10 Tips for Networking

While a lot of writers prefer to stay behind the keyboard than go out and about, networking is an essential part of developing any business. It's a great way to find potential clients, publications, interview opportunities, and so on. 

Sure, there are numerous places to network online. And you should do those too! However, nothing compares to meeting people and developing relationships the old-fashioned way: IRL (in real life).

Don't just look for events that relate directly to your industry. Find things that relate to your other interests and hobbies, since you are more likely to discover a better cross-section of people with topics open to enthusiastic conversation.

Here are 4 ways to find events:

1. Search Online. Many good events are posted on the web. Make it part of your routine to search Meetup and Eventbrite for fun, local opportunities. 

2. Ask for Recommendations. Post a social media update that you are looking for events in your area and/or on a specific topic. LinkedIn updates will likely get more visibility and response than more cluttered social networks.

3. Go to Booksignings and Workshops. Search the calendar listings for your local bookstore, library, or coworking space. There's an added potential benefit. If you are able to make friends with the speakers/authors, they will likely want to reciprocate and go to your events too.


4. Keep an Eye on Your Friends. See what events your friends post about. Perhaps you could even go together. (Also see the next tip.)

These are 3 ways to meet people once you get there:

1. Bring a Friend. Events are easier when faced as a team. Team up with a wingmen (or wingwomen) when you go out networking and meet people together. You can even take turns finding events.

2. Make a Friend. See that nice-looking person who is standing alone? Go say "hi" and strike up a conversation. Then, go meet more new people as a team. This could be a win-win situation.

3. Volunteer. The best way to meet people at an event is to volunteer. Whether you are doing a check in, standing at the help desk, or assisting in any other way, people have a reason to talk to you and vice versa. This is perfect for shy people who are looking to get out of their comfort zones.

And 3 tips for following up. 

1. Trade Business Cards. Make sure to leave a business card with your new contacts, so you can stay in touch. Get their cards too. When you get home, make notes on the back of their card with any memorable details so you can make follow-up more personal.

2. Connect on Social Media. Within a day of the event send a connection request on LinkedIn or other social network. Be sure to include a note meeting them about the event and/or something that stood out in your conversation. That added touch could make a world of difference.

3. Continue the Conversation. Make a note on your calendar to follow up. If they ask for more info about your business, send it. If they are considering using your services, check in a week or two after the fact. If they have a potential referral for you, ask. These should be friendly (not hard-sell) interactions. The frequency and content will depending on the nature of your developing relationship.

Remember, networking should be fun. You will attract more people if you are having a good time, even if you have to "fake it til you make it."  You never know where a new relationship can lead.

What tips do you have for networking? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

* * *

Debra Eckerling is a writer, editor and project catalyst, as well as founder of Guided Goals and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. 

She is the host of the Guided Goals Podcast and author of Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages. 

Debra is an editor at Social Media Examiner and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

Literary Magazines with Themes--Spring 2016

Here's my spring 2016 list of upcoming themes or prompts for literary magazines.  They're fun to write to, and you may also find that they match stories you've already written.  As always, read guidelines carefully.

Third Flatiron

Theme:  Keystones

Genres:  Speculative

Reading Period:  April 15-June 15, 2016

Word Count: 1500-3000

Pay: 3 cents / word

Guidelines:  http://www.thirdflatiron.com/liveSite/pages/submissions

Lackington's

Theme:  Animals (see more detailed description in guidelines)

Genres:  Speculative

Dates:  Opens May 10

Word Count:  1500-5000

Pay:  1 cent per word

Guidelines: http://lackingtons.com/submissions/

The First Line

First line must be:  "By the fifteenth month of the drought, the lake no longer held her secrets."

Deadline: May 1, 2016

Word Count:  up to 5000

Pay:  $25-50

Guidelines:  http://www.thefirstline.com/submission.htm

THEMA Literary Journal

Theme:  Second Thoughts

Deadline: July 1, 2016

Pay:  $25

Guidelines:  http://themaliterarysociety.com/submissions.html

Grey Wolfe Publishing

April Prompt:  "Every morning at 9:00 a.m. sharp, you get a call on your cell phone. The speaker says 'I know what you did' and then hangs up. This has been going on for two weeks straight. What did you do and how do you react to these calls?"

Deadline:  April 30, 2016

May Prompt:  You’re sitting at the breakfast table one morning, looking at the top news stories while drinking your coffee. The top story this morning is a crazy fan who was arrested for breaking into a local bookstore and stealing all of YOUR books! He’s quoted as saying “I just want to be their best friend!” Your first crazed fan. What do you do?

Deadline:  May 31, 2016

Word Count:  up to 2000

Pay:  $25 to contest winner

Guidelines:  http://greywolfepublishing.com/2016%20Monthly%20Contests.html

Enchanted Conversation

Theme:  Summer Solstice and Mid-Summer

Genre:  Fairy Tale

Reading Period:  May 1-May 30

Word Count:  700-3000 stories, poems of any length

Pay:  $30

Guidelines:  http://www.fairytalemagazine.com/p/blog-page_22.html

Infective Ink

Themes:  Dear Diary—due April 27, 2016

The End of the World—due May 28, 2016

Pay:  $10 for stories 1500 words and up

Guidelines:  http://infectiveink.com/guidelines.html

On the Premises

Next theme:  TBA

Word Count:  up to 5000

Pay: $60-220 

Guidelines:  http://onthepremises.com/current-contest/

Timeless Tales

Theme:  The Snow Queen

Genre:  retelling of fairy tales—various styles and genres, poetry

Word Count:  up to 2000, 1500 preferred

Pay:  $20

Guidelines:  http://www.timelesstalesmagazine.com/#!submissions/c1vmu

Story

Theme:  Identity

Genres:  Stories, essays, poems

Word Count: up to 2500 for prose

Pay: Unclear

Guidelines:  http://www.storymagazine.org/submit/

Melinda Brasher's first fiction sale was in THEMA, one of the magazines above.  She has other stories published in various magazines, including On the Premises.  Visit her online at www.melindabrasher.com

Case Study: Why Important Books Get Ignored

Case Study;

Getting Professionalism Wrong
or The Gorgeous Books That Go Ignored

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A long time ago, as time is measured in the publishing world, I received a beautiful hardcover book with a slick, arresting dust cover in the mail. Everything about it yelled “professionally published!” right down to the fact that it was written by the president of a well respected company. The trouble was, I hadn’t requested it, there was no personal note, and the letterhead on an enclosed sellsheet didn’t give me an e-mail address. I used the phone number supplied. A pleasant woman couldn’t answer my questions, took my number and I never heard back from either her or the author. I promptly forgot about it. Then I received a note from one of my SharingwithWriters newsletter subscribers who edited the book asking if I had received it. I told her I hadn’t so she had the author’s secretary handling the book send me another.

Horrors. I now had two copies of the book. I wanted to bury my head in the sand but instead I thought I’d admit my mistake like any good professional and maybe help the author in the process. Here is my apology and the letter I hope gave her the information she needed to help him:

Dear [Subscriber],

I apology for my part in a minor marketing fiasco. It is story we can learn from—a minor disaster that could be a major one if it is repeated many times. A minor disaster caused by an omission of contact information and a failure to followup on contacts. I hope we can both learn from this experience.

I received the second book you had your PR person send. When I saw it, I remembered that I did get the earlier copy. There was a letter in it both times, but it didn't mention you or our conversation we had. Though it is a beautiful book, I get about two or three unrequested and unexpected books a week and assumed it was one of those. Still, I take pains to try to contact people who send books to me as a matter of courtesy. There was no e-mail address so I called. There was no personal contact on the phone, either. Just a person saying they would give the busy author a message. I received nothing back. So, I did a little more than usual. I went to the Website where there was also was no personal contact information so I added the e-mail it provided to my contact list thinking that might work eventually. Apparently the author’s agency/handler did receive one of my e-mails and unsubscribed. So, I finally wrote off the whole experience as an impossible mess.

I don't know what contact/relationship you have with the company who promotes this book or with the author, but as professional as everything looks from the book to the letterhead, there are some gaps in this approach to marketing this book. I suspect the author cares enough about having his book read to pay a small fortune to get the word out there either by using his secretary’s well-paid time or hiring a PR agency. I also suspect he is a busy businessman depending on other professionals to do what needs to be done to get it read.

And this is exactly why I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter. That is, I want authors to be very clear that no matter who publishers their books, does their publicity, their marketing...well, the more authors know and the more hands-on the process can be, the better it works.

I hope you'll pass this long to that author if you are in a position to do so. The author is lucky to have you on his side His book does seem to be full of information that will help many. It is a book that is professionally edited and produced and would therefore make a handsome gift. Still, I can't help—make that don't have time to help--anyone who has chosen a publishing path so different from what works and that is to make it as easy as possible on the media and other gatekeepers to give them the exposure they need to sell books.. I only hope I am an isolated case. For his sake and the sake of his prospective audience.

I hope you can see I wouldn't have taken the time to write you this treatise if I didn't care. I am certain you care!

Very best,

Carolyn

Note: I believe that part of the problem this author had was misguided professionalism. He believed (as I do) in empowering employees and designating tasks. After all, no one person can do it all. However, that must be accompanied with the advice I once read in a little book in the 70s. I think it was called “Management by Wandering Around.”  I used this advice when I had gift shops in five cities and two states. It took a lot of traveling, but it was fun, too. And asking question (you might call that monitoring). If you designate, do a lot of training, checking up, holding people responsible, and retraining.

Carolyn has been a proud contributor to WritersOntheMove since its inception. Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. All her books for writers are multi award winners including both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers will be Getting Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

On Becoming a Warrior For My Writing

Guest post by Sallie Wolf

In yoga class one day, while practicing Warrior 3, my teacher asked, “What are you a Warrior for?”

Interesting question. I’ve been eliminating pugilistic, militaristic words from my speech, especially when I’m talking about myself--words like “I’m struggling--;” “ I’m fighting--.” There is a power in language, and the way we phrase things has a lot to do with the way things show up in our lives. I don’t want my life to be a battle, a war, a minefield.

But warrior poses in yoga are powerful poses. I enjoy the challenge of them, balancing strength with softness. I couldn’t reject my teacher’s question out of hand.

What does it mean to be a warrior, and what am I a warrior for? If I took the war out of warrior what was I left with? It seems to me that warriors are fiercely passionate about a cause, willing to commit all their strength, energy, and prowess to something. I can feel that fierceness, that commitment as I concentrate on stepping into the pose, setting my feet in a firm foundation; searching for balance from the inside out; trusting the strength of my body to support me.

I decided that I am a warrior for my writing and my art and especially for my book, The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound: A Birder’s Journal. I love this book, a collection of bird observations told in poetry, sketches, lists, and journal entries. It has the look and feel of a journal/scrapbook. It’s an invitation to the reader to join in the creative process, observing and recording the world around us.

The Robin book earned a starred review from School Library Journal. It was chosen as an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the National Science Teachers Association. It received numerous online favorable reviews, but sales have been disappointing. It has not earned out its advance and is nearing out-of-print status. There are only a few hundred copies left in the warehouse.

I walked out of my yoga class determined to do whatever I can to bring this book out of obscurity. That night I received a call from Lin Oliver, Executive Director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators: I had won the Jane Yolen Midlist Author grant. The award comes with some money. More importantly, it’s a vote of confidence in the value and quality of my work.

Relaunching my Book

To apply for the grant I had written a proposal to “relaunch” my Robin book. I wasn’t sure that you were allowed to relaunch a book—one shot was all you got, right? But I could not let this book fade into out-of-print status without a fight—okay, that’s a battle word. I really am prepared to be a warrior for this book. My proposal outlined a plan of action to reignite interest in the Robin book. My intention to be a warrior lit a fire in me. Receiving the grant reaffirmed my intentions.

After I hung up the phone and wiped the tears from my eyes, I set about doing some of the things I’d written in my proposal.

· I designed and printed a brochure that I have been handing out to teachers, librarians, birders, any and all interested persons; that describes my book and how to order it. I had the brochure ready in time to take it to the SCBWI International Conference in New York City in February.

· I taught a journal-making workshop to a group of home-schooled students. Included in the workshop price was a copy of the Robin book for each participant. I intend to line up more journal-making workshops. This is one of my favorite ways to share my artistic process and introduce my book.

· I have a notebook dedicated to ideas for spreading the word, and I am working my way through the list and adding more ideas.

Having taken on the intention to be a warrior for my work, I find I am able to speak about my book freely and reach out to people who might be interested. I say yes to all the opportunities presenting themselves. Whenever I become hesitant or tired of the marketing demands, I remind myself that I am a warrior for my work and my energy returns. I do not think it is a coincidence that I got Lin Oliver’s call the same day I said, out loud and to my teacher, “I am a Warrior for my book.”

Where do your passions lie? What are you a warrior for?

About the Author:

Wherever she goes, Sallie Wolf takes her journal, fountain pen, ink, and watercolors. These are the tools she uses to record the world she sees. Her journals are a combination of an anthropologist’s field notes, a writer’s notebook, and an artist’s sketchbook. Her children’s books grow out of these journals. The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound: A Birder’s Journal is a collection of bird observations told in poetry, lists, questions, notes, and sketches. Truck Stuck, was chosen by the Illinois Reading Council for their “Illinois Reads” program for 2015. Peter’s Trucks is a 2016 Illinois Reads choice. Sallie lives in Oak Park, IL. Learn more about Sallie’s writing and art, including The Moon Project, on her website. (http://www.salliewolf.com)

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Create Your WordPress Website Today

I have a brand new e-class through WOW! Women on Writing. This one is to fill a great need for authors, writers, and home businesses who just haven’t gotten around to creating their websites or are too intimidated by the process.

Or, maybe you have a site up already, but it's not optimized - it's not 'working' for you. You've been meaning to tweak it, but just haven't gotten around to it.

Well, you can stop procrastinating.

CREATE YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE TODAY (no code, no technical stuff, NO FUSS) is just for YOU.

It covers everything you’ll need to know, with step-by-step instructions, on getting your site up in less than a day.

But, if you don’t have the time to devote to do it in one day or you simply prefer taking your time, no problem - the class is 5 DAYS long (Monday through Friday). This gives you more than enough time to have a fully functioning and optimized website that will:

1. Generate visibility
2. Generate and boost website traffic (people coming to your site)
3. Build authority
4. Build relationships
5. Boost sales

This is a great class and the instructor (me!) is there helping you every step of the way.

Check it out at:

CREATE YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE TODAY
no code, no technical stuff, no fuss

Oh, check out the animation I created just for this class:



THE CLASS RUNS EVERY WEEK, MONDAY TO FRIDAY, AND STARTS APRIL 4TH!

Writers - Don’t Let Your Fears Define You

Guest post by Irene S. Roth

Most writers are fearful of something. And for most of us we are afraid of any public acknowledgement and presentation of our work. So, for many of us, this can be a really difficult thing to overcome.  But it can have a negative impact on our health and well-being as writers.

    One of the most important ways to deal with your fears is to ensure that they don’t define you. Most of us take our fears personally. The important thing to remember is that our fears are out there just as your face and body image is. Also, our fears are merely negative stories that our mind keeps telling us over and over again. The real difficulty is that we usually end up believing these stories over time. And this is where our real problem lies.

Embracing Your Fears

    So many writers are plagued by fears when they write, regardless of whether they are beginning writers or more mature ones. They have so many negative thoughts and feelings about their writing career and their ability to complete these projects.  This negative mindset can wreak havoc with a writer’s self-confidence and overall productivity levels.

So, it is important to deal with these fears and embrace them as much as possible because if you don’t your fears will define you and possibly many of your writing projects. So, you have to deal proactively with your fears and come to terms with them before they start running your writing life.

    Here are a few ways to take steps to embrace your fears.

•    Sit down with your writing journal and write down all of your fears. Take your time coming up with your list. Be as honest as possible. The more honest you are the better it will be.

You may want to spend a week or so compiling your list. One way for you to generate this list is to carry your notebook with you at all times, especially when you sit down to write. As soon as you have a negative thought, write it down right away.

•    Once you have your list of fears and negative thoughts, examine them. Write down the recurring negative thoughts on a separate sheet of paper. Then, choose one of the most common negative statements and work at stamping it out over the next few weeks. Choose one that isn’t very emotional but yet consistently on your mind. Then beside it, write a positive statement to replace the negative one. Practice saying the positive statement for a few weeks.

For instance, if one of your negative statements is that I will never finish this project, change this statement to I plan to finish this project this time. And keep repeating this positive statement.

By taking these steps, you will be gaining self-confidence as a writer, and you will be embracing your fears. This is not a recipe for success and happiness but for overall health.

    So, you don’t have to be defined by your fears. Instead, you could problem-solve around your fears and resolve to be the best writer that you can be one step at a time. Just determine your worse fear and then work from there. In other words, work through your fears to eradicate them. By dealing with your fears directly, you will be taking steps to lessen their negative impact on you and in the process you will be taking control of these negative mindsets.

For a lot more tips on how to be a healthy writer, double click on this link: http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Writer-Irene-S-Roth-ebook/dp/B0176Y6NWG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1446101541&sr=1-1

Irene S. Roth, freelance writer and author, writes for teens, tweens, and kids about self-empowerment. She is the author of over thirty books and over five hundred online articles. She also writes articles for kids, tweens and teens and her articles have appeared in Encounter, Pockets, Guardian Angel Kids Ezine, and Stories for Children Magazine and Online. She also has five hundred published book reviews both online and in print. For more writing tips, please visit my website at: http://irenesroth.wordpress.com/

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Writers: Pin Down Your Alter Ego(s)

Give your garden sunshine, water and food. Watch it thrive.

 

Whatever the origin of your character, whether it be a kid you knew in your childhood, a composite of kids you've known as in the character of Tom Sawyer who was based on a number of boys, or other observations you've made of kids; identifying and understanding the different sides of your own personality can only help.

A helpful resource in character development is Elaine Marie Alphin's (1955-2014) book, Creating Characters Kids will Love. Alphin, author of Ghost Cadet and Ghost Soldier, as well as YA books and books for very young children, said in an interview, "There's a little of me in just about every character I write. I think there has to be, in order to give each character life." 

 

Some of your character creations may surprise you. Those are the best ones. Alphin said, "This comes into play when you try to make the character do something you thought was essential, but he refuses to do it! He wants to do something else. He has just surprised you. This is a wonderful moment! When it happens, let him do it and see what happens. Often he'll do something that's more effective than what you had in mind in the first place."

 

Keep a Character Journal

A good way to begin is to keep track of your "persons of interest." Describe the way he dresses, her mannerisms, what attracted him to you, etc. In her book, Alphin goes into great detail about capturing what the people were like in your childhood, the things they did and what you thought about them.   

• Who were you as a child? Were you the oldest, youngest or in the middle? An only child?
• Write in detail how you felt about where you were in your family, what your family members were really like relative to their relationship with you.

Ways to Inform Character Creation

1. Make your character care:

• Alphin: The easiest way to make the reader care is to make the main character care. Something must be at stake for the character - something he wants, something he needs, something he desires, something he'll lose if he fails. The more critical the problem is to the main character, the more eagerly the reader will turn the page, desperate to find out What happens next?
• What you can do: Make a list of what you care about. Your character can find ways to show that he cares about these things, too.
• Make your concerns personal: My concerns center around loving and respecting nature and encouraging children to feel the same way. All my stories have taken place in natural surroundings (still, that includes apartment living, as in many children's lives, but having much of the action take place outside, hearing birds, etc.) Animals, plants, trees (insects, the sky, mountains, grass--the list is endless!) become a backdrop to the action.

2. Create a plot that propels your character to find a solution to a problem, solve a mystery, and in the process change to become a better person.

• Alphin:Character motivation is the heart of what makes a story work or not! Writers are like directors in a play - we know what we want our character to do and where we want them to move to, so we're tempted to just pick them up and move them around in order to get them there, much like pulling the strings of a group of marionettes. But if that's all we do, we end up with two-dimensional characters who are less believable than a row of marionettes dangling from their storage hooks. Characters come alive for readers when we as writers know their motivation - why they want to do or say what the writer wants them to do or say. A character's thought process has to be as believable as our own.
• What you can explore: What issues did you and your childhood friends face? Do other children you know face? Visit and re-visit these issues. Chances are these are the same that kids have always faced, described in a nutshell as "Children's Basic Needs," by Lee Wyndham in Writing for Children and Teenagers:
• The need to love and be loved.
• The need to belong.
• The need to achieve.
• The need for security--material, emotional, spiritual.
• The need to know.

3. Throughout the book there are exercises that are great for ways to develop your characters, as in this example:

• Choose a situation; write a conversation between two characters. Next, make one character your main character and add that character's thoughts and feelings. Next, add the action. Then, show each character as he or she moves or gestures. Use facial expressions to reflect his or her feelings.
• In my current WIP, I've used this example to analyze conversations between and among my characters. Some places skimped on one or more elements, i.e., I left out my mc's thoughts or feelings or how one of the characters moved, gestured or made a facial expression to reflect their feelings.

3. At your story's resolution, show how your character has changed and grown.

• In the chapter on character growth, Alphin describes in detail how to show how your character grows and changes; an element I find particularly challenging. The example that has helped the most is in the beginning of the book under the subheading, "Characters do things."
• Alphin includes a scene from her book, The Ghost Cadet, about how Benjy, her 12-year-old mc climbed down a roof for the first time. She writes, "You can tell that Benjy is afraid from his slow progress, and that he probably hasn't done this before from his awkward movements. You can see his frustration about being short. You can see the way he talks himself into doing what he doesn't want to do . . . the next time he has to climb something" he'll be more confident.
• My mc is unfamiliar with country life and in a similar scene she climbs a dark, narrow staircase, not knowing where it leads, and finds a trap door that leads to the roof. Alphin's description of how Benjy has learned from his first scary experience has helped me show better how my mc can gain confidence from hers. From there, I've been better able to show her become more adept at each new thing she tries until she is fully capable by the end to do what it takes to solve the mystery.
• Alphin: In another example, Marc wants to find the treasure in order to hold onto a person who may be gone from his life. Perhaps he will discover not only hidden treasure, but also the hidden truth that friends sometimes go in different directions and that growing apart isn't the end of the world, because you're open to new friendships. Or perhaps his friend will get caught up in the search, and Marc will realize that they're still friends after all. His friend is the real treasure, and he just needed to reach out to him in order to hold on. Either way, Marc doesn't just find the treasure, he grows and changes because of the actions he takes in order to achieve his goal. His inner problem is what makes the story unique and meaningful.
• What I've learned: What began as curiosity about the meaning of alter ego(s) led me to discover Alphin's terrific book and embark upon more in-depth thought about who my characters really are. Not just sides of my personality struggling to show themselves, but living, thriving beings with backgrounds, feelings, desires, likes and dislikes.

Photo: From Linda Wilson's collection, taken on a warm fall day in Alaska

 

                                                      

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 100 articles for adults and children, and six short stories for children. Recently, she completed Joyce Sweeney's online fiction courses, picture book course and mystery and suspense course. She is currently working on several projects for children. Follow Linda on Facebook.