I hope you’re as excited as I am about this new series for the column. Karen Brooks is a columnist, book reviewer, blogger, former academic, and—most importantly for us—a successful author in the historical fiction genre. I discovered her work in The Locksmith’s Daughter, published in the US and the UK by HarperCollins and in… Read more »
In my last post, I talked about the most important creative talent an indie author should add to her publishing team: the editor. This time, we’ll look at the creative in a close second position. That’s the cover designer. If your editor helps you get your manuscript ready for public consumption, your cover designer entices… Read more »
Fearless writing is impactful. It forces the audience to encounter characters, situations, or outcomes that they may not be entirely comfortable with—and that’s a wonderful thing. It sounds easy enough to write fearlessly, and indeed it is—right up until someone starts reading your work. I never considered what my grandmother might think about my gruesome… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of hosting New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Heather Graham on the show! A theater arts major at the University of South Florida, Heather began her career with several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals and bartending. After the birth of her third… Read more »
Unlike fashion, books can’t become so-last-year (unless they started out as the button-down jumpsuit of the literary world). I browsed through books with pictures released in 2018 and below are four of my micro-reviews. I tried to cast a wide net, since there are so many subgenres of what for a long time were just… Read more »
Dear Editor, I’m writing a novel in the first-person perspective, and one of my critique partners just pointed out that they don’t know what my character looks like. Is character description important? If so, how do I describe a character from their own perspective without having them look in a mirror? Sincerely, Wondering Dear Wondering,… Read more »
It’s International Women’s Day and a perfect opportunity to celebrate women and non-binary writers. I love doing this because it’s actually a twofer: a celebration and a revolutionary act against injustice and inequality in the literary community and society at large. Let me explain. I don’t know about you, but in my day-to-day, I tend… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with co-authors Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams on the show! Anita is an award-winning media critic and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. She is best known as… Read more »
It’s fitting, as a poet, that my first published foray into fiction, Let It Go, was a piece of flash fiction. The story clocked in at a brief 286 words. Brevity is the bedrock of writing flash. I consider flash writing forms as cousins to poetry. Grant Faulkner, the editor of the literary magazine 100… Read more »
Much like the second signpost scene (The Care Package) in James Scott Bell’s SuperStructure, the Pet the Dog scene gives the reader a chance to catch his/her breath while reinforcing care and concern for the story’s Lead (protagonist). Think about it, if the Lead thinks “only of himself,” readers “get a negative impression.” If we… Read more »
