About Writers Tools N Toys

Hey there and welcome!

This website started off as my attempt to keep all the plates spinning as I try to write and sell novels.

We all figured out a long time ago that writing fiction for publication isn’t as simple as sitting up in your attic, scratching words on a scrap of torn butcher paper with the end of a charcoaled stick left over from last night’s fire, right? In fact, getting your book written, published and read is a pretty big machine, isn’t it?
I thought that if I could get organized and keep up with all the software and tools and trends and goals and–well, everything–then I just might find whatever I am searching for with my writing.

So, because I thought I might have room for one more spinning plate, since I was already balancing it on my nose anyway, I thought I might as well build a website so I could share. Because this is an awful lot of information gathering I’m doing to keep it all to myself.

Who Am I?

I’ve written under so many pen names, it’s hard to answer that. Most of my writer friends call me Chris. I’ve been writing in hopes of publication since 1999. I’m both indie and trad published. I play one one genre, think another one must be easier and change gears only to learn that it’s not that easy either, then switch to still another genre to try. I don’t know if I’m on an endless pursuit or if I will find my true author calling one day. I just know that new, shiny possibilities are so seductive that I have dozens and dozens of unfinished manuscripts on old and new hard drives and antiquated thumb drives and probably in a few notebooks, too.

If I could just get organized…. If I could just figure out which genre to write in, which story ideas to stick to, which— you get the picture right?

Even if I haven’t yet edited my last two books to my satisfaction, I don’t have a marketing plan in motion for my last series, I’m not sure which story I will write next–I’m building this damned website so I will have something to show for all my efforts. Maybe, just maybe, if I lay it out right, make enough categories, write enough articles to make sense inside my own head, maybe I’ll get that sense of accomplishment I’m looking for.

So here it is, a website that I hope will support and empower aspiring indie authors and self-published authors wherever you are in this game called fiction writing career. Take away the knowledge that fits. Leave the rest. Nothing works for everyone all the time. But some things work some of the time, right?

So, kick off your shoes, grab a cup of coffee (or tea, I don’t judge), and explore articles, dig into resources, and know that you are not alone on this solitary journey of fiction writing.

Chris