Digi-lit. What is it? The new buzz word for digital publishing. This past Saturday I attended the first annual Digi.lit Conference in San Francisco created by the folks at Litquake.

For many years being self-published was the equivalent to being a kit car, interesting to a select few and not a real car. Today, the internet and Indie publishers have changed that. In the next 12 months, 50% of all books sold will be e-books.

For the last six weeks I’ve been in VA taking care of sick parents. VA is an interesting place. The capital, Richmond, is divided by the James River. Although your history books will tell you VA was a southern state the truth is that on the north side of the James River the people think of themselves as Northerners. On the south side, people speak with a twang. As I was often on both sides of the river, I’ve made a list of what I hate and love about the South. So here goes:

Finding your target audience is like being the new kid in high school and having to make friends. You can hide out and wait for friends to find you or you can put yourself out there and using trial and error, find the kids who have the most in common with you.

Being cave dwellers, we writers prefer the first method. We believe that if we just write a good story the readers will come. Write it, they will come.

With the debut of my first novel, The Belvedere Club, 2012 was a great year for me. I also began this blog post in 2012 to connect with my readers and fellow writers.

I had hoped to get a new post up every week, but with the writing of the sequel to The Belvedere Club and the editing of an older novel Bayou Nights, my goal fell short by 50%.

I recently saw David Muir speaking with Diane Sawyer about buying American this Christmas. I was intrigued and then astonished when David Muir said we could create 260,000 jobs in America if each one of us bought one $64 present this Christmas that was made in America. This means checking the labels because most of our products aren’t made in America. In the 1960s, 9 out of 10 Christmas presents were made in America. Last year less than half our gifts were made here.

This year I was lucky enough to publish my first mystery novel, The Belvedere Club. I’d always invisioned this as the first in a series about Marin County, California, the home of many innovative and prosperous Californians. So my Next Big Thing is to continue the series with book two.

The reason I haven’t updated this blog in the last few weeks is because I’ve been rambling through France. One thing I enjoy doing in France is visiting cemeteries. I love reading the strange names on the plots and examining all the diverse burial plots and mausoleums.

This brings me to my post. What’s in a name?

Writers often hear remarks like: you haven’t found your voice, or you need to develop your voice, or preferably, I like the voice of this piece.

So what is voice? Think of all the contestants of American Idol singing the same song, for example Otis Redding’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T.