Series are a big business these days. If you can hook the reader in with the first book, then you’ve got a built-in base of sales for the next two (or three or more) books. Before you start writing a series (or further developing your current one), here are five tips to keep in mind…. Read more »
When it comes to Fifty Shades of Grey, commenting on the poor quality of the writing has become cliché. Mentioning the book in a circle of authors requires a caveat of, “Yes, I know. The writing is weak,” before any further comment can be made. But the fact remains: the trilogy has been wildly successful…. Read more »
Every story needs a solid, vivid world that readers can lose themselves in for hours and remember long after they’ve reached The End. Whether that world is another planet, a land of mythical creatures, ancient Egypt, or a modern-day university doesn’t matter. If it feels real to the reader, then the writer has succeeded with… Read more »
Do you know a tween or young teen who has moved on from Harry Potter but isn’t ready for Hunger Games? Loved Inkheart but found Twilight too heavy on the sappy romance? Have I got the list for you! From under-aged criminals to giant cockroaches, there are some attention-grabbing books available! Here are five fantasy/science fiction… Read more »
I had never even heard of steampunk before I got a job at a Victorian Fair one summer. The woman leading the orientation asked us for examples of “Victorian-themed” movies that we could use for inspiration. Someone suggested a Sherlock Holmes movie and she said, “No, that’s more steampunk.” My mind snapped to attention and… Read more »
I never thought I’d be an audiobook lover. I thought audiobook narrators were unnecessary middlemen, interfering with the golden process of communion between the author’s brain and my own. But practicality sometimes trumps ideals: when I started commuting half an hour each way to work, I decided to hang up my reservations and give myself… Read more »
Washington’s Birthday is coming up and, in honor of that, I want to talk about American novels. There’s been a lot of debate about what constitutes the “Great American Novel.” With so many voices, and so many different experiences in American life, this list should be huge. Since we only do five books on a… Read more »
Everyone knows the saying, “The book was better than the movie.” This is true in . . . well, just about every case. And this is not to say that movies adapted from books are bad by default. On the contrary, they’re often very good. After all, they have such great source material! And it’s such… Read more »
Give me a complicated anti-hero over a classic “good guy” any day! I love reading about anti-heroes and I love writing them. Of course, using an anti-hero as a protagonist is tricky and risky. Even the edgiest, darkest protagonists have to be likable, or the reader will put the book down. In Destruction the protagonist is man… Read more »
Happy Friday everyone! Most of the country is currently being pummeled with snow and freezing cold temperatures. We are also in an arctic freeze of television, in that terrible limbo in-between the first and second half of most TV show seasons. And I don’t know about any of you, but one show that I’m really ready to premier again… Read more »
