writing love scenes

#5onFri: Five Tips for Writing Love Scenes

The thought of writing love scenes sends many authors running for the hills, but love scenes are my favorite scenes to write. It’s a chance for two characters who have spent a good chunk of the story pining for each other and bantering to take things to the next level physically.  Here are five tips… Read more »

write sex that sells

Making Love to the Page: How to Write Sex that Sells!

When I published my first erotica in 2015, I quickly realized there was still a certain level of judgment related to the genre. Sure, we had come far thanks to trailblazers such as Zane, EL James, and Noire (to name a few), but there was an overarching stigma present that the literary community was afraid… Read more »

Catherine Baab-Muguira

Episode 383: The Mashup as a Model: Lessons for Your Writing Career from Edgar Allan Poe – Interview with Catherine Baab-Muguira

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Catherine Baab-Muguira. Catherine is a writer and journalist who has contributed to many media outlets, including Slate, Quartz, CNBC and NBC News. She is a frequent podcast and radio guest, with appearances on NPR and Lifehacker’s Upgrade. Catherine currently lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and baby… Read more »

time skip

#5onFri: Five Ways to Ace a Time Skip in Your Writing

A well-written story is a well-paced story. It is in the rhythm and flow of events that readers find themselves on a heart-thumping adventure with the characters. And there are only a few stories that occur during an uninterrupted, brief period. Most, however, are spaced out in a span of days, weeks, months, or years…. Read more »

time travel

Time Travel: When Sci-Fi Meets Historical Fiction

Not long ago, I worked on a copyediting project in which the story included time travel, a narrative element straight out of science fiction. As I worked my way through the manuscript, in which the characters were searching for a way to survive a dystopian future and decided their best option was to live in… Read more »

organize a collection

The Poet’s Toolbox: How to Organize a Collection

Welcome back, poets! In my last article, I talked about some of the techniques I use to generate ideas and inspiration for poems, especially when on a deadline. Today, I want to take things a step further and talk about what to do after you’ve written and revised a bunch of poems, and are ready… Read more »