This is a great article from the Master of Horror, Stephen King. Whether you are dreaming of writing a book, in the middle of writing one, or have several novels completed, Mr King has something to offer everyone: http://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/8-simple-writing-strategies-that-helped-stephen-king-sell-350-million-books.html

I am so looking forward to this year. Lots of great things happening. Can’t say much as yet, but I am very optimistic that there are some big changes coming for me. Guess everyone will just have to sit on the edge of their seat.

2016 saw The Holiday Series Trilogy and One Frosty Christmas back in the top 100 on Amazon in their categories which made me pretty happy.

I hope to release Valentino later this year.

I am also changing lanes a bit and working on some different genres including a teen drama with a psychic twist as well as a black comedy for all us middle aged horse women. I know, I am such a tease.

So here’s to 2017. May yours be lively and exciting.

Laura Hesse

Thank you to all my readers.

The Holiday Series – The River Bend Trilogy has hit the best seller status on Amazon.com. It is #27 in Kindle Books – Animal Care – Horses, and in the top 100 in Kindle eBooks – Children’s eBooks – Animals – Horses.

 Go Fjord x 4’ing this Christmas.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours.

Laura Hesse

From December 12 – 19th only, get a further 21% discount off The Holiday Series: The Complete River Bend Trilogy e-book – on Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. or get started reading the Holiday Series and order your free e-copy of One Frosty Christmas by signing up for a FREE ebook by joining my mailing list.

This is an interesting article from Inktip, one of the most popular script listing services, but whether you are writing fiction or a script, the writing of interesting supporting characters is paramount to a successful story.

Linda McCloud and Johnny Joe are two of my favorites in The Holiday Series. Linda is so full of boundless energy that she is infectious and turned from a supporting character into a main character in A Filly Called Easter. Johnny Joe’s search for identity is actually the driving force behind the plot in The Great Pumpkin Ride. Both of these characters developed more and more during the writing of One Frosty Christmas and resonated with lots of my readers.

https://www.inktip.com/article_single.php?a_id=145

Both the kindle versions of these two novels are FREE to Kindle Unlimited Customers this holiday season. Not a Kindle Unlimited customer, that’s okay. The e-books are $0.99 on Amazon worldwide from December 1 – 7th.

Go ahead – crack open the cover.

I have re-released the Holiday Series – The Complete River Bend Trilogy – on Amazon this year, but only until Christmas. The three novel set of YA novels including One Frosty Christmas, The Great Pumpkin Ride, and A Filly Called Easter, are FREE for Kindle Unlimited subscribers worldwide.

Love the ones you’re with….Merry Christmas to all

Laura Hesse

I am truly enjoying the videos and podcasts in the GS2 – Genre Summit for budding screenwriters and film students. It was fascinating listening to Uwe Boll, the director of In the Name of the King with Jason Statham, discuss directing, filming and what it takes to distribute a film internationally. So far some of my other favorite interviews have been with Writer/Directors Mike Hurst and Jeff Allard who have been very candid about what it takes to succeed in the business, what to expect, and the pitfalls. Jeff Allard (Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The Beginning) shared some great information about book adaptations and securing the rights to older films to produce a re-release.

The overall take that I took away from the videos so far is:

1. the Director/Writer is the way of the future.
2. Not every option leads to filming so keep writing and keep optioning.
3. Don’t expect 6 figures. If you get $10 – $15,000 for a script, that is the general norm for a start-up.
4. Not every sale of a script means that you will work on the film or on the re-writes.
5. Stick to it – write every day.
6. Don’t let the script deviate from the logline.
7. Write what you love because you may end up only writing in one genre.

Thanks to all involved.

Since I’ve taken a trip to the dark side and penned a horror screenplay and since it is making its rounds in LA, I thought I’d sign up for the Second Annual Genre Summit and get some advice from industry professionals on the genre. If you are interested in writing horror, this might be of interest to you: http://www.genresummit.com/