Up & Coming

Check out my recent published work and my works-in-progress. Interested? Got questions? Just send me an email.

My New Books! 

  One Simple Idea, Stephen Key (ghostwriter: Colleen Sell), McGraw-Hill, Mar. 2011

“My book, One Simple Idea, reached #1 in three Amazon categories, was in the top 20 of all books sold on Amazon, and received over 50 five-star reviews within a few weeks of its release. This never would have happened and the book would not have been selling so well without the great work of Colleen Sell, my ghostwriter/collaborator. She was able to make my content easy to read, and on top of that, she found my voice. Even though we were on a tight deadline, Colleen was a pro and met all deadlines. She did an amazing job, and I can’t thank her enough. I look forward to collaborating with her on my next book.”

~Stephen Key, Inventing & Licensing Expert; www.inventright.com

        The last two Cups of Comfort; 2001-2011 & 40+ books … a very good run, indeed.

The Tao of Place: Call for Submissions

I’m looking for personal stories about the human connection to a specific place. The “place” might be a home, a certain room or space or cubby hole in a home, or a building, neighborhood, park, body of water, city, region, country, type of landscape (woods, mountains, desert, ocean), vacation spot … whatever “place” has special and positive meaning to you.

This book-length anthology (which I will compile and edit) will include narrative essays and creative nonfiction stories as well as a limited number of poems and prose pieces. I am not interested in travel articles or profiles of places, nor am I interested in fictional works. What I’m looking for is your creative expression of your personal affinity for or your visceral connection to a place. In your story or poem, I want to “see” and “feel” the place, and I want to understand your connection to it—whether that connection is emotional, spiritual, psychological, ancestral, practical, or whatever.

One publisher has expressed interest in this book and has asked to see a proposal with 10-12 stories, which I will do. However, I plan to complete the manuscript so that I can shop the book and find the best publisher for it.

Submission Length: 800-2,500 words for essays/stories; 50-500 words for poetry/prose

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2012

Submit by email only. Include your name, mailing address, and phone number, and make sure to specify “Tao of Place” in the subject line.

If your piece is selected for inclusion in the book, the two of us will enter into a provisional and nonexclusive use agreement (which I will provide to you) that authorizes me to include your piece in the book manuscript for the purpose of securing a publisher for the book. Publication of the story in the book is contingent upon all parties (you, me, the publisher) agreeing to the terms and conditions of publication, including rights reserved by the publisher and payment to you for use of your piece in the published book.  Contributing authors will be paid; how much and whether payment is upon acceptance or publication of the book can only be determined when I secure a publisher … unless I win the lottery between now and then, in which case I’ll just publish the book and pay you on my own dime.

If you have any questions, please send an email.

When a Mind Breaks: Call for Submissions

I’m gathering narrative essays, creative nonfiction stories, poetry, and prose that reveal the effects of mental illness on the lives of people who have neurobiological disorders and/or on the lives of their loved ones.  For this anthology (book), which I will compile and edit, I’m interested in honest, original, compelling, and insightful stories and poetry that are in some way hopeful or helpful to readers.  My hope with this book is to help shed the light of compassion and understanding on the mentally ill and their loves ones, to bust some of the myths and misnomers about mental illness and the mentally ill, and to give voice to those most deeply affected by mental illness.

This book is very important to me … because I, like most people in the world, have a loved one who has a debilitating mental illness.

I do not yet have a publisher for this book, but I am confident I’ll find one and determined to do so … which is virtually impossible to do without a finished manuscript.  Most publishers of anthologies acquire them in the same way they do memoirs and novels—with a query and then with a finished manuscript, not with a proposal and sample content as with straight nonfiction. If your piece is selected for inclusion in the book, the two of us will enter into a provisional and nonexclusive use agreement (which I will provide to you) that authorizes me to include your piece in the book manuscript for the purpose of securing a publisher for the book. Publication of the story in the book is contingent upon all parties (you, me, the publisher) agreeing to the terms and conditions of publication, including rights reserved by the publisher and payment to you for use of your piece in the published book.  Contributing authors will be paid; how much and whether payment is upon acceptance or publication of the book can only be determined when I secure a publisher … unless I win the lottery between now and then, in which case I’ll just publish the book and pay you on my own dime.

Submission Length: 1,000-2,500 words for essays/stories; 50-500 words for poetry/prose

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2012

Submit by email only. Please include your name, mailing address, and phone number, and specify “When a Mind Breaks” in the subject line.

If your piece is selected for inclusion in the book, the two of us will enter into a provisional use agreement (which I will provide to you) that authorizes me to include your piece in the book for the purpose of securing a publisher for the book, after which publication of the story in the book is contingent upon our mutual agreement, along with the publisher’s, as to the terms and conditions of publication, including rights reserved by the publisher and payment to you for use of your piece in the published book.

If you have any questions, please send an email. Please make sure to specify “When a Mind Breaks” in the subject line.

Hot Mamas of Reinvention: Interview Subjects Wanted

I’m looking for women who have transformed themselves, their careers, or their lives in a fascinating or profound or unusual way to feature in a new book.   This self-help/inspirational nonfiction book will profile 20-25 women of varying ages and backgrounds who have deliberately and dramatically changed their lives in a positive way.  The transformation must have been self-directed and intentional, not merely a matter of “fate” or “luck,” and it must have arisen from a “turning point” in adult life. I am not looking for coming-of-age stories about rising above a challenging or tragic childhood or about the evolution/development of a woman’s life over time. The book is about women (not girls) who have made a decision and taken deliberate action to change themselves and/or their lives at a specific time and for an explicit reason during their adult lives … making a dramatic switch from one path to another, from one state of being to another.  The reinvention may be in response to a negative circumstance or to a change in circumstances or within yourself.  A few of many possible themes include: career change; physical transformation; change in where and/or how you live; religious/spiritual transformation;  behavioral/emotion/psychological changes;  change in interpersonal or romantic relationship(s); change in sexual orientation; etc.

I’m also interested only in fresh faces … in reinvented women who have not already been on Oprah, in major women’s magazines, or all over the news.

This is a great opportunity to promote your business, self, cause, or interest … and to pay it forward, inspiring and informing other women who are longing to reinvent themselves, too.

If you are interested in being featured in the book or would like to recommend other ”hot mamas of reinvention” you think should be featured in the book, please send me an email briefly describing your (or her) transformation. If it’s okay for me to contact you by phone, please include your phone number in the email and the best time to contact you. Make sure to specify “Reinvention” in the subject line.

One publisher has already expressed interest in the book, so the sooner I line up 20-25 fascinating stories of reinvention, the better.

Overworked in America: Interview Subjects Wanted

I am researching and developing a nonfiction book that examines the number of people in the United States who routinely work extraordinarily long hours, two or more jobs, and/or under stressful working conditions, whether because it is “just part of the job” or out of financial necessity.  The book will also investigate the effects of these working conditions on the individual’s well-being, longevity, family, lifestyle, and other relationships. This is investigative journalism that requires extensive research that includes interviewing 100 people who are currently in a situation where they feel they are being “worked to death” or have been in that situation and opted out of it. The book will also include case stories of about 25 people. Interview subjects, including those whose case stories are included in the book, may remain anonymous.

If you are interested in being interviewed for and/or featured in the book, please send me an email briefly describing your “overworked” situation. If it’s okay for me to contact you by phone, please include your phone number in the email and the best time to contact you. Make sure to specify “Overworked” in the subject line.