Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
About a year ago I started to notice how all the Kindle books started to look alike. At first I thought it was just the nature of genre fiction. After all, one pair of lovers looks pretty much like every other pair of lovers. However, once I started paying attention, and did some digging, I …
Continue reading “Book Cover Art: Did You Get What You Paid For?”
August will always be back-to-school time inside my head, I know Heather feels the same way. It’s the start of a new season, Fall, my favorite time of the year. I love how the chill at night is just starting to yip at summer’s heels. By the end of August I’m ready for a change, …
Continue reading “What We’re Reading: August is YA Nonfiction”
I’m sure most writers know how to craft a major character; they understand the importance of their leads and that they should occupy the most page space. Yet every story needs supporting characters. Today, it’s all about the minor players, those characters we see briefly and yet are so well written they’ll stick with us. …
Continue reading “6 Tips for Writing Minor Characters”
Over the last year I’ve done a large number of posts on character archetypes; you can read some of those posts here. I write these posts because I’m obsessed with creating groups of coordinating and contrasting characters. Some of my favorite books, TV shows and movies combine characters to create an interconnected web of personalities. …
Continue reading “Assembly Required: Create an Ensemble Book Cast”
Kat, the protagonist (portrayed by Julia Stiles) in the film 10 Things I Hate About You, is not a likable character. Nor does she strive to be likable. It’s more the reverse with her; she’s intentionally rude, domineering, and opinionated. Since the film is based on The Taming of the Shrew, making her a bit …
Continue reading “10 Things I (Don’t) Hate About You”
Welcome to part two of Releasing Your Inner Poe. If you missed part one you can find it here. With fall rapidly approaching I’m hard at work on a few projects with dark gothic themes, but more on that in a future post. Since I’m struggling with the task of establishing the right balance of …
Continue reading “Releasing Your Inner Poe, Part Two.”
Gothic literature is delicious and deadly and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about it. It’s a literary form most people either love or hate. I fall in the love-it camp and I’m always hunting for great examples. I enjoy the old masters and finding new writers who rework the old tropes in fresh ways. …
Continue reading “Tips for Releasing Your Inner Poe”
Love it or hate it, the new Amazon Kindle Unlimited just made it easier for avid readers to sample a huge number of books while paying a fraction of the total cover price. The new program will give subscribers access to over 600,000 titles, many of them Indies, but also some big name authors. …
Continue reading “Could Your Book Make the 10% Mark?”
My kids learned just about everything from their ABC’s to their rhyming words from scavenger hunts. I wrote about some of my unconventional educational methods a few weeks ago. You can read more about that here. Our summers have always included puzzles, and vacations filled with gold panning, adventures and planting geocaching clues. We love …
Continue reading “Puzzles & Writing”
Last week I gave a few tips from The Oxford Inklings on improving your critique group. You can read that post here if you missed it. This week I want to share one of that group’s most valuable writing tips. The Inklings all advocated reading works-in-progress aloud. Historically this make sense, they were from a …
Continue reading “Reading Aloud: Why Hearing Your Book Is Important”