Trish Wilkinson publishing, Success Stories, traditional publication

Shout Out for Sharon Cooper: Writer On Her Way Up!

Legal Seduction – Did You Know?

Did you know that RT Book Reviews (Romantic Times Magazine) chose LEGAL SEDUCTION as one of their “Top Picks” for June 2014?!

legal seduction - book cover

Okay, so a few weeks ago, other authors started shooting me emails and inboxing me about LEGAL SEDUCTION, my debut Harlequin Kimani novel (coming June 1st). They were congratulating me because LEGAL SEDUCTION was chosen by RT as one of their “Top Picks” for June 2014. Now me, being me, didn’t have a clue to what that meant. So I shot a quick email to Candace Shaw and she’s the one who told me that RT was Romantic Times, but neither of us knew what the “Top Picks” was all about.

After receiving several emails, and a few people inboxing me via Facebook, I started to think – I need to know more about this RT thing. NOTE: That was my exact thought. Mind you, I was getting a little more excited with each email, inbox message and super excited when I talked with one of my critique partners (one of several) on the telephone who subscribes to the magazine. She’s kinda like my own personal “Hype Man”! No joke – I think she was even more excited than I was because she actually had access to a digital copy of the June 2014 magazine. Oh, but getting back to the “Hype Man” part. In hip hop, a hype man typically gets a crowd hyped up…kinda interjects here and there during a song. Well this particular critique partner is usually the person who gets me hyped up about my stories (good and sometimes not so good). I could go on and on about her. She’s the one who talks me into writing stories I had no intention of writing and quick to tell me if she likes…or if she doesn’t like something I’ve written. Lol! And she HATES the word “it” (which I use ALL the time)! Needless to say, she drives me nuts! But I can’t imagine my writing journey without her! But I digress…

So after one particular author inboxed me (my excitement even higher), I made the comment – “So this must be a big deal, because several authors have reached out to congratulate me.” I can’t remember her exact words – but it was something like – Uh…yeah! This is a big deal! Then she sent me a screen shot of the review page. For whatever reason, whenever I tried to log-on to the RT site, it would time out – not let me on. At any rate, before that day was over, several people had sent me the actual review. Here it is:

RT Review – Reviewed by B. Nakia Garner

After growing up in the foster care system, Iris Sinclair has dedicated her life to defending teens in courts. Her latest client is Tania, niece of millionaire Nash Durpree. The case brings Iris and Nash closer than either of them ever thought possible when Iris becomes the temporary guardian of Tania. While Iris tries to convince herself that she is worthy of a man’s love, Nash must decide if he’s ready to love again. Steamy sex scenes that will have you flushing with heat make this tale a must-read. The passion leaps off the pages, and readers will get lost in the romance. You won’t want to put this book down.

I thought – this person must’ve really enjoyed the book. Then I saw that it had received 4.5 stars! Of course, me being me, I wondered what I needed to do to get a full 5 stars since it sounded like the reviewer really enjoyed the story. Now this part is funny – The person who edited LEGAL SEDUCTION congratulated me and I thanked her for all of her assistance with the story. I went on to tell her that next time, we’ll see if we can get 5 stars instead of just 4.5 stars. Now those of you who are familiar with RT’s rating scale are probably laughing right about now. The editor said to me, I can’t remember her exact words, but it was someting like – actually 4.5 is the highest rating you can get. Now at this point, my excitement level was off the charts! I had to bust out with my happy dance!!

So hopefully you’ll enjoy LEGAL SEDUCTION as much as the RT reviewer did! Here’s a description of the story:

legal seduction - book cover

 

When it comes to desire, they’re both pleading guilty.

In the courtroom, criminal defense attorney Iris Sinclair is cool and confident.Yet, around her new client’s guardian, she loses all composure. Atlanta club owner Nash Dupree is an infamous playboy who could compromise Iris’s heart as well as her case. For once, she feels like a curvy goddess instead of a strait-laced lawyer—even if the evidence suggests what he’s looking for is strictly short-term. No matter what the tabloids claim, Nash has made his teenage niece his first priority, and without Iris’s help he’ll lose guardianship. What began as seduction, a sweet thrill, has turned into something more—now he wants Iris forever. But proving his intentions means winning her trust before his reputation drives away the only woman who has ever captivated him, body and soul…

*

The official release day is June 1, 2014. You can find LEGAL SEDUCTION in paperback in bookstores or purchase an e-copy. You can also pre-order through Amazon or B & N.

Re-posted from Sharon’s blog, “Just Thinking”

Trish Wilkinson Entrepreneurs, meeting goals, Success Stories, tenacity

Creative CEO on Her Way Up!

This blog celebrates people with the guts to take risks, figure it out along the way, and do the hard work. Laura Sinton, CEO of FreshTape®, an exciting new product that reseals and keeps food fresh, right in the bag, has a must-tell story.

HUA6_FRESHTAPE_01

Laura’s six-figure position at a Fortune 500 company got squeezed out in a merger, rendering her jobless a couple years ago. In the aftermath, she grieved the loss, and worried she wouldn’t find another high-level position in corporate America. Then her friend, Liz, annoyed she’d broken another bag clip mentioned, “Someone should invent a tape that could reseal your bags, so your food wouldn’t turn to cardboard in less than an hour.”

That night, Laura couldn’t sleep. In the morning she called Liz and said, “We should be the ones to make a tape that will reseal bags to keep food fresh. And we’ll make it cute, so people can organize their kitchens in style.”

Laura and her brother, her long-time business partner, Chuck, formed an LLC they call ACME Inventions (being huge fans of Loony Tunes and the Road Runner cartoons). Then Laura set about working with chemical engineers to develop a food-grade product that would seal food bags over and over without tearing them (the adhesive in regular tape, like masking and cello, exposes food to toxic chemicals). They also experimented to find just the right durable plastic that could be printed with a variety of awesome patterns.

In 18 months – thousands of hours and lots of Laura’s, Liz’s and Chuck’s, cash later – FreshTape® was born. It’s FDA safety compliant,FreshTape display BPA and phthalate free, recyclable, made in America, totally cool to look at, and best of all, it works! Even in the fridge and the freezer!

 
Bravo, Laura! Bravo!

 
(My food has never been fresher. I’m totally addicted to the stuff.)

 

Laura began seriously marketing in January. At trade shows, Freshtape® has been hailed “the next Post It Notes or Zip Lock Bags.” Early this month, out of thousands of new products, FreshTape® won a coveted “Retailers’ Choice Award” from the National Hardware Retailer’s Association. Already, 178 stores carry it across the country. As of July, Sur la Table will stock Freshtape® in over 100 stores in 27 states, and ACME Inventions is currently negotiating with a major Canadian chain.

The next challenge will be to raise funds to meet the demand for production. Shark Tank asked ACME Inventions to apply to appear on the show, but they’re still waiting to hear.

 

No doubt, Laura will make the most of this hurdle the way she has with all the others along this journey.

 

Big things are headed her way.

 

Soon.

FreshTape logo

I can feel it.

 

Go Laura!

 

If you, or someone you know, is a bad ass and you think your story will inspire the rest of us, send an email to trish@write-to-win.com, and I’ll get the word out!

Trish Wilkinson Uncategorized

Let Go and Take Chances

Let Go to Achieve Your Dreams (via inspiremetoday.com)

Life is about making choices. Each one of us has our own story with twists and turns, choices and opportunities. You may think you know where your story will take you. You may think you have control to direct your own path. I believe that none of us…

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Trish Wilkinson networking, skill building

Writers’ Retreat Workshop: the Ultimate Experience to Develop Your Writing Chops

Are you doing anything May 8 through 15? This is last minute notice, but if you’re a writer, you should know the Writers’ Retreat Workshop

Me at WRW a couple years ago.
Me at WRW a couple years ago.

(WRW) has a few spots left for the upcoming annual event that will change your life. This year, it’s being held at Purple Sage Ranch, just outside of Antonio, Texas.

Here’s how it works: A fabulous professional editor, agent, or bestselling author gives a workshop. Then everyone goes back to their rooms and uses their shiny, freshly acquired new tools to write or revise their butts off. Then you share in whole and small groups to give and get feedback to revise some more. The pros also view your work to give direction to take your writing to the next level. With all this guided practice, you and your fellow WRW writers provide some of the most amazing feedback in critique groups anywhere. Another bonus is the connections you make with writers from all over the U.S. and often from other countries, such as Belgium and Australia.

And there’s partying along the way for those who wish to join in the fun.

When you rejoin the real-world after your week-long reprieve with awesome, like-minded, creative people, WRW adds you to the list serve. WRW participants since 1987, many of whom are successful, published writers, post news and personal events through the site, available to members only. Any alumni may participate in any conversation. I’ve made friends through the list serve and on Facebook that I’ve never met personally.

Purple Sage Ranch: Home of WRW 2014
Purple Sage Ranch: Home of WRW 2014

The 2014 instructors include: bestselling thriller author Grant Blackwood (Briggs Tanner Novels, Fargo series with Clive Cussler), Literary Agent Mary C Moore (Kimberley Cameron agency), YA and romance author Emily McKay (The Farm, The Lair), writer/editor Les Edgerton (The Bitch, Hooked), director and instructor Jason Sitzes, co-founder and author Gail Provost Stockwell.

If you’re a writer who is ready for an intense upgrade in your craft, your understanding of the publishing industry, and the how-to of marketing your work, don’t miss this chance to become the writing professional you want to be!

If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to check out this amazing writers’ experience, so here’s the link: http://writersretreatworkshop.com/events.html

 

Happy writing!!

Trish Wilkinson Uncategorized

Obstacle or Opportunity

20131226_D800_trishwilkinson_family_5526_chuck_trish_8x12My husband just lost his job. The company he worked for sold to a competitor, and unless the vice president of the larger company gets hit by a bus, there won’t be a position available under the new ownership. One of the former bosses, who shares in the purchase price of a few hundred-million dollars, called to say a check for a couple months’ salary would arrive in the mail. Somehow management viewed this appropriate compensation for my husband’s ten years of service generating millions in assets as well as adding value to the purchase price. Oh. And as of May 1, COBRA will require $1400 in monthly payments to maintain our Kaiser Health coverage for our family of four.

My initial reaction was to panic. I looked up teaching positions in as many school districts as possible within commuting range, because owning a writing/coaching/editing operation doesn’t include healthcare benefits. Though the idea of reentering the classroom excited me, my stomach knotted, and anxiety dreams woke me up all night long. Don’t get me wrong, I can get behind the National Core Curriculum Standards, but I find it almost impossible to write novels and articles while teaching full time. By the end of a day of working with kids, collaborating with other teachers, assessing student work, and on and on and on, my creativity gets used up. There’s no time to coach other writers or edit their work during the school year either.

Then I remembered one of my favorite writing buddies, a fellow Page-a-Day writer and an award-winning columnist, Claire Fadden’s sing-song voice in my head. “Obstacle or opportunity,” she likes to say with a shrug as she looks for ways to use life’s little setbacks to propel her toward her goals.

time-managementSo how can our family’s lack of regular income and health benefits transform into a catalyst toward becoming a traditionally published YA novelist? My husband and I decided I would hold off jumping back into the classroom. I’ve got one more school year, this small window, to pour on the energy and get my manuscript published. It’s amazing how a narrow time frame can make the world seem like an entirely different place.

I’ll keep you posted on how this turns out. In the meantime, tell us about your obstacles that have become opportunities. Believe me, a story like that would be really welcome right now.

Trish Wilkinson meeting goals, tenacity

Bad Ass at Nineteen

1381234_479555868812400_345349263_nMy nineteen-year-old daughter, Paige, came home to San Diego from Williams College in Massachusetts for spring break. We enjoyed wonderful long talks, dog walks, and ate scrumptious authentic Mexican and Vietnamese meals together. Sadly for me, but bad ass for her, she didn’t get to stay in San Diego for the whole break.

Paige is double-majoring in economics and art history at Williams. She spent last summer doing an internship for the Grameen Foundation in microfinance in the Philippines, and she wanted to find out more about the art world to weigh her career options after she graduates in 2016. On a search for contacts in the Williams directory of alumni students, Paige emailed Radina Angelova, director of the brand new Red Royal Gallery on the lower east side of Manhattan. Radina responded to Paige’s inquiry with helpful information as well as an eventual invitation to attend the black-tie opening, last Friday.

Paige didn’t hesitate. She booked a flight with frequent flyer miles (my husband travels a lot for work), hopped a plane to New York on Thursday, and had little idea where she was going when she arrived. Still, she decided to save the cab fare and figure out how to get to a friend’s parents’ house taking the subway. Once she arrived at her destination, $45 richer, she discovered her friend’s family had a precious engagement and would be out for the evening. This may have rattled some people, but Paige smiled, thanked her hosts for allowing her to stay on short notice, and decided to catch a bus to check out some sites in the city – by herself. Okay. As her mom, I admit this makes me a bit nervous, but she seems to be smart about how she travels alone, since she’s never had a problem on these adventures.

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On Friday, Paige dressed in an elegant gown, took a cab across town, and attended the Red Royal Gallery opening as a party of one. She appears in several photos at the event listening, talking, and laughing with strangers who she tells me have became friends. Paige loves Radina, who is full of enthusiasm as well as art and sales smarts. Best of all, Radina invited Paige to do a six-week internship at the gallery during the summer to get hands-on experience in the art business. Living accommodations in New York will be Paige’s next hurdle, but knowing my bad ass daughter, she’ll figure it out.

The point is: if a nineteen-year-old can do all that, I should be able to stick out the hard times and keep working until I find an agent to represent my YA series. It’s not that Paige never has doubts. She’s learned to have fear and dive in anyway.

Sometimes I’d like to borrow some of Paige’s courage, although I must have some of my own, because I’m still working on it.

If you’ve done something that took some guts, or you’re thinking about jumping into a project/event/whatever and you want to run it by your fellow bad asses, or you just have something to say, we’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Trish Wilkinson meeting goals, tenacity

Adversity: Blessing or Curse? Hmmm.

I recently read MAO’S LAST DANCER, a memoir written by Li Cunxin and published in 2003. Talk about a perfect example of a Tenacity to Triumph Bad Ass!

Cunxin lived in a Chinese commune during Mao’s Cultural Revolution where his family of nine practically starved to death. At age eleven, he was sent away from home to Beijing to train as one of Madam Mao’s dancers. He worked his butt off to become the best dancer in the academy – through injuries, injustices, and crushing homesickness. A choreographer from the U.S. selected Cunxin to dance for the Houston Ballet in Texas – and Cunxin went on to become a world renowned ballet dancer, living a life he never dreamed possible.

Li Cunxin’s story is riveting from beginning to end, in my opinion, a recommended read for any aspiring bad ass.

But do we have to come from poverty or oppression to meet lofty goals? Luckily, it turns out gratefulness for each person, for each event no matter how annoying along the road to success can be as potent as adversity in exercising those tenacity muscles. In fact, gratitude has such power that the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley—in collaboration with the University of California, Davis—is launching a $5.6 million, three-year project, to expand the science and practice of gratitude to document and define its effect on society.

Whether you come from poverty, privilege, or grew up somewhere in the middle, remember Aesop’s lesson in The Tortoise and the Hare: Slow and steady wins the race.

The potholes and detours along the road to success test our meddle. Sometimes they steer our path in a slightly, or even wildly, different direction. Will you appreciate those unsuspected jaunts, or will you quit? Thinking about quitting doesn’t count. It’s a rare bad ass who never smacks so hard into a wall that continuing seems impossible for a bit. Then plodding toward the finish line commences once again. Go tortoises!

What is your dream? Has is morphed along the way? What has motivated you to power through the tough times?

Trish Wilkinson Uncategorized

A Magician’s Roadmap that We can All Use

4 Magical Strategies for Success (via inspiremetoday.com)

Believe in Unlimited Potential As a magician, I’ve spent many enjoyable hours on stage, looking out at the faces of people in the audience. I think a magic performance is a powerful experience because it creates a view of a world where there are no…

Continue reading “A Magician’s Roadmap that We can All Use” →

Trish Wilkinson tenacity, Uncategorized

Time May Not HEAL All Wounds, But it Helps

If you saw my last post about my disappointment in the critiques I received from an editor and a literary agent on the first fifteen pages of my novel a couple weeks ago, you know I stockvault-man-with-clock127680was ready to quit writing. Obviously, that wouldn’t have been the Bad Ass thing to do, so I decided to give myself a break from my novel for a couple weeks.

I recently read their comments again, and it’s amazing how differently I can see things with a little time buffer. Okay, so I’m not ecstatic that they didn’t love my pages and ask for the full manuscript, but they did give me some helpful suggestions, sure to strengthen the opening of TWO FEET, NO SHOES. Further, they clarified what Get Known Before the Book Deal - Katzwasn’t working in my synopsis with their feedback as to where they saw problems in story structure. Truthfully, the structure is solid, thanks to Larry Brooks and his book:  Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies. Writing a synopsis, on the other hand, is a skill in itself, and I haven’t totally gotten that down yet.

I’ve started revising, and now I can see how the things that were missing (that I didn’t realize were missing) needed to be there. It amazes me how I can see other writers’ work so clearly, yet my own can be so elusive.

Now I’m back in the saddle (more like my favorite chair at the formal dining room table), pounding the keys on my laptop, and lining up new readers to help me figure out when I’ve nailed it.

If anyone else out there has had a setback and is coming out of a slump, or you’ve made it through whatever difficulties you ran into, I’d love to hear about it. It can’t just be me who has experienced things like this, right?

Trish Wilkinson Uncategorized

P-U-S-H to Get it Done!

It’s All in the PUSH (via inspiremetoday.com)

Let’s start from the beginning… When you learned to crawl, it required a pushing movement. You had to learn to push your knees to move yourself to another point. Then you learned to walk, same push, different position. Then you ran, you pushed further…

Continue reading “P-U-S-H to Get it Done!” →