Can a man join Sisters in Crime?

As my friend and fellow author Austin S. Comacho puts it: "This mister's a sister." In his latest blog post at Criminal Minds at Work, Austin explains why he decided to join the predominantly all-female writers' organization known as Sisters in Crime.

If you're a male writer, you'll want to read this.

"Originally I joined because I wanted to support the cause - to combat discrimination against women in the mystery field and raise awareness of their contribution to the field. Soon after I joined I realized that..."

Read Austin's post at Criminal Minds at Work.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
bestselling author
http://www.cherylktardif.com

It begins...

So I've never really had a blog, but at the urging of my good friend and fellow author Cheryl Tardif (http://www.cherylktardif.com/), I am succumbing to peer pressure.

I might as well start this off with a little bit about myself. I am a 26 year old female self-published author, which right there causes me grief. I get overlooked because I'm young, I get snuffed because I'm self-published and I get judged because I'm a woman.

But I didn't start this blog to whine...

Too much.

Honestly, I'm a young author because writing is all I ever wanted to do and I was lucky enough to complete my first novel by the time I was 24. Most people don't figure out their purpose in life at 9 years old, like I did.

Now, I'm not going to go on a self-publishing rant because frankly, there are too many already out there. I'll say the same thing that I always say when people ask why I self-published:

"I did sent out manuscripts to traditional publishers. After a couple of rejections, I just decided that I'd rather spend my life writing and sharing my work than wait for some publisher to actually pick up my manuscript, let alone deem it worthy enough to publish."

As for the woman thing, my reply is simple. Um, it's 2008 and women CAN write. Jerk.

About my first novel, it's called Sacrifice and it's the first book in a young adult fantasy duology entitled The Last Forever. Feel free to visit my website here and check out the synopsis and other information.

On a personal note, I am happily married to a tattooed guitarist who doesn't read books and we have a ridiculously adorable 16 month-old boy named Evan.

Stay tuned! I'll update regularily.

Women Won't Win.

Thought I’d let you know about a new blog just started up. It’s kind of a battle of the sexes thing; an exchange of ideas over a week or two centred around a specific topic that men and women don’t traditionally see eye to eye on. It was my girlfriend’s idea (a result of her growing fascination with blogging I guess) and it should be fun. Hopefully people will get involved because of they don’t, it’ll just end up being me and her trading blows in public! Have a look anyway, read the ‘rules’ and let me know what you think. I’m up first with my attempt to expose romance for what it really is……….or should I stop now and run for the hills?