Speaker C.J. Peterson

At our 34th Montrose Christian Writers Conference in Montrose, PA  from July 16th to the 21st 2023, C.J. presented a work-in-progress seminar, “Sci-Fi and Fantasy: May the Odds Be Ever in your Favor” for teens and young adults. With a total of 12 young people in her class, C.J. taught essential elements of the very popular genre, making sure the attendees understood the difference between fantasy and sci-fi, and explaining the definitions of subgroups, world building, and character arcs. All of the attendees loved C.J.’s presentations and want her to come back ASAP. Several young people wrote the following comments on C.J’s evaluation:

The WIP was great!

 Her afternoon classes were most helpful!

 C.J. helped me the most with her critique.

 Her Fantasy WIP and Storytelling 101 helped me the most!

Please have her come back soon!

I look forward to having C.J. return in the near future to work with our young people again. She was well received and was a great asset to the 2023 faculty at our conference this year.”

Marsha Hubler, director

C.J. Peterson  has marketing skills and media savvy. Her sister, LM Mann is the technical expert. Both are award-winning authors who have joined together to create Texas Sisters Press, Lufkin, Texas. Peterson recently spoke at a North East Texas Writers Organization Conference. The two entrepreneurs function under the auspices of  a Creator God and "grandma-friendly" content. The goal is to produce quality publications, to focus on book characters that act and react in believable worlds and mimic relatable earth mentality. 

They train and incorporate authors to be part of the publishing process, thus providing a hybrid-combination of methods and techniques. Texas Sisters Press is interested in both new and experienced authors. Submission standards are high. They do not provide editing services, nor illustrations, but have an extensive list of qualified people to recommend.  They focus on low numbers of clients in consideration of time constraints and the best way to serve authors. Check their site for current needs and never query with less than your best. 

A perk for using this press includes marketing training sessions and even an organized launch party. There is a pay element as well as a profit element. Texas Sisters Press expects family-like relationships that work together to better the literary world.

Jean Pamplin - NETWO Spring Writer's Conference

Speaker, C.J. Peterson boasted an impressive list of credits, included were authored books in several genres and a partnership in Texas Sisters Press. 

Confident at the podium, she was prepared for a room full of writers that want—no—need to know the best way to build worlds, develop characters, and fill pages of typewritten episodes. The focus was on creating SciFi and Fantasy novels. Peterson believes chaos is mentally straining. The unexpected can be good, but well thought out worlds and characters won't collide with readers making them crash.

Surprise! Worlds worth writing about need to be ordered. Readers want believable foundations based on truisms. Chaos, head-hopping, and less than believable situations, are a sure path to failure.

C.J. is a pantser—simply put, she writes in the moment of inspiration. She doesn't expect every author to work that way, but she does expect them to respect their readers. She popped up screens of numbered dos and don'ts with her flagship wave of background color. Participants had time to snap a photo for later review. Holstered guns handy, she zeroed in on several core issues. The award-winning author's get-this-done-right advice included the need to check and recheck. A few hints to increase your target scores include using a larger manuscript font size to really see any problems like double periods; read your work up to three times aloud to spot awkward areas and find beta readers—preferably with compatible genre expertise.

Jean Pamplin - NETWO Spring Writer's Conference

On 11 June, C.J. Peterson presented to the East Texas Writer’s association: The Author Life.  Her first question was: What did you expect your life as an author to look like? Personally, I was a blank page because I had not considered it. She enlightened us of several anticipated aspects: a leisure life siting on a deck under an umbrella typing away on a novel, making money, and several others. 

If it was isolation and reclusion as I currently live, boy was I wrong because she pointed out other than common day living distractions, there are a plethora of advertising methods to get our works out to the public. Also, a need to research and improve our work. She gave us a list of many tools to help us in advertising our books I was unaware of.

While she is well published with many titles to her name and a seven-time award winning author, she and her sister created and co-own Texas Sisters Press publishing company. I was impressed. They developed a company for the author. She introduced us to the many aspects how they help the author get published that will work with the individual needs of each author, and educate them in the process to a level the author chooses. Most importantly, the author retains all copyrights.

Personally, I have been writing for twenty years and just started down the publication road. I will be reaching out to her for publishing.

Oh, my answer to her first question now is: Entertaining. My books entertain me as I write them and later when I go back and read them.

Thank you, Ms. C.J. 

President East Texas Writer’s Association - L.L. Shaddox

"C.J. Peterson was a joy to have on our panel for Indie Author Day in 2017. C.J. spoke with such passion about her books and the countless people that read them. It was such a pleasure to hear her speak about her writing process and what inspires her everyday to continue writing. We were so happy to have her join us and are looking forward to having her again to speak on recent and future projects."

Taylor Harding

Technical and Digital Services Supervisor

Longview Public Library

"Author C.J. Peterson dazzled at our East Texas Writers Association June 2018 meeting. Her knowledge of managing social media was evident as she talked about hashtags, how to use Hootsuite to manage multiple social sites, and how to revive old blog posts. The meeting was flooded with questions from the members. We will certainly keep her in mind for a speaking spot next year. She really has it down to a fine science!"

President of ETWA - Patty Wiseman