A Writers’ Conference is a place where writers gather together to celebrate the craft of writing. Writers are inspired, educated and are able to connect with other writers of all levels (beginners to advanced). A conference provides writers with the opportunity to network with other professionals: writers, authors, editors, agents and publishers. It also encourages writers to write, to publish, to promote and sell their own work.
New writers fear attending a writers’ conference.

             “I’m not a real writer. Conferences are for real writers, they’re not for me.”

Published writers avoid writers’ conferences.

          “I’ve been published already. I could teach every one of those workshops listed on the schedule. I don’t need to go to a conference.”

I disagree. Writers’ Conferences are for ALL writers. There is something beneficial about attending a conference at least once a year. I was lucky enough to attend two writers’ conferences this past year, and one was a newbie conference, so it had it’s issues, but overall, there was something awesome for me at both of them.

10 Reasons to Attend a Writers’ Conference:

Continue to read the article at Ascribe Writers website, where I'm guest blogging today:
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                                                         Ascribe Writers Guest Post by Lori Twining

The amazing and talented, Mr. Kevin Craig has done it again... he's releasing another new Young Adult novel next month and today, he is giving us a peek at the new cover. It looks FANTASTIC! I can't wait to add this to my YA bookshelf.

Half Dead & Fully Broken Synopsis:

Carter Colby is the most unpopular teen at Jefferson High. This would be easier to deal with if his identical twin brother, Marcus, weren't the hottest, most popular boy in school. 

When Marcus is killed in a motorcycle accident, Carter discovers the one thing more painful than trying to compete with Mr. Wonderful: wearing his dead brother's face.

He felt invisible before the accident, but with Marcus dead everybody turns away from him in mourning. How can he blame them? He can't bear to look in the mirror. 

When Carter begins to see Marcus's ghost, Mr. Wonderful's quest to save the world and spread happiness may not be over after all, even in death. Marcus knows that Justin Dewar, the boy who drove the truck that crashed into his motorbike, is struggling with the guilt of taking a life. Melanie, Marcus's mourning girlfriend, was also hard hit by the tragedy. Marcus wants to make things right before it's too late. 

With Marcus's help, Carter experiences love and friendship for the first time in his life. But is Mr. Wonderful's helping hand enough for Carter, Melanie, and Justin - three kids fully broken by the tragedy - to save one another? 

If you would like to pre-order Half Dead and Fully Broken, use this link to Amazon.com: 

If you missed out on Kevin Craig's newest novel, Burn Baby Burn Baby, released this week, you can find it here:

Kevin, a fellow Muskoka Novel Marathon writer has a knack for telling edgy, emotionally packed stories for Young Adults. If you have teenager in the house, you should be checking out this YA Author. He is currently working on the sequel to Half Dead and Fully Broken right now... and has several other novels on the go. He is full of ideas and can't wait to share his stories with you. 

If perhaps, you are a writer and a reader, Kevin Craig will be at the upcoming Ontario Writers' Conference from April 24-25, 2015. He is one of the Blue Pencil Mentors during the conference, so he is ready to read your work and he'll be happy to give you feedback (not editing) on three-pages from your manuscript. You can chat about your writing life, process or any other issues you're having in the writing of a manuscript. You can sign up for the Ontario Writers' Conference and a  Blue Pencil Session with Kevin here: 

BURN BABY, BURN BABY, Kevin Craig's fourth Novel, a contemporary young adult novel is being released by Curiosity Quills Press on December 11, 2014... that's TOMORROW. You can PRE-ORDER a copy today at AMAZON for only $4.99 for a Kindle version. Click the button below:

Today, I have the pleasure of being part of the Burn Baby Blog Tour and sharing my Review of the novel with you. Before I do that, I just want to tell you that I am a huge fan of YA (Young Adult) novels. I'm an avid reader and I read books from every genre, but, I love the YA category the best. In fact, I am also a writer in the same genre, so believe me when I say, "I KNOW MY YA! With that said, I will just blurt out, Burn Baby, Burn Baby was a FANTASTIC QUICK READ!

I read this book in one evening, while sitting in my rocking chair, wrapped in a fleecy blanket, chewing on my fingernails (especially during the last seven chapters or so). Actually, I believe this is the ONLY book I've read during 2014 (out of 83 books so far), that I have stayed up past my bedtime to finish reading it. It was that good. 

I do have a confession I want to throw out, actually it is more of a brag... I believe, I was actually in the same room as this writer, when he was pounding the keyboard during the Muskoka Novel Marathon writing this very novel. Kevin Craig is a machine. He hardly ever sleeps. I have been lucky enough to watch him create four novels over the past four summers and I can't wait to read each and every one of them. The amazing part of this, he was writing these novels while raising money for Literacy. What a wonderful cause to support!

Kevin has a talent with developing characters you fall in love with like Francis, the main character who is abused and bullied almost all his life. I dropped a tear or two reading about specific moments he spent with his father. I just wanted to reach inside the book and hug the poor boy. Take him home with me and try and protect him. Kevin created Francis's best friend Trig, who continuously stood up for Francis and was his full-time protection against the meanest kid in high school, Brandon Hayley, who I couldn't help but despise. Kevin, also created Rachel, a girl who was able to look past the ugliness and find only things to smile about... and kiss gently. My emotions were all over the map on this book: I went from happiness, to anger, to frustrated, to horror with every page I turned. I could easily picture this novel as a movie, as Francis was quite often doing, and I feel that I actually knew a few of these kids when they attended my high school back in the day. 

This book was a fantastic portrayal of the every day teenage life, with sticks and stones thrown in to make us gasp, including some trial and errors of coping with his problems, using methods such as alcohol, that every child experiences at one time or another. Teens are often struggling to find the right path on how to deal with small issues, let alone larger ones that happen near the end of the book. Sometimes, it's hard facing the truth of what life is like behind the closed door...sometimes, you never know. I loved the references of the Shakespeare quotes and the Paul Simon mentions. I can't give this away though, no spoilers from me, so you'll just have to wait and read it yourself. It's not what you think, I promise. PLUS, I loved all the author's acknowledgements at the end of the book... I possibly shed a tear or two.

Burn Baby, Burn Baby is a must read for all kids over the age of 12... and any parent who might have a child living in their house who may be abusive to others, or more importantly, may be the one getting tortured and is now scared to leave the house for worry, he may never come home alive.

You should add this novel to your Christmas Wish List this year.  ~  5 out of 5 Stars.

Hashtags are important when using a social media networking site like Twitter. The hashtag is a hyperlink keyword that is searchable throughout Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. It allows you to find new connections with other writers who will share the same interests as you. It makes it easier to find tweets on #Horror for instance. Or if you are a reader and you want to know what everyone else is reading, then you can search #FridayReads. This is a hashtag that appears every Friday by readers telling you what they are reading that day.

When connecting with other writers, you can keep up to date on topics such as #WritingCompetitions or #amwriting, which is someone who is writing at that moment and wants to have a virtual #writingbuddy to touch base with for the day, or do writing sprints with.

Using hashtags will also help you raise awareness to your writing profile, attracting people of interest, such as #LiteraryAgents, #Publishers and #Editors.

Writers should use specific hashtags to enhance their search results and to highlight keywords that are important to their books, posts or topics. Some research indicates that using more than two hashtags will greatly reduce the number of retweets you’ll receive with each post, so use them wisely. One piece of advice, before I give you a list of hashtags, DON'T OVERUSE THEM. Try to keep a limit of no more than three hashtags per tweet. Stay natural. Stay cool. Never spam people with 140 characters of continuous hashtags. That is soooo UNCOOL.

My list of Writing-Related Hashtags

These hashtags are important and useful to any writer. I'm sure there are many more than what I have listed, but these are the ones I frequently use:

• #amediting ~ You are currently editing some of your writing.
  

• #amwriting ~ You are currently writing something... a novel, manuscript, screenplay, short story.
• #AuthorChat ~ Ongoing conversations between authors.
• #Askagent ~ You can ask an agent a question, even if you don't actually have one.
• #AskAuthor ~ You can ask another author a question about their writing process, their book launch, etc.
• #AwesomeRead ~ Tell the World about the book you just finished... it was AWESOME!
• #BestSeller ~ A book that is on the Best Seller List.
• #CAA ~ Canadian Authors Association.
• #EBook ~ To tell your readers that your book is available electronically on iPad, Kindle, Nook or Kobo.
• #EPub ~ Electronically published and available in PDF, etc.
• #FF or #FollowFriday ~ On Friday mornings shout to the World your favourite Tweeters of the week using the usernames of your most loyal retweeters or followers or your writing group/book club members.
• #Free ~ Author is giving away their book or a chapter of their manuscript for FREE that day.
• #FridayReads ~ Every Friday, readers post what they are reading that day. Name of book and Author with it.

• #Giveaway ~ Author is giving one of their books away in a giveaway.
• #Genre ~ This is a popular hashtag telling readers what genre you are talking about or reading in: #Horror #YA #MG #Romance #Fantasy #SciFi #Mystery #Thriller #Suspense #Erotica #Poetry #Memoir, etc.
• #Goodreads ~ An App to keep track of what you are reading, what you want to read and what everyone else is reading. Plus you can join groups, take part in giveaways and talk to the authors. It's a great App.
• #Holidays are popular: #Christmas #Thanksgiving #Easter #ValentinesDay #MothersDay
• #KidLit ~ Authors of children’s books will want to use these hashtags.
• #Kindle ~ For Kindle users.
• #LifeOfAWriter ~ Typical tweets outlining your life as a writer.
• #LiteraryAgents ~ Agents that work for a Literary Agency.
• #LiteraryFestivals ~ Literary Festivals on Twitter.
• #LiteraryMagazines ~ Literary Magazines that are on Twitter.
• #MNM2015 ~ Muskoka Novel Marathon 2015.
• #NaNoWriMo ~ National Novel Writing Month.
• #OWC2015 ~ Ontario Writers' Conference 2015.
• #PitchWars ~ Contest on Twitter, where published & agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose the best tweet pitches of their books to win a critique for mentorship or agent review, etc. depending on contest.
• #Publishers ~ Book Publishers on Twitter.

• #SCBWI ~ Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

• #ShortStory ~ All about the short story.
• #ToNoMa ~ Toronto Novel Marathon.
• #ThankfulThursday ~ Used on Thursdays to show other members how thankful you are for their friendship.
• #WCDR ~ Writers' Community of Durham Region.
• #WCSC ~ Writers' Community of Simcoe County.
• #WCYR ~ Writers' Community of York Region.
• #WIWC ~ Windsor International Writers' Conference.
• #WordCount ~ Share progress or your writing word count goal for the day.
• #WordGoal ~ You announce how many words you are intending on writing that day.
• #WritersBlock ~ Stuck on something and you need help/ideas from others to get you motivated again.
• #WritingCompetitions ~ Competitions or Contests for writing submissions.
• #WritingContest ~ Local writing contests with deadlines.
• #WritingTips ~ Tips to learn more about your craft.

• #Writing ~ Any topic about writing.
• #WritingBlitz ~ You are writing as fast as you can and locking your internal editor into a closet.
• #WritingBuddies ~ Twitter buddies that you are virtually writing with each day.
• #WritingFiction ~ Writing about Fiction. Network or share your books, goals, or ideas on writing fiction.
• #WritingPrompt ~ Search this hashtag to find a great prompt to get those creative juices flowing.
• #WW or #WriterWednesday ~ On Wednesdays, use this hashtag and introduce people to your Twitter tribe.
  
  

Being a writer, I find Twitter extremely useful. Truthfully, I enjoy being on Twitter more than any other social media networking site out there. Twitter is a powerful tool that writers should be taking advantage of. So, if you are struggling with why you ever signed up for Twitter, here are a 10 tips, to get you going in the right direction again.

1. If you are a writer, you need to tell everyone that little tidbit within your Bio. Spend some quality time on creating your Bio. People like to connect with writers, so tell them you are a writer. If you are a circus clown, and you feel that is important, because you would like to connect with other circus clowns, then by all means, add that too.
2. Add a complimentary photo of you, NOT your dog or a beach chair, unless you want other dog lovers and beach lovers to follow you. You should look professional, and keep the drunken stupor or party pictures buried within your closet. Also, try to pick one where you are smiling and enjoying life. People love connecting with happy people.
3. Add your web page link, so people can find out more about you. If you don't have a web page yet, why don't you? They are free. Take the time to develop something for people to look at when they are googling you (and yes, people actually google you, especially future agents). If you don't have a web site, and don't feel like going through the hassle of making one right now, link to your LinkedIn profile or Facebook Page... or something. Anything.
4. Use a unique background, preferably a picture that you took yourself. Therefore, everyone who stops by to see your profile will be looking at something they have never seen before. It keeps them interested. Also, make sure your bio can be read through the image.
5. Search for influential people within your niche. If you are a writer, you may want to follow other writers. These people can keep you up to date with writing conference registrations, writing workshops, author appearances, writing tips, etc. Keep your focus narrowed to only a few different topics.
6. Don't follow EVERYBODY that follows you. Not everyone is worth following. Some may just want to push their one and only book on you, twenty-seven times per day. That gets annoying and you WILL become angry. Don't be one of those people. Tweet about random things, not the title of your book every half hour. If you keep an eye on your Follower-Following ratio, try to have more followers than people you are following, as it tells people you might be more interesting than you really are.
7. Make friends by promoting people. You can do it many different ways. The most popular, is to retweet someone else's tweet. Or comment on their question and make it a discussion. Basically, I'm saying you should interact with people, so they will remember who you are. I've met many great writing friends through Twitter and we have met in person at various writing conferences throughout Ontario.
8. Use hashtags of importance to writers. Hashtags are hyperlink keywords that can be searched throughout Twitter. Example: #FF (Follow Friday), #writing, #amwriting, #writer, #writingtips and #writingbuddies. If you are a writer and a reader, add #FridayReads, #amreading, #ReadingIsTheNewCool, #Reading and #TodaysRead. Readers are best friends to writers, because someday, you will write a book, have it published and NEED readers to read it. Make friends now and it will be easier for you later. Also, you can filter your writing more by using specific hashtags, such as #YA (for Young Adult), #YALit (Young Adult Literature), #MG (Middle Grade), or #SciFi (Science Fiction), or #Fantasy, #Erotica, #Fiction or #NonFiction. You get the idea.
9. My personal favourite tip: Use Lists. You can add people to lists without having to follow them. Example: I have a NEWS List that I use for current local news that includes radio stations, newspapers and TV Stations. It has Police Road Closures and weather reports. I look at the list daily at least three times... morning, noon and night. Example of other Lists that would be helpful for writers: Writing groups, writing friends in the USA, writing friends from your Summer Marathon. You can help your friends easier by seeing all their posts for the day and electing the appropriate tweet to retweet, promoting their book launch or their blog tour.
10. Automatic posting of the same 140 character tweet to Facebook, Instagram and other social media networking apps... DON'T DO IT! Each networking site is for a different group of people. If you want to tell everyone the same information, it is more professional to copy and paste it, than to automatic tweet it. People will start blocking you or hiding your information, because they have already read it on their other website feed. It's duplicate information. Facebook is more for family and friends, where Twitter is more for your network of people who you NEED to talk to every day... they like what you like... they want to talk about what you want to talk about... and if it's writing, and you are PASSIONATE about writing, then, TWITTER is the place to be. WELCOME.

BONUS: Tweet every day, something of interest to the World. We don't need to know you are having a shower, or eating tofu, but if you just submitted an awesome short story or you landed your first agent, then definitely tweet that info. Be more interesting than a dead spider and they will love you! :)