Finding the Gold

Welcome to my first blog post. Yay! It’s been a long time coming and I hope its worthy of all the great mentors (whether they know it or not) that I’ve found along the way. I puzzled for months about the best way to start off, the all important first post and while the ideas came to me none seemed right for a beginning. And then…(as all good things start)…

A few days ago a tweet from Sarah Woodbury came across my screen: “Strangest Google search of the day: Where to find gold in England?”. My first response was any farmer’s field near a former Roman or Anglo-Saxon village.

The thought inspired me to consider the many nuggets of gold I discovered while searching for knowledge on writing, blogging, social media, archaeology and other areas of interest. While I could never share all of the wonderful treasure I found in a single blog post there are some that deserve recognition for being priceless in their wealth. I can think of no better way to start then by sharing a few that have been of the greatest value in bringing me to the world of blogging and sharpening my craft along the way.

Kristen Lamb: Author of We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media, Kristen is a major resource for information on all things Social Media and writing. She is a joy to read and an excellent combination of deep knowledge, humor and wit. Whether looking to build a social media platform or working out the kinks in your antagonist Kristen’s site is a gold mine.

Bob Mayer: Author of over 40 books, this former Green Beret brings powerful advice on writing, the publishing industry and is the founder of Who Dares Wins Publishing. Bob runs highly recommended writing classes on a variety of topics and has become a champion of indie publishing. His latest work, Duty, Honor, Country carries on Bob’s strong tradition of exceptional writing.

Randy Ingermanson: Inventor of the powerful “Snowflake Method” of novel structuring and master of the Advanced Fiction Writing blog, Randy is a great resource for writers. He offers free articles and runs one of the most popular writing e-zines around, be sure to give him a look, it will be well worth your time.

Larry Brooks: Author of Story Engineering, simply one of the best books on novel structuring I’ve read. Larry is a no-nonsense straight-talker that gets to the heart of the matter so we can all get to the business of creating powerful stories. His website, Storyfix, is a vault of information on the structure of writing and a host of other writing and industry information.

Jami Gold: Looking for thought-provoking posts on writing, publishing and every writer’s quest to know everything, well this is where to find it. Jami is truly golden, personable in her approach and masterful at finding inspirational topics for writers. She is also a great Twitter resource, constantly discovering gems to fill our writer’s bag of treasure with.

Elizabeth S. Craig: Elizabeth hosts a virtual encyclopedia of everything writerly (new word and she deserves it)! Between her website and the Writer’s Knowledge Base, she appears tireless in piecing together a compendium of writing knowledge on every publishing subject imaginable.

My deepest thanks go to my wonderful wife who has been trailblazing the blog and Twitter roads for the last year. Mary Jo Gibson writes about art history, the old masters and the Borgias. She can be found at This Write Life.

As none of us are one-dimensional people I would like to also mention Archaeologica. This site is a fantastic and easy to use archaeology resource with links to stories from a broad selection of sources. From Mayan digs to Cave Art to the latest on the twisted world of Egyptian Antiquities, this is the place to find the story fast.

I would be remiss in not thanking all of the above, without whom I would never have put aside the safety of anonymity. I would also like to express my gratitude to Piper Bayard and Kait Nolan for all their help and patience with me while learning Twitter. Thank you all!

What gold have you found on the net? Any suggestions on the site or features that would be useful to have available? I look forward to reading your comments and will be starting a regular series on Saturday, Designing from Bones: How to use archaeology and the artifacts of human history to find and develop story ideas. I hope you’ll join me for a fun ride!

Peaceful journeys!