Mel McIntyre

My Children's Books:

Flutter Bunnies
The Legend of Lumpus and Ogols

My Books on Writing:

The Ultimate Copywriter

Travel Writing Secrets

How to Write a Children's Book

My Articles:

Helium.com

Squidoo: Write With Style

Squidoo: Picture Taking Tips

Article Empire?

Any article writers out there?

If you write articles, you want those articles to make you as much money as they can. One solution is to rewrite those articles quickly and submit them to other article sites.

If that's something you're interested in, why not give Triond a try? Copy and paste this link into your browser so you can sign up and start posting your articles today:

http://www.triond.com/rw/214109

P.S. Triond is not as fussy as some sites about titles. That means you can use all your skill to write titles that pull readers into your articles :)

Internationally Famous?

Maybe not...

I wandered into the Kinokuniya Bookstore on Orchard Road in Singapore, typed a few details into the screen, and this entry appeared:

Okay, it's not as good as having a copy or two on the shelves. That day will come, I hope. But I was pretty impressed that it came up in their records at all.

Strangely, I couldn't find any reference to it in the Border's bookstore just up the road, despite the fact that you can order copies in any Borders branch in Canada.

Funny old world, eh?

Awesome Illustrations

Artist's New Website

David MacQuillan, the artist who created the illustrations for The Legend of Lumpus and Ogols, has a brand new gorgeous website that you should check out. As well as the pictures for Lumpus, it also contains samples of some of David's paintings, ink drawings, monoprints, and more.

Visit the site at http://www.davidmcquillan.com/ to get a taste of his incredible talent.

How to write a great article headline

Ready, aim, fire!

This headline is the title for an article about taking great pictures. It’s a good headline because it achieves a number of objectives:

1. It’s short and to the point

Imagine an article about taking better pictures with a title something like this:

101 techniques for taking quality pictures that are guaranteed to take your photography skills to the next level!

You might be tempted to laugh, except for the fact that there are already plenty of articles with headlines like this online. It’s almost as if the writer thought it would be a good idea to put in everything he or she could think of. Whether or not it would pass Helium’s title restrictions is not the point; the point is that it doesn’t get and hold your attention.

It’s too long. There are too many words. We don’t have the time to wade through it all in the hope that the rest of the article will be good in spite of the clumsy title. Because, deep down, we know it won’t be.

How could it be? It was likely written by the same person.

2. It arouses curiosity

An article with the title Ready, aim, fire! might be about a lot of things. Unless you find it on the front cover of a photography magazine, it’s not necessarily obvious.

That’s good news, because if you can make the reader curious about something, he or she will be forced to read on. The need to know will be overwhelming, and your article will have a better chance of being read from start to finish.

3. It’s clever without being corny

There’s nothing wrong with being clever. But titles that rely on word play, puns or similar literary devices can get boring very quickly.

The trick with “being clever” is to balance it out. For example, if you were the cinematographer that filmed a movie starring Omar Sharif, you could write an article with the title...

Go to my Helium page to read the rest of this article :)

It's A Sentence!

A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought.

I found this information online today when I was browsing after finishing some work. It reminded me about how I was taught in school.

This is the most satisfying definition I've yet to come across. Some sources go further with simple, complex, and compound sentences, but they're all variations on the main theme, which is:

A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought.

I jot it down again because it seems like not everybody understands the concept. A complete thought doesn't have to be deep and meaningful. It could simply be:

Get lost!

That's a complete thought, right? Or how about:

Jesus wept.

That's a complete thought, too. All you need is a subject (or an implied subject in the case of Get lost!) and a predicate (think verb). And you're good.

Which one of these is a sentence?

A. The long and winding road

B. That road is long and winding.

If you said B, have a cookie. Example A is just an phrase. No action going on. Not a complete thought because nothing happens to the road and nobody seems to be on or near it.

Ain't words brilliant? Especially in combination...

Nearly Famous Author!

On the books at Chapters!

On Saturday (Jan 23rd) I was in the Chapters book store in Moncton. I wandered over to the children's books but naturally never expected to find my books there. However...

They have kiosks set up at various points around the store. You can enter what you're looking for into the computerized system and it'll tell you:

• If they stock it
• If it's available in the store
• How to order a copy if it's not in the store

I looked for both of my children's books, Flutter Bunnies and The Legend of Lumpus and Ogols. And guess what?

They were both listed!

Sure, you have to order them, but I still thought it was pretty cool. Some day I hope to see them and other books of mine on the shelves.

Lumpus Books Arrive!

They're here!

I'm quite excited about this book, because my step-son David did the artwork for it. His pictures capture the mood of the story perfectly. I only wish the book was bigger so you could see them more clearly...

Still, you can see them clearly enough if you buy a copy :)

If you're interested, go to Amazon.com and search for The Legend of Lumpus and Ogols. Or simply follow this link.

Get it from Amazon.ca here, from Chapters Indigo here, from Amazon.co.uk here or from Barnes & Noble here.

It's nice when a batch of new books turns up in a delivery van. Takes some of the harshness out of these Canadian winters...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that 2010 brings you all that you desire in your writing career and your life in general.

Thanks for reading...