From the Mind of R.M. Almeida

If you haven’t heard of Dr. Marissa Pei, you will. I met Dr. Pei while I was working at the store in February. We talked briefly about her book “8 Ways to Happiness”, and what it takes to sell and promote it. Take one look at Dr. Pei’s website and you will see hard work. […]

I wrote a poem for my wife. Not just any poem, but lyrics for a song. It has been over 15 years since I have written any kind of poetry, but I felt moved to do so. At the urging of my fellow 5Artz Creative Affiliations members, I have decided to post the first draft […]

I just received an email from Martin Cavannagh from Reedsy about book covers. It was a simple, concise letter that reminded me how important a book cover is when selling a book. As a bookseller with over 30 years of experience, I know too well, how books are sold. I cannot count the number of self-published […]

Tonight’s workshop at Barnes & Noble, Summerlin was a measure of success. By the looks of our workshop attendees, I believe I can safely assume that it was by far, a great measure of success. Yes…you are correct. I am the dumpy-looking one in the background, next to Bill Guthrie. If you don’t know Bill […]

The day is here. Our first night of a packed venue, our second Meetup at Barnes & Noble, Summerlin. We may not be on the schedule, but after tonight, I hope that our store managers will place us on the map as a regular occurrence at the store. We will be discussing the “Hero’s Journey“, […]

I checked how long it has been since I made my last post and was appalled. My last post was made on June 25th of last year. I stopped because the advice I was given was that my writing was not ready. When is your writing…”ready”? I can agonize over punctuation, grammar or content until […]

I refuse to allow another week to transpire without publishing something of significance to this blog. I am still editing past blog posts, to ensure that they reflect a degree of professionalism. In the interim, I have decided to share short original written work ranging from 500 to 1500 words that deal with my personal experiences […]

Today’s Creative Series blog post will be available tomorrow. My apologies. A number of errors were discovered in many of the initial blogs. Rather than post submissions with errors, I am correcting all punctuation, grammar and style errors, so that they reflect a more professional site.

There are no perfect words to bestow upon characters that we create.

This part of our Creative Series will cover characters. Characters are a very important part of every good story. Characters are the primary colors of your plot. Without characters, a story can become a lifeless, dull, carcass of a plot which loses the reader’s interest. It is the writer’s job to create interesting characters to […]