Author Heather McCorkle

Last week I was reminded of one of the main reasons I write. Between thinking about grammar, sentence structure, flow, voice, plot, and character building, we writers can lose sight of one of the most important elements of our story; the readers. A friend called me up one night last week to tell me he had come home to find his daughter with her Nook in one hand and a broom in the other, attempting to read as she swept the floor. He laughed at her and told her that must be a really good book to make her read while trying to work. She said it was and that she was so close to the end she couldn’t stop reading it. It was my book. I may have laughed for joy then got teary-eyed when he told me this story. I’ll never tell. Later that night he called back and told me she was dying to read the next one. I told him how to find it and I could hear her cheering in the background. She said she hadn’t read anything that good since Harry Potter and Twilight. In all my life, I never expected to stac...

Should you be building a writer's platform or a foundation? What's the difference and why should you care? All good questions. Chances are you've heard the term writer's platform and you know that it's an important part of preparing for becoming an author. A platform is what it sounds like, the thing you'll stand upon to bring readers to you and sell your novels. For some people they find that in blogging, others find it in Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or some other social network. You must choose what works for you and go with it. But there is an important factor that is often skipped. Before you can build a platform, a floor, you must have a solid foundation to build that floor on. Without a foundation your platform will be shaky, weak, and subject to all manner of disasters. Don't worry or cringe at the idea of yet more work, chances are you've been working on your foundation and you don't even know it. It is a solid base of friends, family, and/...