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 »
Blurbs should be short and to the point. Hence the name “blurb.” Blurbs are a summary of what a book is about. But who says that the blurb has to be long. I’ve seen too many authors’ blurbs that tell too much of what their book is about, reaching the status of being more of a full length novel… Read more »
I have a lot of initials after my name…18 years of study on top of what I did at school. And not one of the degrees is in English or Literature. So what the hell am I doing writing novels? There is a myth that anyone can write a novel…but the truth is that not anyone can write a good… Read more »
Nearly 125 years have passed since 32-year-old spinster Lizzie Borden supposedly killed her father, Andrew Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden, yet the crime continues to be as fascinating as ever. Countless books continue to be published offering various reasons for the crime. Was she insane? Was it a crime of passion? Was it a crime of opportunity… Read more »
Beyonce’s ‘Run The World’ keeps playing in my head as I sit down to write this. Well can you blame me considering women writers are on fire and chicklits are rocking it so fly. The architecture of literature is evolving and we must be ready to embrace the evergrowing, ever exciting heroines. Gone are the days of Sherlock Holmes solving… Read more »
30 Things about My Sleuth – Delanie Fitzgerald of Falcon Investigations Thank you for letting be visit your blog! Secret Lives and Private Eyes is the first in my Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. She is a private investigator who lives in Central Virginia. And I’m often asked about what my protagonist is really like. Here’s my top-thirty list about my… 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 »
As promised, it’s Mystery Thriller Week Today (Feb 12th) through the 23rd February Please see below for our schedule of events, But don’t forget to visit MTW for A schedule of the entire week’s events. 2/12/17 Guest Post – Michael Smoremburg – How Fiction Built/Builds Our World Part 1 2/13/17 Guest Post – Kelley Kaye – Guest… 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 »
In the few short decades of its existence, the Internet has become a staple of society and revolutionized how we do just about everything: the way we shop, the way we talk, the way we meet people, and the way we travel, just to name a few. Most surprisingly, it’s changed the way we scare others as well as ourselves…. Read more »