This was supposed to be a blog post about story tropes I enjoy but, given the state of the universe, I don’t really feel like writing about that. I just want to talk about happy endings. If you have a pulse, you know that America is not in the best place right now. I’m not in a position to… 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 »
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 question that author, Tony Wirt, asks on the cover of his book, A Necessary Act is “Can you stop a serial killer before it starts?” It’s the same thing you’ll be asking yourself until even the last page of the book – perhaps even scratching your head. The entire community of Lake Mills knew there was something amiss with… Read more »
Thank you so much for letting me visit today. Secret Lives and Private Eyes is the first novel in my Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. When I started writing this (several years ago), I thought about what it would be like to encounter someone famous in an ordinary or unexpected setting. I coupled that with my love of ‘80s music and… 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 »
As far as creatures go, most wouldn’t think a mermaid would be a part of that group. However, the mermaid we think of today thanks to Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, The Little Mermaid (1836), isn’t the mermaid known throughout history. When you think of a mermaid, you often think of flowing hair, a beautiful face -and body for those… Read more »