Let’s get a few things clear up front: No one is obligated to write a book review. Not book bloggers, not authors, not regular readers. Reviews are something readers do out of the goodness of their hearts, as a hobby, as a favor, as a way of improving their own writing… it doesn’t matter. Reviews are for other readers… they are not for stroking the author’s ego, tender though it may be. Reviews can be as simple as “I loved this book!” or “I hated this book!” That is absolutely fine. Book reviews can be primarily for yourself, as a kind […]
On Writing and Publishing
63 posts
This is some of what I’ve been reading lately: The Legend of Eli Monpress series – Rachel Aaron – I just finished Spirit’s End. If you’re looking for a break from grimdark, you should really check out this series. There’s plenty of death, destruction, and high stakes, but it’s told from a lighter perspective, with characters worth loving and rooting for. There is real loyalty and self-sacrifice, along with some really fantastic and inventive magic. As a random aside, I have no idea why the covers are so different. They’re obviously part of different editions, but I don’t know why. The second […]
The cover artist for The Dragon’s Tongue (and the rest of the A Long-Forgotten Song series) sent me a sketch! I did the typography, and that’s not actually the final layout because obviously it will be book cover shaped. But seriously, how awesome is this? Also, you can preorder an ebook of The Dragon’s Tongue now!
I got up the courage to join the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Yeah, how silly is that? I’ve been thinking about it for a while because it seems like a great group of people. But another commitment? Seriously? I didn’t want to flake out, so I just didn’t join for oh… months. An embarrassingly large number of months. But here I am, and here’s my first post. I had a major bout of doubt and frustration a few weeks ago. I spent real money, as in triple digits, on a number of advertising and publicity efforts. Nothing really panned out. […]
This guest post was written by A H Gray, the author of The Northumbrian Saga. What Vikings can teach you about blogging and promoting your own creative writing The main thing I have learnt from watching the History Channel’s Vikings series is that people are still interested in history. Many have argued over the show’s accuracy in portraying the Viking period, that it values entertainment over accuracy. If you are an author of historical fiction then you will know this debate very well. Yet from my own experience I have discovered that viewers are as interested in learning the history behind […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by AC Smyth, the author of Crowchanger and Stormweaver. Mentors with a Twist Think of a mentor in fantasy and where do your thoughts go? I’d take a bet that for a lot of people the first person they think of is someone like Gandalf, or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maybe Albus Dumbledore. The mentor is a grey-haired man in a long robe, right?Well, maybe that used to be the case, but I think […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by LJ Cohen, the author of The Between and Future Tense. Deciding What’s Important I came to writing relatively late in my life, after a successful 25 year career as a physical therapist. It’s not that I had never written before. Even during my health care career, I wrote, though most of my work was non-fiction, including research papers and text book chapters. However, I did find time for […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by Christine Frost, the author of The Veiled Mirror: The Story of Prince Vlad Dracula’s Lost Love and Dark Lady of Doona. How Do They Feast? Portraying Food in Fantasy and Historical Fiction As someone who loves to study world history, I’m a stickler for details. When compiling research for historical fiction, I don’t limit myself to studying the major historical milestones or cultural elements for the time and place […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by Mike Reeves-McMillan, the author of Realmgolds, Hope and the Clever Man, and Hope and the Patient Man. How to be Optimistic Dystopian fiction is in at the moment, as is the closely related genre of post-apocalyptic. Everywhere you look (especially in the YA market) you see people struggling in a world where things have gone substantially more wrong than usual. I could talk about sociological reasons why this might be so, […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by A.J. Maguire, the author of Sedition, Saboteur, and Witch-born. World-Building and Sequels It seems easy enough to start a series. You finish one book and then, oftentimes because you’ve fallen in love with particular characters or the world you’ve built, you realize there’s more. There’s more story to be told here, more adventures to be had, and you get excited to continue. Readers are excited with you because, just like you, […]