All Categories - Randy Lindsay

Busy, Busy, Busy

12/1/2022

This year has marked a dramatic change in my career path as an author. I attended the American Night Writers Association conference in September and several of the classes opened my mind to what I could be doing. As a result, I decided to ignore the usual agent and publisher route to publication and will be focusing on getting my work out there through YouTube and my website.

I also decided that my best shot at obtaining a larger share of the market was to switch to graphic novels. Thanks to Janette Rallison's advice, I wrote my first graphic novel this year and a whole new world of possibilities has opened up. Watch for more news about Kicks soon. Very soon. I believe that by working with graphic novels, I will be able to put more stories out there, faster, than I have been able to in the past. And I love working with the visual medium.

However, if you need a Randy fix right now, you can hop over to the YouTube channel I share with my friend Amber. Our first offering involves the movie Willow. We have a review of the original film and a video on our expectations for the series. In the next few days, we will be posting reviews of the first two episodes and other related content. Hope you like it. Here's the link.

The Write Advice - YouTube

In the near future, The Write Advice will offer a segment where Amber and I critique first pages of stories that people have sent in. We're calling that segment - Book Hook.

We will be doing another segment called - Pitch Me. These will be elevator pitches we've recorded live. At the end of the pitch, Amber and I will discuss what worked and what didn't.

Then we have a segment I'm really excited about. Amber and I will be writing a book together on the channel. It'll actually be a series of mini classes on writing, with the two of us following our own advice in creating a story. You won't just be hearing great advice . . . you'll be able to see it put to use by us.

I hope you will join us on The Write Advice channel. It's going to be fun.

Memoir and Family Story Workshops

8/31/2022

Update: My memoir and family story workshops have been a success. Attendance is good and everyone seems to be having fun. If this is something that interests you and you live in the south-east portion of the valley you can show up to the LDS Church at 2228 E. Brown , Mesa, AZ. No registration required.

We are holding the classes at one of the LDS churches, but you don't have to be a member to attend and benefit from my memoir writing experience.

Did I mention it's fun?

Memoir and Family Story Workshop

6/14/2022

The weekend before last, I held a workshop to help non-writers start on their own memoir or family history story. I wish I would have snapped a couple of pictures, but I didn't. Attendees enjoyed the event and the room we scheduled for it was filled.

Why am I mentioning this? To let everyone know that I plan to repeat the workshop and also some regularly occurring classes in the near future. Since writing The Milkman's Son, I have had a ton of people come up to me and tell me their story. These are great stories, but when I suggest they write about it I received a lot of variation of the same response, "I don't know where to start."

That's what my workshops are meant to do. Help people who are not writers to put together an interesting story that their family, friends, and others will enjoy. Because, it doesn't do any good to write your life story if your readers put it down after a couple of pages.

I really want to encourage anyone who has an interest in leaving a legacy behind about themselves or about family members to attend one of my workshops. Their fun. And they will help you get the stories you have out of your head and onto the page.

Hopefully, I'll see you there.

(I guess I should mention that these workshops will take place in the Mesa, Tempe, Gilbert, and Chandler area. If you live elsewhere, contact me and let's look into expanding my teaching territory.)

The End Is Near

3/1/2022

COVID has impacted all of our lives. In my case, it has limited my ability to interact with my audience and participate in teaching classes, hosting book events, and everything I did as part of my author routine that wasn't part of staying at home.

However, it looks as if the mandates are being removed. I had an event at the local library on Saturday and completely forgot to mention it on social media and specifically here on my website. A friend mentioned the gaff on my part, and I am going to make sure to keep all of you informed of upcoming events from now on.

My next event is on March 9th, at the Red Mountain Mesa Community College campus. I am teaching a class on Memoir Basics. Sign up for the event. It's free. And come out and take the first step in writing your own memoir or family story.

Sign up at New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning. Here's the link.

NFLL Classes Offfered (mesacc.edu)

I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible, this year.

Writer-in-Residence

4/28/2021

For the next three months, I will be the Writer-in-Residence at the Mesa, Red Mountain library. If you happen to live in the area, this is a great opportunity to sign-up for a writing consultation with me. We can brainstorm ideas, go over your work so far, or just have a question and answer session. This is your chance to have a one-on-one session with a published author and learn from my experiences.

I will also be presenting a series of classes on writing. The first one is Jumpstart Your Creative Juices, where I present methods to generate story ideas. Even though the classes will not be in person, I still hope to have everyone spend some time creating a story idea, or two, and share them with the rest of the class.

Here's the link.

https://events.mesalibrary.org/events/jumpstart-your-creative-juices-1

Easy-Peasy Writing

7/22/2020

Between the launch of The Milkman's Son, work on the Easy-Peasy book, and the pandemic, I haven't had as much time to keep current on my blogs. Hopefully, that will change.

I want to announce the imminent release of The Easy-Peasy Method for Writing Memoirs and Family Histories. That's been my latest project and it is meant to help family historians and anyone wanting to write a memoir to make their stories more interesting. The tips in this book have been written in a way that I believe will be easy for the average person understand.

The information in the book has already been presented to groups of family history enthusiasts and the reception to it has been marvelous. Many of the family historians in my class mentioned that they were concerned about future generations not reading the genealogical stories of their family because it was dry and dull. But there are easy solutions to that problem. The Easy-Peasy Method for Writing Memoirs and Family Histories is full of simple tricks to make your stories more interesting.

Learn about the Three-Sentence Story concept and use it to add micro-stories to the pictures in your book. These entertaining little stories will make those pictures meaningful to the reader. And three-sentence stories are fun to write.

Plans are to release the book at the end of August.

Seminars & Book Signings On Hold

3/31/2020

   I had just enough time for one book signing in Gilbert before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. And if I could only have one signing, then I'm glad it was this one. The staff at Deseret Book were wonderful and set me up in this beautiful spot with a huge, gorgeous table. I felt like a celebrity.
   Even though me and my family are riding out this disaster inside the house most of the time, I'm still keeping busy. Like . . . incredibly busy. I'm working on several projects with Write House Publishing. The launch of our first product is expected to be later this week. More on that later. But this is just one of a series of great ideas that I've been working on with Deb and Dave Eaton.
   The seminars I was teaching on writing memoirs and family histories are on hold until the pandemic situation clears up. Then I plan to offer the classes to audiences in the cities of Mesa, Tempe, and Gilbert. The material from the seminars is from my next book, The Easy-Peasy Method For Writing Memoirs and Family Stories.
I promised several people that I'd start work on the fourth book of The Gathering series. And with all the craziness going on, I'd be crazy not to write about it. The fourth book will be the last story in the series.
   And I'm also working on writing a novel with my daughter. (She has an amazing author voice and is going to be a better writer than me.) We're working on a romantic-comedy set in the Old West. That's right. A romantic-comedy. I can hardly believe it myself. Lucy will be writing the chapters with the female main character and I will do my best to write the male chapters from a guy's point of view.
   Busy, busy, busy. But I will try not to be too busy to check in here on a regular basis. Hunker down and stay safe.

RootsTech 2020

3/5/2020

This is my new friend, Kathy. I had the opportunity to visit with this wonderful lady at RootsTech 2020. I was at the family history convention all week, signing copies of my latest book, The Milkman's Son.

What a great experience I had at RootsTech. I told people about my story and then they told me theirs. And these are amazing stories. Some happy. Some sad. All of them fascinating.

Thanks goes out to my publisher, Shadow Mountain Publishing, for bringing me up to Salt Lake City for the show. And especially to Troy Butcher for helping me with all of the marketing efforts for my new book.

Oh, by the way, did I mention I have a new book? The Milkman's Son was released March 3rd.

Where Have I Been?

3/25/2019

I want to say thanks to Reuben for reminding me that I haven't been active on the website. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy writing. Or with other author stuff for that matter.

Two years ago I started a blog on writing. I invited my good friends, Janette Rallison, Brock Booher, and Adrienne Quintana to join me. If you have an interest in writing then you should check it out. Here's the link.

http://www.readysetwritepodcast.com/

Then about a year ago, the Ready-Set-Write team started a game show on the YouTube channel. It is still focused on writing, but involves buzzing entries when we think an agent or editor would stop reading their first page. It's entertaining even if you aren't interested in writing. You can see for yourself at this link.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUIAbuihdn0jHaRTkb8OBGA

I'm still teaching classes at the local writing conventions, but have also taken a leadership position in the American Night Writers Association. This is a non-profit organization with the goal of helping writers reach their writing and publishing goals. I am currently the president of the organization and that keeps me fairly busy.

The point of mentioning all of this is to let everyone know I'm still here and still writing. But I often forget to make the time to post on this website. You can help me out by leaving a comment and let me know what features/posts interest you most and I will make sure to keep current with those.

Thanks, everyone.

Book 4 - The Return: Millennial Dawn

3/25/2019

It has been a while since my last update. Sorry for the absence, but I was feverishly working on my memoir. I hear the groans out there. Randy, you're just not that interesting. Get over yourself. But the memoir isn't so much about me as it is about my experience, one that is becoming very common in recent years.

Two years ago, I submitted my DNA for testing to help my family history research. When the results came back, I found that my dad was not my biological father. The memoir deals with the thoughts and emotions that accompany that kind of discovery. It also chronicles my journey to come to terms with a new family dynamic and meet a father I didn't know existed. I am currently in the process of submitting that for publication and hope that one of the editors sees the value of that kind of story in today's society.

It's good news that I'm still writing. But it is better news that I am preparing to start on book four in The Gathering series. The Return: Millennial Dawn will be the final book in the series. It also promises to be a monster of a book.

If you have questions about my books or suggestions for The Return, please don't hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment here. And thanks for accompanying me on my writing journey.