October 25, 2021

Wanna NaNoWriMo With Me?

An invitation to join me in a great month of novel-writing Several years ago I was working on a novel about this same time of year. I’d begun it quite a few months earlier at my home in Boston, but at the time I was happily—if not somewhat chilled—writing from a 150-year-old farmhouse in rural France. My fingers, clad in fingerless knitted gloves, flew over the keyboard, pausing occasionally to sip from my café au lait or tea for warmth. I was having a best-of-times. An email came through cyberspace from a best friend and writing colleague who lives in Oregon. I stopped writing to see what he had to say; several years earlier, again while lodging at this same Finistere stone maison, he had done me a great service by buying and shipping me a…

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October 6, 2021

Independent Publishers of New England’s Virtual Conference

Posted by Mike Rochester in News

Dear Coffee Clubbers, The Fictional Café is excited to announce that the nonprofit publishing group Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) will be holding their annual conference virtually this year, so anyone, anywhere can join! Several of your baristas are members of the group and our founder, Jack, will even be presenting himself! Please join us for 2 days of education and networking at the 10th Annual (virtual) Independent Publishers and Authors conference November 5-6. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? · Independent Publishers · Author Publishers (Self-Publishers) · Partners of Publishers; Industry Suppliers · Writers and Others Who Dream of Being Happily Published! The conference will feature some big names in the publishing industry, including keynote speakers Paige Allen, director of IngramSpark, Cevin Breyerman, CEO of Publisher’s Weekly, and Jane Friedman, indie publishing guru. We’ll have speakers…

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September 26, 2021

September Edition of “The Break from HOKAIC”

Posted by Mike Rochester in News

Jason’s Notes From the Lab… I’ve been gone for a few months, diving deep into the next stages of my publishing career. Most specifically I’ve been looking at companies to manage some advertising and publicity, so I can focus more on what I’m best at. There are dozens, probably hundreds of options and candidates. I won’t speak to any specific brands this time, but here are the most important things I’ve learned about this over the past months. Fiverr is good for graphic design, but bad for managing advertising. Fiverr pro is better, but expensive enough you can hire a local for the same money most of the time. Many publishing and advertising companies offer free webinars to gather leads. These webinars alone have enough information to up the game of most writers breaking into publicizing their own books. If you’re not spending…

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September 14, 2021

“Camp Detroit,” Yong Takahashi’s Upcoming Book

Posted by Mike Rochester in News

Yong Takahashi’s dystopian young adult novel about family, friendship, and finding one’s inner strength will be published by Inkwell Publishing in 2022. https://inkwellpublishers.com Justin Grant is fourteen, living in the aftermath of a bankrupt Detroit, Michigan. Labeled as slow and a trouble-maker, he is given a government-sponsored intelligence test to determine if they can legally expel him from school. The results are not what anyone, including Justin and his mother, expect. Yong Takahashi is the author of Rising and The Escape to Candyland. She was a finalist in The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Southern Fried Karma Novel Contest, Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest, and Georgia Writers Association Flash Fiction Contest. She was awarded Best Pitch at the Atlanta Writers Club Conference. To read Yong’s other works, please visit: https://linktr.ee/yctwriter *** Yong Takahashi is the…

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August 12, 2021

Interview with Author Abigail George

Posted by Mike Rochester in Interviews

Editor’s Note: I had a chance to chat with one of our Featured Writers from 2020, Abigail George, about why she began writing and her writing life right now. She’s recently published a book about Emily Dickinson, available on Amazon. —Mike The Fictional Café: What made you choose to be an author? Abigail George: I didn’t grow up wanting to be an author. Life happened, took me down the road less travelled and kind of anchored me in a dysfunctional family life. Now I write all the time. I am inspired by many, many things. Mostly poets. Other writers. Nature, competition, psychology, science, the facts of life fascinate me endlessly so how I can ever run out of things to say, become bored or suffer from writer’s block? These days I have turned back the…

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