As a romance author few things give me more satisfaction than watching my characters come to life within the pages of my novels. I imagine Dr. Frankenstein felt much the same way when he attached nodes to his monstrous creation and waited for lightning to strike. Not the most romantic analogy but I’m just going to go with it lol…. Read more »
Small Press Publishing: What to Expect Small presses can open doors for authors who may not otherwise find a home for their books. For anyone considering publication by a small press, here are a few things I’ve learned from working with Fire and Ice YA, the Minnesota-based press that published my young adult mystery, Trail of Secrets: * Expect to… Read more »
Every author that tackles a genre with outside-the-norm characters wants to make the best ‘bump-in-the-night’. Let’s note that I originally wrote that line, using only ‘horror’ and ‘fantasy’ as genre examples. But fortunately for readers and writers, so many of the stories that we bring into the light lately are almost impossible to categorize. Though it makes it difficult… Read more »
Getting Reviews for Self-Published Books A few decades ago, self-publishing was a drag. Aside from the strife that comes with financing your book, you also have to impress the publisher with your transcript. Think about it. There used to be a time when the only people who could read were the ones who went to school. Why? Well, let’s just… Read more »
The mind’s eye can be a wonderful thing. Through it, thousands of words become glorious landscapes and sweeping vistas and the darkest caves. We witness through our imagination the rise of kings and the fall of dictators, honorable battles, and mischievous deeds. We can see the glow of first love, the tears of new loss, and the grief of… Read more »
I definitely have a dark side. For as long as I can remember I have loved scary and/or weird stuff, starting with Nancy Drew and John Bellairs (remember The House With a Clock in its Walls? Spooky!), moving on to Nightmare on Elm Street and anything by Stephen King, James Lee Burke or Jonathan Kellerman, and now Lee Child. I… Read more »
How Fiction Built/Builds Our World Part 1 Stories… fiction… drama and entertainment. Maybe a spot of education too. These are the things that we superficially get from the storytellers of our species. In truth though… we get a whole more than that. Indeed, it is the imagineers of who built the world we live in with the ideas that they sold… Read more »
I must admit up front that my sensibilities about adult content are very America. I’m far more comfortable with violence than I am with sex. That being said, I think there’s a place for both. It all depends on what you’re comfortable writing. For example, I get pumped when I’m about to write an action-packed battle or fight scene. I’ve… Read more »
I have been a screenwriter for around 12 years, an avid reader for 23 years, and a writer for various mediums for 16 years. After a while, you start to notice patterns in the material you come across. The most recent pattern I have noticed is in Teen Fantasy Books. I released my first fantasy novel, The Golden Sword, in… Read more »
I had the wonderful pleasure of beta reading for Valerie before she published any of her work. Since then, I have read each of her pieces as she’s published them and promised myself I would do a review. But am I really qualified to review her work? I’m not sure I am. But, I know I have to. I… Read more »
Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to deny that The Walking Dead has left a mark on the popular psyche and isn’t going away anytime soon, especially since it’s been renewed for at least twelve seasons. At first, that news made me roll my eyes. After how bad season two was, I wondered how they could keep up momentum… Read more »
One of my favorite tools of writing is subtext. I don’t know how widely known or used it really is because I didn’t learn about it until my junior year of college. Subtext is a thread that runs through a writer’s work that punctuates major points and/or usually underscores the whole purpose of the story. To put it in laymen… Read more »
All writers agree that reviews are important. The number of reviews independent books and stories receive on vendor websites impacts where those books are seen and advertised. The more reviews, the higher the rank and broader the profile. There are many, many reviewers and sites offering a chance to earn a review. And it can be tough to gain a… Read more »
Am I a Critical Reader? Despite what people may think, doing an honest and comprehensive review of a book isn’t as easy as it may sound. Sure, anyone can say, “Oh, that was a great book.” Or, “I hated that author and will never read their books again.” But there’s so much more to it than that. A reviewer has… Read more »
He Said: The question put to us is: How many beta readers are enough before you publish? To answer this, I first have to define where I put beta reading in the editing process. For me, there are three steps in getting your book ready to publish. The first two, proofing and beta reading, can be interchanged (time wise) and are… Read more »