R.A. Riekki Drops the Glove

Ron Riekki, author of U.P., spoke to an attentive audience on August 12th, challenging everyone to write more. He shared anecdotes from his writing and publishing career to-date, and pushed everyone to write more, write daily, and submit daily. Wow, what a schedule! (And I'll include a picture of him if I can only find what I did with it!)

If you go to the Amazon site, you can read the first line of his book (which he never did read at the meeting). I think he really laid it out for everyone in terms of how hard the work is in this field, and he's one of the first (if you haven't read Larry Brooks' storyfix.com - he also lays it out in no uncertain terms).

That said, if you don't do it for the love of writing, why do it? So, I'm aiming for a smaller goal to begin with, since I also work full time. Maybe submitting one short story a month. And that's in addition to working on my novel. Or a non-fiction essay, or a set of poems.

We had a great turnout of people from Michigan, even from the U.P., so I'm sure he was happy to see that and talk to those who could identify with his home area.

Thanks to all who made it and made him feel at home,

John