Hi All
Just a quick progress note on the new site and some information about upcoming changes. We are always looking for ways to provide you with high value-low cost workshops and online classes and with these changes we've also added a cool new feature.

The new site is not quite ready, but we’ve decided to rollout the new forums in advance of the full site deployment. If you’d like to see how the new site is shaping up, you actually watch us build it here.

Just to be clear, it’s certainly not done yet, but we are putting the new structure in place and are testing the new site features as we go. We’ve actually had working forums for nearly two weeks now! WOOT!

They say there are only two sure things in life – death and taxes. Creative types normally don’t enjoy dealing with technical rules and numbers, but as much as we might want to stick our heads in the sand, we can’t.

If you’re a writer, you’ll encounter a variety of tax issues related to your writing business, and the issues you’ll face will change as your career develops. Even if you hire a professional preparer, it’s essential for you to have at least a fundamental understanding of tax reporting.

In Medium Well, the first book in my Medium trilogy for Berkley InterMix (to be released February 19), my heroine is a singer and musician in a band called the Changelings. Frankly, I don’t remember where I got that name, and I may well have come up with it just because I needed a name that seemed vaguely supernatural. Anyway, the point I want to make here is that the name itself really didn’t have any bearing on the plot. I didn’t think much more about it until I got the manuscript back from the copyeditor. He’d added a marginal note, pointing out that there was a band in Atlanta called the Changelings, and advising me that I needed to check to see if the name was copyrighted.

If you're a writer, odds are good that you're mainly familiar with the name Brenda Hiatt in connection with my ongoing money survey rather than my books. Of course, I'd love to be better known as an author, but I don't regret for a moment that lots of people are familiar with my surveys. Fun as it might be to have people gush about my writing, I always get a warm glow when (as often happens at conferences) someone stares at my nametag, then exclaims, "Brenda Hiatt! You're the money person!" They often go on to thank me for my survey, sometimes citing a specific instance where it was particularly helpful for them. Which, of course, is why I do this.

Congratulations to all Savvy Authors!

Our first congratulations this week goes out to Savvy Authors member Christi Barth. She sold a four book deal to Carina Press for her Chicago Wedding trilogy and a Christmas novella. Congratulations, Christi!

Marianne Harden's Rylie Tabitha Keyes Mystery Series has been picked up by Entangled Publishing. Malicious Mischief debuts Summer 2013. Congratulations, Marianne!

Congratulations to all Savvy Authors!

Our first congratulations this week goes out to Savvy Authors member Cassandra Carr. Her holiday novella, Caught, was nominated by Love Romances Cafe in their Best of 2011 Awards in the Best BDSM book category. Additionally, she sold the second book in her Buckin' Bull Rider series, Collision, to Ellora's Cave. The first book in the series, Impact, comes out February 1, 2012. Lastly, her short story, Take Me at the Ballgame, will help launch the brand-new EC for Men line at Ellora's Cave in mid-January. Congratulations, Cassandra!

Beth Barany's YA fantasy novel, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, won the Grand Prize in the first annual California Fiction Writers Book Challenge. Congratulations, Beth!