by Aaron McCarver Spring is here! For many people it is time for that annual foray into closets, attics, and basements…spring-cleaning. I have actually begun to attack some of those areas in my place. I am trying to follow the rule of my co-author, Diane Ashley?if I haven’t looked at it or worn it in more than a year then …
Agents and e-books
by Natasha Kern Natasha Kern Literary Agency I want to celebrate the new options for writers and the empowerment that has come with the advent of ebooks. There is no question that writers now have more choices about what they can write and how and when they can become published. Books that previously were too short or too long, that …
A Boy, A Girl, and a Love Fern
by Janelle James Years ago, I had the chance to train for the circus. Alas, I am not currently traveling with Ringling Bros. But I don’t consider the experience a waste. I learned an important lesson from tightrope walking that helps in my current endeavor as a romance novelist. Tightrope walking and novel writing might not seem to have anything …
Ten Tips for New Authors
by Suzanne Woods Fisher So…you’ve got a book contract. Congratulations! But now it’s time to sell your book. Your publisher has a marketing plan, but the focus is on retail outlets. You want to try to help your book gain altitude. But how? By thinking small – book by book, reader by reader. You can make a difference! You are …
The Ticking Clock: A Novel Timeline
by Janet Chester Bly We started in July. Our deadline for Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot was November 1st. Steve left us 7,000 words, a one-page synopsis and a list of characters. We assigned ourselves to listen to the audio versions of the first six original books of the Stuart Brannon Series. We immersed ourselves in the character of Stuart …
The Importance of Character Quirks!
by MaryLu Tyndall Character quirks are one of the many things that help create a vision of the character in the reader’s mind. They help separate the character from others in the book and give them a unique visible or internal quality. Let’s face it, in a book, it’s much harder to define and separate characters than it is in …
Take Another Step
by Kathy Harris What do you do when you see a fork in the road? You pray. Hard. And then you take a step. How many times have we all faced a difficult decision? A roadblock? A detour? Not knowing which way to turn. Wondering what God has in mind for us. How many times have you felt that way …
What’s in a Name?
by Lisa Jordan While working on my third novel, I emailed my agent and asked her thoughts about my characters’ names. She suggested I change one because having two old-fashioned names may confuse the reader with the genre. So I changed my male character’s name to something a little more modern. One of the most used books on my bookshelf …
Enhancing Your Creativity
By Victoria Bylin Wouldn’t it be nice if creativity were a faucet you could turn on and off? Imagine a shiny chrome spigot with a fancy handle, the kind that moves in a circle and changes temperature and flow with a flick of your wrist. Add a fancy sprayer that can be adjusted from a heavy stream to a mist, …
How One Simple Trick Made My Novels Come Alive
by Sandra Orchard From a young age, we’re taught to not be tardy. We’re told that punctuality is a virtue, and that being early is even better. Not so in writing. The trick that took my novels from good to published was this… Start late. Leave early. Think about that for a minute. Start late. Leave early. Readers are intelligent …