Tag: indie author
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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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The Odious Apostrophe
I still struggle with the crazy thing from time to time, but it’s no longer my kryptonite. Who knew a teeny-tiny punctuation mark could cause so much grief? Enjoy! The Odious Apostrophe Apostrophe, Apostrophe, or should I say catastrophe? You make me nervous, angry, mean, You’re Satan’s punctuation scheme. I put you in and take…
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I’ve Been Tagged – 11 Essential Questions
A fellow author sent me these cheeky queries. Enjoy! Surprisingly, this is difficult to answer! I usually read 2-3 books a week, but lately the offerings have been disappointing. Implausible plots, dark characters, and foul language seem to be common fare, and I end up deleting many books from my tablet within the first chapter.…
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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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Plot vs. Characters?
I had an interesting discussion with a co-worker concerning the merits of certain Sci-Fi films. For me, the only ones which matter are Star Trek and the three original Star Wars films. Many will disagree with me and that’s OK. The point of our discussion was what made them great movies, and I believe it’s…
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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…
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Creating the Gladstone Shifters
My children were strongly encouraged to read when they were young and used to make frequent visits to the library to load up on books. Somewhere in the ‘90’s they started bringing home the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, and since the idea intrigued me, I began reading them too. An Animorph is a person…
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Some great quotes about books
Posted 10-17-18
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Naming Characters – it ain’t that easy
Posted 9-15-18 Don’t be fooled – naming characters is more difficult than it would seem. Well, I think it should be if you’re doing it right. Some authors insist on choosing unfortunate, distracting, or uncomplimentary names for their characters, making the story difficult to read or enjoy. You know the ones I mean: I have…
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Defining “Science Fiction”. Does it really matter?
Posted 8-18-18 Apparently I missed the memo. There is a long-standing argument going on regarding the true meaning of the term Science Fiction. Really? Is there any good reason to be concerned? A read an article this week which seeks to parse out the true definition of the term and its competitors. Science Fiction vs.…