It will be about the history of an amazing man I am going to do my very best to keep this in a word-length! My very good friend is a fantastic writer and he has encouraged me to give writing a try. Here goes... My friend and I have always been extremely different in terms of lifestyle. He is a conservative Christian, I am not. He is rich, I am poor. He is the son of one of the most well known businessmen in the state of Indiana, I am a college drop out, a self-employed artist and a member of a lower income family. And yet, despite all the differences that divide us, we have shared great times. But as I said, I have always been drawn to his writings. I have had a copy of his novel since July 2010, and it has sat on my bookshelf since then waiting for me to get to it. Finally last week I decided to finally read it. When I did, I was blown away! It is an amazing work. I could feel the excitement coming from him as he is writing it. It was as if I was right there with him the whole time. The book is about the man who is the son of the local businessman. At his fathers urging, he agrees to go into business with the businessman, a plan he didn't have much faith in at first. He feels strongly that the man will try to use him and manipulate him. But as the years go on, the man proves him wrong and actually becomes his best friend and the one thing he can trust more than anything else in the world. It is obvious that he and his wife love each other very much. But in spite of this, they have three very difficult children. They are the kind of children that make you want to say "oh good grief" just as soon as they appear. But as a person who himself comes from a difficult family, I could see myself in this story. It is about a family of very difficult children, but the best son and husband in the world. It is the story of a very strong love. I am still not done with the book and it is only early this afternoon, but I would say that I love it. He has a great talent and I can't wait for his next book. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It seems that my writing was what I did to get over my fear of being around people. Writing was my connection to a world I couldn't quite touch in my normal, every day life. My imagination and my ability to put words together were something I was extremely good at and it became a way to communicate with people. It made me feel special. I felt an internal pressure to stay in that world. My life was fine with or without people, but I longed for more. My new world came with writing and all that came with it. It became a part of my life. I knew that it wasn't how I was really supposed to live, but I had to do it for a while. I felt trapped in a little world between my desire to enjoy writing, love life, my family and my business. At the end of the day though I had little if any hope that I would find a place in all those parts of my life. About Me The Book Queen is the brain child of Debbie, aka DBQ, (not her real name), an IT Manager by day and an aspiring fiction writer by night. Debbie is 41, has four children aged 13 and under, and has been married for 20 years. Debbie currently resides in her home town in Scotland but spends as much time as possible in Yorkshire and London where the culture, atmosphere and opportunities are such that it feels more like home to her. The Book Queen was created primarily to make reading and writing easier for DBQ. It contains all her useful advice and hints along with some wonderful suggestions from other authors, all of whom are greatly respected in the writing world. It has been going since October 2010 and has already had over 100K hits. The Book Queen has won many awards, a few of which you will find below and some other interesting facts that you can read about, should you choose to do so. Want your own copy of the Book Queen? Please contact DBQ and ask for your own copy to be mailed to your home. If you want it signed, let her know and she will gladly add her signature! The Book Queen was recently interviewed by the hugely popular writers’ blog, The Creative Penn "How about a little information about The Book Queen?" Q.1 How did the idea for The Book Queen come about? A. I felt that so many people were looking for writing information and tips but nowhere did they all seem to be gathered together to make it easy to find. There was writing information on sites, but you were faced with all the stuff that goes on at one site. I know this because I took it upon myself to try and sift through all the information on one particular site and decided that no one could really find the information they wanted to in a way that would be easy to understand. Then I came up with the idea of producing a little document that anyone who wanted to write could then have printed out and take with them. It could easily be folded up and stuffed into a pocket or booklet. It contained all my suggestions and hints to help people who wanted to write a book. Then I put it on a website because I know that information on the internet is important and that people do need to be able to find it. And The Book Queen website was born. Q.2 How has The Book Queen changed over the years? A. The information in the original Book Queen is what I had first come up with for myself. My own writing is what I had used as a foundation to create The Book Queen. But it has grown and evolved in all sorts of ways since. It now includes other writing hints and tips from some of my favorite writing authors and much, much more. Q.3 Has The Book Queen helped your writing or other interests? A. Writing has helped my writing and my family and friends have used some of the hints I give out. I have been told that some of the hints have saved people hours of grief. Q.4 How did the idea for The Book Queen come about? A.I wanted to write a series about The Golden Triangle – not The Book Queen, but The Golden Triangle series about a woman living in and around the Scottish Borders, and her family and friends. I am not living in and around the Scottish Borders, but I did decide that this wouldn’t necessarily be a problem as long as I was getting to use a certain area of the Borders as a backdrop for my novel. The Book Queen does have a lot of Borders information in it and I often use Borders information when writing. Q.5 Where do you get your information? A. I get all my information from a wide variety of sources. I spend time learning what there is on the internet, I visit book fairs and buy new books and read them, ask friends and I take part in online chats and discussions. Q.6 Have you been published? A. No. Q.7 What is your best advice to those who would like to write? A. If you want to write, do it. Write it, write it now and keep it simple. Put all your ideas on paper and leave everything else out. Keep your emotions out of it, if at all possible. Take a course on writing and join a critique group or seek out critique partners who can offer a different perspective. Q.8 Do you have a question for The Book Queen? A. Yes. If you have a website or even if you don’t, is there anything you would like to share with other writers out there? A. I recently completed The Book Queen’s Blogging Workshop, part of the Writing.ie course. I had never done any blogging before and I found it extremely helpful to learn all the details of it from the workshop. The ideas from those details were invaluable in getting me up and running. I really loved the course and would recommend it to any and every one who loves to write. 3 comments: This is such an interesting post. I don't think I've ever read the Book Queen but I have used several of the hints. This one certainly sounds like it