Category: authors
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Do Authors Read Their Own Stuff?
I’ve been working on a project that involves writing short stories based on my published books. Some were completed years ago, and I needed to read them again to reacquaint myself with the plot and characters. Now, I’ve reread my books many times—correcting, editing, and making other changes. What I haven’t really done was approach…
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When Fiction Meets Real Life
Once in a while, authors hear from readers who can personally identify with something they’ve written. Perhaps a character who reminds them of their sibling or a plot that eerily mimics an experience they’ve had. Whatever it might be, the story brings two strangers into the same orbit for a brief moment in time, allowing…
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The Writing of Abundant Moon
I never intended to write this story. Book three of the series was supposed to be Forbidden Moon, written right after publishing book two in February of 2019. I hadn’t counted on the mental fatigue resulting from an arduous writing journey of nine long months. In short, I was sick of the series and desperately…
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Go ahead – brighten my day!
I ran across an older post by Susan M. Toy entitled “How YOU can invest in authors and books… without spending any money!” In it, she lists ten ways to help, including borrow and read their books, tell your friends, talk about them in your own blog, and my favorite – contact them personally. “Contact…
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What to do before starting your next WIP
Your latest book is hot off the press. Now what? Suddenly finding yourself with unstructured free time can be downright scary. After all, you’ve become accustomed to that persistent little writer voice in your head demanding that you write, Write, WRITE for months on end. Of course you have another book, story, or project to…
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The writing of RISE OF THE DRAMAN
The book launched two days ago on April 6, 2020. Here’s how it came to be. Over a year ago, tired of the series I’d been working on, I decided to take a break and try my hand at a short story. Up to this point, my smallest work came to just under 34,000 words…
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Am I An Author Yet?
There is an overabundance of blog posts describing in detail what it means to be an author. I’m sure you’ve seen at least a few of them and perhaps checked out of curiosity. Unfortunately, many of them claim to have the answer, and explain in great detail what a real author is. Supposedly there are…
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Every Author Needs A Sounding Board
A great story begins with a fertile imagination, but developing that terrific idea into an equally terrific book involves a whole lot more. Perhaps your story lacks a whiz-bang ending or there’s an embarrassing hole in the plot. Maybe you’ve plotted yourself into a corner and can’t see a way out. Possibly, you wonder if…
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Saying Goodbye to an Underperforming Book
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” Octavia E. Butler This week, I made the difficult decision to pull the plug on one of my books – Second Chance Earth. For months I wavered back and forth,…
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Gladstone Shifters – The Writing of TRAITOR’S MOON
Traitor’s Moon, scheduled for release next month, is the second book in the Gladstone Shifters series. In some ways, this story was easier to write, since the foundation and main characters were already established. The plot was a natural progression of what took place in the first book, so ultimately I knew where I wanted…