery series to dye for!” The News-Press

Pedicures can be as dangerous as they are pampering.

Plantation, FL resident and author Nancy J. Cohen knows this well. The eighth book in her humorous Bad Hair Day mystery series is titled PERISH BY PEDICURE. This hardcover title is scheduled for a December release.

Just as her fiancé Detective Dalton Vail’s uptight former in-laws are descending on her home, Marla is up to her roots in a big-time beauty show that could make or break her career.

“Locales for this story include Fort Lauderdale, North Miami Beach, and the Keys,” Cohen says. “I like to include Florida issues in my books, and this one touches upon melanoma warning signs and prevention. Hair has to be protected from the sun as well as the skin, and tips are provided in this fun, fast-paced tale.”

Cohen will be discussing her work and signing books at the following locations. Please call ahead to confirm dates and times.

[Booksigning Dates Follow]

####

For more information, please contact [YOUR NAME] at [PHONE NUMBER] or via email: [EMAIL ADDRESS].

TO MY READERS: I do not profess to be the expert in this topic, so who else can offer tips and suggestions on writing a press release?

HARRY P. LEU GARDENS

Harry P. Leu Gardens is one of my favorite haunts in Orlando. I modeled a location after it in my tenth Bad Hair Day mystery (yet to come), so I count a visit as part of my research.

There’s so much more to do in Greater Orlando than the theme parks. When you have a day to spare, consider spending it at Winter Park. Stroll Leu Gardens in the morning then drive over to Park Avenue and park on one of the side streets. Have lunch in one of the many cafes lining the popular thoroughfare. Shop in the boutiques. Visit a museum, or take an escorted boat ride on the lake. I like this little city so much that I centered my proposed new mystery series there.

Enjoy these photos from Leu Gardens and plan a visit next time you’re in Orlando. Founded by the Mizells in 1858, the park hosts a family cemetery among its attractions. The park covers fifty acres with over forty plant collections and is a favorite site for weddings. Besides a butterfly garden, vegetable garden, herb garden, and citrus grove, there are sections with flowering camellias, cycads, bamboo, camphor trees, and more. An indoor gift shop and catering hall are in the main building but there’s a bride’s cottage on the grounds for outdoor weddings.

Spanish Moss covered tree

Shady paths

Lake Rowena

Fish in Lake

Turtles by Lake

Can you spot the alligator?

Camillia Tree

Camillia

Fountain

Floral Clock

Leu House Museum

Vegetable Garden

Family Cemetery

Amazon vs MacMillan

From The Author’s Guild:

Macmillan’s current fight with Amazon over e-book business models is a necessary one for the industry. The stakes are high, particularly for Macmillan authors. In a squabble over e-books, Amazon quickly and pre-emptively escalated matters by removing the buy buttons from all Macmillan titles (with some exceptions for scholarly and educational books), in all editions, including all physical book editions. Thousands of authors and titles are affected; hardest and most unfairly hit are authors with new books published by Macmillan that are in their prime sales period.

Yet if Macmillan prevails, the eventual payoff for its authors (and all authors, if a successful result ripples through the industry) is likely to be significant and lasting.

For those of you who may have missed it, here’s the story so far:

Last Thursday, Macmillan CEO John Sargent informed Amazon that beginning in March, it would offer Amazon access to a full range of e-book titles only if Amazon were willing to sell books on an “agency” model that would pay Amazon 30% of e-book proceeds and allow Macmillan to set its own retail price for e-books. (Currently, Amazon buys e-books as a reseller at a discount of 50% off the retail list price and sells at the price it chooses.) Macmillan’s price under its agency model, in many cases, would be higher than the $9.99 ceiling that Amazon has been seeking to impose on the industry.

If Amazon didn’t find the agency model acceptable, Sargent said Macmillan would expand its “windowing” of e-book editions. “Windowing” is the practice of waiting until a particular edition of a new book has been on the market for a while before making cheaper editions available. Publishers have for decades waited until the hardcover sales window has closed before opening the sales window on paperback editions, for example. This helps protect the sales channels for hardcover books. Windowing e-books is similarly believed to help protect a publisher’s sales channels for physical books. The risk with windowing is that some owners of e-book devices are angered that low-priced e-book editions aren’t available as soon as books are released in hardcover form.

This was a bold move by Macmillan. Amazon has a well-deserved reputation for playing hardball. When it doesn’t get its way with publishers, Amazon tends to start removing “buy buttons” from the publisher’s titles. It’s a harsh tactic, by which Amazon uses its dominance of online bookselling to punish publishers who fail to fall in line with Amazon’s business plans. Collateral damage in these scuffles, of course, are authors and readers. Authors lose their access to millions of readers who shop at Amazon; readers find some of their favorite authors’ works unavailable. Generally, the ending is not a good one for the publisher or its authors — Amazon’s hold on the industry, controlling an estimated 75% of online trade book print sales in the U.S., is too strong for a publisher to withstand. The publisher caves, and yet more industry revenues are diverted to Amazon. This isn’t good for those who care about books. Without a healthy ecosystem in publishing, one in which authors and publishers are fairly compensated for their work, the quality and variety of books available to readers will inevitably suffer.

Macmillan’s move is timely because, at the moment, the e-book market is still far smaller than the physical book market, but the e-book market is growing quickly. The longer Macmillan waited, the more difficult the transition.

Amazon didn’t wait for March, when Macmillan’s new policy is slated to go into effect; it decided to hit Macmillan immediately and comprehensively, removing the buy buttons for nearly all Macmillan titles, in all editions. This is a direct attempt to use its clout in the physical book industry to enforce its business model in the e-book industry. In some ways, it was an unusual exercise of power for Amazon. The company has used the tactic of turning off buy buttons on several occasions before, but, with major publishers it’s usually selective, and doesn’t turn out the lights on nearly all titles. That treatment is reserved for smaller publishers. (Authors receive no advance warning of Amazon’s treatment of their titles, nor can they do anything about it.)

Amazon, it appears, overreached. Macmillan was a bit too big a foe, and Amazon’s bullying tactics were a bit too blatant. (For a flavor of media reaction, see this story in Fast Company.)

Sunday evening, Amazon announced that it would have to “capitulate” to Macmillan, “because Macmillan has a monopoly over its own titles.” (By this definition, nearly every company exercises a monopoly over its products.) We’re all still waiting for that capitulation: Macmillan’s books still weren’t available on Amazon on Monday evening.

If Macmillan does indeed prevail, the economics of authorship in the digital age are likely to improve considerably. We may go through some rough stretches to get there, however.

You’ll be hearing more from us on this matter soon.

———
For More information, go to http://tiny.cc/Oxglk

PRINTED PROMO MATERIALS

A writer can spend days preparing for a new release in terms of printed promo materials. Should you do bookmarks, postcards, or flyers? Tri-fold brochures, business cards, or posters? As more publicity is gained on the Internet, you’d think we could decrease this expense. However, readers still like bookmarks. Postcards are handy to put on promo tables or in goody bags at conferences. Brochures are useful when you give talks so the audience can learn more about you. Flyers or posters work for libraries and bookstores where you’ve scheduled an event. So where to start?

Here are eight points to consider when making your plans:

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE ITEM?

Deciding what you want the item for will help you choose what to buy. Do you want something to keep in your purse that you can whip out when you meet someone and they ask what you do? Think business card with book cover on one side and book info on the other. Or a bookmark. Do you want something that will stand out on conference promo tables (other than imprinted cutsie items like letter openers, notepads, pens, etc.)? Think glossy postcards. What about talks where you have the chance to reach a larger audience? You can put your items on each chairs if you are the sole speaker or offer them at the table with your books for sale. Bookmarks and brochures work well for this venue. Or will you snail mail your reading list? Then postcards or tri-fold brochures are a must. Consider ordering return address labels with a preformatted design and your name, book title, and website, or your one liner tag line. These are good for sealing envelopes. Bookmarks and business cards are useful for sticking in envelopes if you still pay bills this way. So decide the function of your item and that will help you make a choice.

WHEN SHOULD I ORDER MY MATERIALS?

My book isn’t due out for another six months and yet I already have bookmarks and brochures. Why? Because I have several speaking engagements and a conference coming up, and I want to promote my upcoming title. So it’s never too soon to order your materials as long as you have the prerequisite data.

WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED?

Besides the title and author, you’ll want a book cover image usually in jpg format with good resolution, ISBN number, price, format (i.e. mass market, trade paperback, digital edition, etc.), publisher, release date, and how to order. You can restrict ordering to your publisher or say “Available at all retail and online bookstores.” Including your website is essential. Adding other contact info like email address, blog site, Twitter, Facebook, and so on is optional. Usually I offer my website, email, blog, and business address. What else? Depends on the item. Blurb about your book. Back cover copy. Review quotes. Excerpt. Backlist titles. What’s coming next. Short author bio. Recipes or fun tips that apply to your theme. These are optional. Just remember to include the basics.

WILL YOU NEED A DESIGNER?

Whether or not you have to hire a designer depends on how talented you are with graphic design and what programs you have on your computer. I use WordPerfect to design my bookmarks in terms of what I want to include on each side, but then I need a designer to add a background that compliments my book cover and to place the text appropriately. I also use WordPerfect to do a tri-fold brochure, and then I have double-sided copies made and folded at one of the office stores. It’s cheaper than hiring a company to do a glossy brochure and works for me just as well. Re postcards, I can put what I want on each side using Word but then I’d need a designer to fit the cover and text into the appropriate template, so I’d have to hire someone for postcards.

WHAT PRINTING SERVICE SHOULD YOU USE?

If you’re handy with templates and following directions, you can use a service like Vistaprint or Printplace.com. You’ll definitely save money. But if you need help, consider companies who are reasonably priced and offer designer services like Earthly Charms and Twig One Stop.

WHAT TYPE OF FINISH DO YOU WANT?

Do you intend to sign the materials or just hand them out? Do you want your items to stand out with a high gloss finish? If you want to sign them, a matte finish is best. Or you can do glossy on one side and matte on the other. Collect a sampling of other authors’ items from your friends or at your next conference and check out what appeals to you. Cardstock is another factor to consider. The heavier the weight, the more solid the item will feel to your readers. If my research is correct, Twig One Stop uses 12 pt cardstock which has worked fine for me in the past with a matte finish. This time my bookmarks from Earthly Charms is 14 pt cardstock with gloss on one side. This means I can only sign the back, and honestly, a nice matte would have worked fine on both sides. Bookmark size is another factor. How much info do you want to include? Again, look at bookmarks you’ve collected and see what size appeals to you.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU BUDGET?

If you plan to print your own materials using Avery templates from the local office store, count in the cost of the labels and ink and compare the number of items (i.e. 1000) to the cost if you ordered from a print service. Obviously, if you have a generous advance, you can go hog wild and order whatever you want. If your budget is limited, order only what you think you’ll need. You can always order a reprint if you need more, and the template then will be done so you won’t need to pay the designer fee again. Don’t forget to add in tax and shipping when comparing prices. Also, if you plan to make copies at the local office store, stop by and ask how much for 100 copies? 1000? Black and White? Color? Double sided? Look in the newspaper for discount coupons on Copy & Print services and then decide which is the best place to get your work done for the best price. I had my brochures copied at Office Depot because I got 25% off and their price was lower anyway than FedEx Office.

HOW MANY SHOULD YOU ORDER?

If you want to send promo items to conferences, you’ll need to think in terms of bundles of 50 to 100 items per conference and thus you’ll need to order a larger amount. Twig One Stop has a Publishers Package for $435. This includes 5000 each bookmarks, postcards, and business cards (with either standard contact info or your book promo info). That cost does not include the services of their designer, which you’ll need, or tax and shipping. Yes, you may have lots of items left over, but it could end up being cheaper than 1000 each bookmarks and 1000 postcards together. For example, ordering those separately at Earthly Charms would total approx. $432 including designer, tax, and shipping. For $435, plus designer fee, tax and shipping, you can get so much more. So think about how many items you need to get started and do your homework.

IT’S EXCITING when your printed materials arrive in the mail or you take them home from the print shop. Now you have something to hand out whenever you meet people on the street, in the store, or at your next conference. Wait until you have the essential data about your book and a cover jpg, research the options, and then don’t be shy about offering your new bookmark or brochure or postcard to whomever you meet.

WHAT IS A VOOK?

A Vook is a combination of a Video and a Book. Think of a story or text interspersed with images. Is this another harbinger of the future for the publishing industry? Evidently, you can access your Vook online or on your iPod and no doubt soon on your ebook reader, too. Videos can be watched alone or you can just read the text or view the integrated version. What’s next–interactive stories where you decide which path the character will take? Those have been done but not in this format. Not yet.

What will it mean to have video accompany the text? For a cookbook, this could be useful. For a novel? I like the power of the imagination. Will that be lost if we watch images like short movies in between the pages of text? Or will it enhance the story? And as authors, will be have to write with more visual scenes in mind?

What do you think?

Check out these resources for more info on the Vook:

http://vook.com/vook.php

http://www.facebook.com/Vooktv

http://tinyurl.com/y9hy9sv

SELF-EDITING

New writers often ask me for self-editing tips. Here is a revised version of my guidelines. I hope you find them useful. Would you add any more that I’ve overlooked?

SELF-EDITING

Copyright 2010 by Nancy J. Cohen

 

 

1. Tighten your sentence structure by replacing phrases with precise words. NO: “the light of the boat” YES: “the boat’s light” NO: He ran down by the terrace and out toward the lake. YES: He sped past the terrace toward the lake.

  

2.  Replace passive verbs with active tense.  NO: “The slaves were slain by lions.” YES: “Lions mauled the slaves.”

 

3.  Replace “walked” and “went” with a more visual word.  She shuffled toward the door.  He raced down the street.

 

4.  Eliminate most substitutes for “said” along with adverbs that describes speech.  NO: “I love it,” he chortled merrily. YES: “I love it,” he said with a chuckle.

 

5. Replace “he/she said” with character tags. Use action as identifier and bring in the five senses whenever possible. NO:. “I suppose,” she said. YES: “I suppose.” Her neck prickled as though Grace’s words had prophetic power.

 

6. Motivate your protagonists with clear goals. If they don’t care what’s happening, why should your reader?

 

7. Does your dialogue have a purpose? Conversations should advance the plot or reveal character. Re foreign accents: don’t overuse dialects. 

 

8. Dangling Participles.  NO: “Glancing into the rear view mirror, her breath released upon noticing the coast was clear.” YES: “Glancing into the rear view mirror, she released a breath upon noticing the coast was clear.”

9. Gerunds.  Beware of “ing” phrases that are illogical. NO: Flinging the door wide, she stepped inside the darkened interior. YES: She flung the door wide and stepped inside the darkened interior.

10. Avoid weak phrases like “seemed to,” “tried to,” “began to.” NO: He seemed to want her input. YES: His smile encouraged her to offer an opinion. Also avoid unnecessary phrases such as “she realized”, “she figured”, “he decided,” “he watched,” “he thought.”

11. Show, don’t tell.  NO: She felt afraid. YES: Ice gripped her heart. NO: He was angry. YES: He slammed his fist into the door.NO: He’d met her at the inn and liked her on sight. YES: He spied the blonde as soon as he stepped inside the front door. Wrinkling his nose at the strong smell of ale mixed with human sweat, he loped in her direction. Lights glared from overhead, but it was nothing compared to the radiance on her face…

12. Invest your characters with attitude to give them a distinctive personality. NO: “I’m fine, thanks.” YES: “You really wanna know?”

13. Keep description within the viewpoint of your character. Similes and metaphors should be within his/her frame of reference.

14. When you’re in deep viewpoint, use pronouns rather than the character’s name.

15. Use a new paragraph when you switch viewpoints.

16. Check timing and continuity, and make sure all loose ends are tied up by the last page. Be realistic about meal and work hours.

17. Avoid weak verbs: is, was, are, were, there was.  NO: There was water on the window. YES: Water droplets beaded the window. NO: His pulse was racing. YES: His pulse raced.

18. Avoid negatives. NO: He would not wait any longer if she didn’t appear. YES: He’d leave if she failed to show up.

19. Delete redundancies. NO: sat down YES: sat NO: He thought to himself YES: He thought. BETTER: eliminate “he thought.” If you’re in his viewpoint, you know he’s the one thinking.

20. Check for repetitions: Most of us unconsciously overuse a favorite word. Be alert for these when you read through your manuscript. Also, avoid the same phrases or words on two consecutive pages. Another thing to watch out for: don’t repeat the same information. Mentioning something once is enough.

21. Eliminate “that” where not needed.

22. Remove qualifiers that weaken your prose, such as: very, rather, quite, really, awfully. NO: I remembered that she was really nice. YES: I remembered how her smile lit the room. NO: It was very hot. YES: The heat made my skin itch, or Heat waves rippled off the pavement.

23. Beware of flying body parts. NO: Her eyes flew across the room. YES: Her gaze flew across the room. NO: She threw her hands in the air. YES: She raised her arms.

24. Be specific: NO: She passed a clump of flowers YES: She passed a clump of red tulips sprouting from the ground like supplicating hands. NO: It had been a hard day. YES: Her body sagged as though she’d been battered in a stampede.

25. Learn correct spelling and usage: their or they’re; it’s or its; lay or lie; you’re or your.

26. Beware of talking heads. Lines of dialogue need to be broken up by character tags, including sensory descriptions or action.

27. Keep flashbacks and backstory to a minimum. Work them in with dialogue and action.

28. Use descriptive detail only when it enhances your story. Too much detail can slow your pacing and lose the reader’s interest. Always remember the five senses.

23. Go for strong endings at ends of sentences. Don’t end sentences on a preposition. NO: I didn’t know what he was waiting for. YES: I didn’t understand why he waited. NO: He stared in horrified dismay at her. YES: He stared at her in horrified dismay.

 

CRIME REPORTS

How many of you read the police reports for your town? Our local newspaper lists the complaints filed in our community. Many of them are more amusing than serious. Here are some examples:

Trespass Warning: A man was issued a trespass warning after becoming upset that store employees wouldn’t give him a refund on a can of soda he’d purchased a month ago.

Suspicious Vehicle: A man became belligerent when a police officer asked him if the car with a sounding alarm was his.

Burglary: Candy was stolen from a candy machine.

Suspicious Incident: A man found a threatening letter written in Spanish on his doorstep.

Animal Complaint: A man reported that nine wild pigs were uprooting his lawn.

There were a number of more serious thefts, like a laptop in a stolen backpack, appliances by a tenant who moved out, wheels off a car, and unauthorized purchases by an office manager, but no violent crimes. Keep in mind that we’re just west of greater Fort Lauderdale, but still it’s nice to know no rapes or murders have occurred recently in the immediate vicinity.

So let’s do a creative exercise and combine some of the above. Can you get a plot out of them? How would you continue these stories?

A man became belligerent when a police officer asked him if the car with a sounding alarm was his. It was then the policeman noticed the trunk ful of empty candy wrappers. The driver fits the description of a thief who stole candy from a candy machine. Is it the same man? Who ate it? And what had set off the car alarm?

A man found a threatening letter written in Spanish on his doorstep. Noting the letterhead was from a local store, he entered the store on the pretext of returning a can of soda. When an employee noted the soda had expired, the man grew upset. He opened the door and let in the wild pigs chewing up the lawn outside. A stampede ensued. Which store employee wrote the letter and why?

PUBLISHING TRENDS: MASH-UPS

What is a mash-up? I hadn’t heard the term until I read about it in RT BookReviews magazine in the February issue. No, it’s not a type of mashed potatoes. We’re referring to literature here.

A mash-up in publishing is essentially a cross-genre blend. In other words, it’s a combination of genres, such as classic romance and horror in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter blends the vampire craze with history. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and Shakespeare Undead are other examples of classic lit twisted with fantasy or supernatural elements.        

So why is the mash-up so hot in the literary marketplace today? Perhaps because literary mash-ups are taking the spotlight, mixing classics with the paranormal phenomena so popular right now . Even agent Lucienne Diver states in an online interview that she’d love to see a mash-up of history and the paranormal.

This mini-trend isn’t new to the romance genre which has mixed romance with mystery and sci fi and fantasy through the years. Just because books are termed paranormal or mash-ups or steampunk doesn’t mean this concept is virgin.

Speaking of steampunk, has that trend already lost its steam? The latest Sherlock Holmes film brings to mind the historical atmosphere blended with the gears and wheels of old-fashioned technology. How many more Wild Wild West type stories will we see before this trend dives? For more on this subject, visit mystery author Vicki Lane’s recent blog: http://tinyurl.com/yhgxxt7                

And what is paranormal, since we’re on the subject? It’s anything to do with extraordinary abilities: i.e. magic, supernatural, or psychic powers. So why is a paranormal mystery, i.e. a mystery story with a ghost or witch, for example, not called a mash-up? Or is it? What about sci fi romance? Or a historical with mythological beings? It all seems to be a matter of terminology.

Keep in mind these are my loose definitions of the terms. As a writer, it’s more important to blend something old with something new to create what Hollywood calls the High Concept.

PUBLISHING TRENDS: ANGELS

A recent article (http://tinyurl.com/yghvnku) implies Angels are the next great thing in publishing. After vampires and werewolves come zombies, but zombies play better as evil beings. Hence the next bad boy hero: an angel who’s done something so bad he gets kicked out of heaven. What could be more appealing as a romantic hero than a man with a sullied reputation who seeks redemption? He’s dangerous, driven, and supernatural. Only the power of our heroine’s love can save him. Consider this theme as another variation on the Beauty and the Beast archetype. The alpha hero rules again, only this time he’s bigger than life, bad, and yet yearning for a second chance. Get ready: A new flood of fallen angel stories are about to descend into our literary arms.

angel

The Fallen Angel can also be a villain, like in the Cotten Stone thrillers by Joe Moore and Lynn Sholes. (http://www.cottenstone.com) More fallen angels will be showing up in theaters and books as the trend takes off.

Who decides these trends? Is it based on reader demand? Popular movies? Do editors decide what’s coming next? Or do authors take up the slack and start submitting a slew of stories with this theme? They will now, once the pronouncement about the Next Best Thing in Publishing makes the rounds. If you were tired of vampires before, prepare for an onslaught of angels. But wait….they don’t all have to feature dark heroes. We can have comedic ones who are sent to Earth with a mission. Well-meaning guardian angels. Angels who have screwed up but are good at heart, who’ve been returned to life to make up for their mistakes. Better reserve that pair of wings for Halloween already.

What’s next? I’m waiting for a surge of mythological super beings. You know, the ancient gods from Greek, Roman, and Norse legends. My paranormal romance series is based on Norse mythology. Any publishers out there listening?

Today it’s vampires. Tomorrow, it’s angels. What’s next?

Do YOU believe in angels? If so, which kind: Guardian, Fallen, or the Heavenly halo type?

SLEUTHFEST

Come to Sleuthfest in warm and sunny Ft Lauderdale February 25 – 28, 2010!

Sleuthfest is the largest conference for mystery writing in the US. This year’s theme is Lights, Camera, Write! with a focus on screenplay and script writing. If you haven’t registered yet, here is a very good reason to attend :

Guest of Honor Stephen J. Cannell

Stephen J. Cannell sold his first script to the TV show “It Takes a Thief” in 1968. His first steady job in television was as a story editor on “Adam-12″ (1968). He created a character named Jim Rockford for a script he wrote for the series “Toma” (1973), a show he was producing at the time. That script was rejected by ABC, so it was rewritten and eventually became the pilot for the classic NBC series, “The Rockford Files” (1974). From there it becomes nearly impossible to list all of his work. He has either written or co-written over 300 television scripts, and created or co-created over two dozen television series. He has won an Emmy, two Writer’s Guild Awards, two Edgar Award nominations, and has a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. Despite his many accolades, his first love continues to be writing.

At Sleuthfest, Stephen J. Cannell will be the keynote speaker at lunch on Saturday February 27. At 2:30 on Saturday, he will be participating in a session “Hollywood War Stories: Tales From the Trenches” with Paul Levine, writer of the TV series JAG, and other shows. Then on Sunday at Brunch, he and Neil Nyren, Senior VP, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons will be interviewed by Oline Cogdil, Mystery Book Reviewer.

If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late to get the early registration discount. Tracks on the craft of writing and business aspects of writing are also being offered.

Go to http://www.sleuthfest.com