Robin of Rockridge's Blog

By Thonie Hevron

A cold call. In marketing it means calling/contacting someone without an introduction to sell them something. I don’t have a sales or marketing history. I have always believed that I could not approach someone for sales purposes if my life depended on it. I can answer a 911 call with a woman screaming in my ear and send the appropriate help, but marketing? Not so much.

It’s funny how these self-perceptions can be so skewed. They can also be changed.

When I got serious about my writing about fifteen years ago, I learned that the publishing industry was in the process of changing. Technology has moved the traditional method of publishing to the slow lane. E-books and social media are mainstream. Indie books and small press publishing houses abound as do websites for book reviews, author interviews, cover art and the gamut of the process. One of…

For many writers (me included), we don’t start off with the confidence to yell to the world, “I’m going to be a professional author!” Heck, I wrote a 178,000 word “novel” and still didn’t believe I was a writer. Later, I had over a year and a half of consistent blogging under my belt, multiple short stories, and newbie novels that had been at least good enough to win prestigious contests and yet….

I was not a “real writer.”

Schrödinger Writer? If you put a writer in an office at a keyboard, is the writer alive or dead (real or fake) until the book is published?

We’ve Come a LONG Way, Baby

The literary landscape has shifted dramatically. More avenues of publishing have opened and become appealing, thus this silly question of, “Are we a real writer?” holds far less power. Believe it or not, when I began blogging, I dedicated…

If you’re one of those people who knows everything already, you can leave now. You won’t need any advice from someone who worked his way up from sleeping on the back seat of his car to getting mainstream published in 11 languages.

Ok, for everyone still reading, here’s those 4 harsh truths:

1) You have to work at seducing people into reading your book.

Ok, some of you do it naturally, you have the gift, but for the rest of us, we have to make the package attractive, go to the right places and play the right games, smiling all the way. That means, making your blog sparkle, not crappy and unreadable, getting your name out far and wide and creating compelling, seductive posts about your book, every week.

2) You’re either a bitter writer or a motivated writer.

I don’t care how many rejections you got, if you’re still alive you can write, you…

When your American Dream goes awry,

and you no longer reach for the stars,

reach for the humour instead––

and then hit the bars.

My debut novel following a young fashion designer’s climb to the top of the international fashion industry is liberally sprinkled with stars, humour and bars. You can buy Silk for the Feed Dogs here.

My current reading: Augustus John by Michael Holroyd published 1974

Immersed in research for my second novel, I stumbled upon the painter, Augustus John. He was an interesting type and no mistake but it is his women who truly fascinate. Upon reading descriptions of them, how they spoke and looked and thought, I sought out their portraits. Style mavens with names like Dorelia, Ida (surname Nettleship, no less), Alick, Estella, Arabella, Guilhermina, Ottoline, Clarissa, Caitlin, Amaryllis, Iris, formed a pageant of poetically monikered muses that fuelled his art. They would fuel my sketches too if I had a collection to design. Instead they will fuel my fiction.

Known for “a compelling stare when he looked at a woman,” Augustus John’s quest for the next enigmatic face was a compulsion he made no apologies for. It was a congenital weakness. A coquettish voice emanating from a plumply pretty face sustained his…

Murphy the Police Horse

Article by Tom Hallman Jr.

Officer Cassandra Wells says Murphy did a great job helping her make an arrest last week.

A horse that earned his way onto the Portland Police Bureau’s Mounted Patrol Unit last year after dropping 200 pounds and getting in shape was credited with making his first collar last week.

Murphy, carrying Officer Cassandra Wells, chased down a man suspected of breaking into a building in Old Town and kept him trapped next to a building until cops could slip cuffs on him.

“We were flagged down because someone was trying to break into a building,” Wells said. “He took off, and so did we.”

The suspect ran about six blocks — Murphy galloping after him — before the big horse cornered him.

“It was the first time Murphy has been involved in an arrest,” Wells said. “He did everything I needed…