Paths to Getting Published

I have a plethora of talented friends.   A mixture of professional and armature artists in a variety of mediums: painters, photographers, film makers, writers, actors, woodworkers, crafters, chefs, cosmetologists, scrapbookers and seamstresses.   I enjoy their talents.   The work they do is inspiring and it challenges me to expand my own artistic reach.   I love seeing their new art as well as enjoying their older works.   From time to time I catch someones name as it rolls past on the credits after a film or see a familiar shinning face on TV.   This week I was lucky enough to get an offer to view new series of incredible photographs by one of my favorite photographers.   When these types of things happen, my heart jumps and I think ”Yes, my friend is awesome“. Recently I have grown to appreciate the resurgence of a detail oriented art form called scrapbooking.   The time, effort and skill put into each page is exceptional.   Only to ha...

It is difficult to say anything at all through the fresh tears of new loss.   Words cannot express the love he inspired in all of us.   What can I say about such a strong man who is one of the most influential people in my life?   He has seen me though the many stages of my life with love and compassion.   He is a man of solid character, Christian values and a strong family leader.   Through grace he is welcomed with a great celebration into heaven by God and by all who have come before him.   It must be an unbelievably joyous sight.   He is seeing his beloved mother, sister, brother and father again after all of these years.    I know he would rather have stayed here with Grandma until they could have gone on together.   I too would rather keep him here with us.   However I am comforted by the knowledge that he is home with God and the rest of his friends and family who have gone on before him.   I try and picture w...

With the current state of the world is it any wonder that escapism is on the rise.   It is nice to get away from the reality of daily life every now and again.   Whether it is escaping into a good book, a video game or your writing.   Take a mental vacation by diving deeply into the vast ocean of your imagination.   Get lost in the adventure and be surprised hours later to find yourself sitting in your living room when you reappear.   Thinking to yourself ”Oh, how did i get here?   On this couch?“   Eventually reality will begin to seep back into your mind ”Oh yeah, I remember.   There are my bills on the table next to the sink full of dishes“.   Then you will come to the most delectable thought.   Which is reality can wait a little while longer before you have to return.   You pick up your book saying to yourself ”I think I’ll read one more chapter before calling it a night“ and off you go.   JLCooper

I wish I could sign up for an online dating service for my book.   If only there was a match.com or jdate.com for writing.   It could be called Bdate.com or Literary.com.   A dating service that would hooking up a writer and a literary agent with similar interests, outlooks and tastes.   Instead I am wooing literary agents the old fashion way or rather the new old fashion way.   In my search for the perfect literary partnership I find myself filtering through endless supplies of information.   Pages upon pages of lists of literary agents and literary agencies trying to decipher which are even interested in this type of Middle School/YA fantasy novel.   Then which are currently accepting new submission queries.   And don’t even get me started on ”The Internet“.   It is over flowing with blogs, tweets, face book profiles and websites dedicated to writers, literary agents, publishing houses and magazines.   However most of the info...

Harry Potter - the entire series of seven books The Lord of the Rings - trilogy Narnia - the entire series The Bible - minus the "this person begot that person" too difficult to read Mythology stories of - Ancient Greece, Rome, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Native America and etc. Twilight - series Where the Wild Thing Are Pat the Bunny Wild at Heart JL Cooper

My favorite practice for this was writing poetry. It forced me to stretch and strengthen my mind's ability to come up with just the right word for the meaning I am trying to convey to the reader. When it comes out just right and even though I am the writer, when I read it and it touches my soul in some momentarily profound way. Then I know this s what I love doing, this is what I am - a writer. JL Cooper

1.    Fill up the floor and shelves of all of the closets in your house. 2.     Store them on an external device for so long that the technology is obsoite and you have to hire a data recovery company in order to view it again. 3.     Copyright all of your thousands of poems, dozens of books, endless shortstories, one novel and handfull of screenplays under ”body of work“   so that for $35 you can copyright the whole kit and kaboodle. 4.     When deeply depressed over not being published, use some pages of your rejected work to start a fire in the fireplace.   Then open bottle of wine and don’t share it. 5.     Pull out any of your work you want to critique and edit, edit, edit – this should take up about a third of your life. 6.     Print all of your works out and put them in three ring binders to give yourself the sense of being a published author without the accolades or inc...

     When I started going to school, it was in the days when every teacher was made a special paddle by the school’s wood shop teacher.   I recall being sent to the hall once a week in the first grade for not turning in my assignments.   I hated the sight of the large flat wooden paddle with holes drilled into it swinging from the arm of my teacher as she followed me out into the hallway.   Then as if doing nothing out of the ordinary, the teacher would tell me “You know what to do, grab the bottom of the chair”.   I would bend over, dreading what was coming next then take my three or so paddles.   With tears in my eyes I would return to the class.   Embarrassed for being punished just outside of the door, where they could all hear it.   God forbid I would let my parents know what was going on.   I knew I would just be spanked at home for getting spanked at school.   To this day my mom swears she never knew about it. ...

     You cannot publish an idea or a concept.   Translating those emotionally charged thoughts into a book, short story, screenplay or poem is the difference between “I thought of that” and “I wrote that”.        I began my latest work in 2001 - I know,   it was over a decade ago.   I was working loads of hours and as a part of that, reading endless stacks of other peoples scripts.   I wrote three screenplays, about a thousand poems, two children’s stories with art work and a few short stories during that decade too.        However the novel I began formulating in 2001 kept knocking at the doors of my mind.   Every thought I had for it I carefully collected in a three ring binder.   Each note scribbled on a napkin, inspiring clips from newspapers and magazines I stored away for the day I would focus my daily writing time on this book and this book alone!     ...