Timothy's Thoughts

W e learned yesterday that Blake Snyder passed away due to a heart attack. Blake was a well known screenwriter, but his claim to fame wasn't as much for the movies he wrote as it was for his Save the Cat books. These books dealt primarily with the categories of plots that all stories fall into and the basic outline for each of these plots. The writing community has lost a good friend.

S ometimes I run across information that seems like it ought to be helpful, if I could just figure out what to do with it. Below is a list of names and yes, I am aware that there are a few repeats: Lauren Barnholdt Jan Karon Rachel Hauck Leisha Kelly Kathleen Popa Herb Heiman Jay Asher Jim Stovall Wally Lamb John Grisham Sarah Dessen Karen Kingsbury Karen Kingsbury Melody Carlson Melody Carlson Melody Carlson Melody Carlson Beverly Lewis Melody Carlson Philippa Gregory Karen Kingsbury So, what can I do with this list? First, I probably ought to explain where it came from. These are the authors of books that customers who bought Searching for Mom also bought on Amazon.com. My name should also be in that list, but I didn’t expect it would be very helpful to know that people who bought my book also bought my other books. But knowing that my book made some kind of connection with readers of these authors—mostly Melody Carlson and Karen Kingsbury, apparently—seems like it could be helpful ...