The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy

• Even though it’s the week of my birthday, you all are getting a present with an early Survival Guide episode.
• Keep an ear out for the PPME Special Edition Wrap-Up
• Word Count: Watch the meters!
• J.K. Rowling must have missed the 9-11 SGWF…

5:48 — Easily Distrac– oh hey, a butterfly…

• Tough to narrow down this topic…”Yeah, that’s what you call ironic.”
• Tee’s “Old Man” Moment
• The perils of promotion and when it becomes a distraction
• My distractions and what I’m reeling in…
• MySpace.com. And I just started a group there…
• Blogging. “How can you say ‘I have writer’s block’ when you’re blogging about it?” <97>Neil Gaiman, author (and yeah, it was a really BAD British accent…I wans’t applying myself…)
• Skype, AIM, and other Instant Messengers out there. I love talking with friends…but I can get carried away.
• The FM Chat Room
• E-mail. From work. From other writers and booksellers. From online discussion groups. And catching up from weekends away.

16:37 — Promo: Flight Junkies

18:03 — Easily Distrac– oh hey, a butterfly… (continued)

• My distractions and what I’m reeling in… (continued)
• Touring. May and September. Really rough months!
• Television. Friday night? Forget about it, that’s SciFi Fridays! Wednesdays are Mythbusters and Ghost Hunters. And “end of the day” decompression.
• Podcasting. (I hate the truth.)
• Other distractions that hold back the writing…
• The Day Job (and a personal vent concerning full-time authors)
• Following my own advice from The Survival Guide!
• Where is the line drawn?

25:15 — Priorities in Your Distractions

• What comes first on the priority list?
• Family, Friends, and The Real World
• Touring
• Paying jobs
• Personal Health
• The “fun” stuff I keep in my life.
• Podcasting
• My Space… the necessary evil…
• E-Mail & Skype
• Whatever you do, decide what matters and never forget that you must write in order to be a writer.

37:20 — Promo: Phil Rossi’s Filling the Page, Sojourn by Jana Oliver

38:25 — The Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Moment

• Guest Bumper: Tracy Hickman
• Whem something regarded as a distraction shouldn’t be…
• An Author’s Website…under construction…for four years?!
• Don’t half-ass your promotions. Go the distance, or don’t go at all!
• Half-baked ideas and how they reflect on you as a writer.

40:44 — Closing