5
12, 2012
Storytelling can take many forms
Some of the characters I’ve enjoyed writing about the most are an inch and a half tall.
22
11, 2012
I should be thankful, but…
The traditional publishing model, if not dying, is being forced to evolve. And while The Way Things Are shift closer to The Way Things Were, many people are celebrating the fact that electronic formats make self-publishing an option for anyone with a tale to tell.
7
11, 2012
What every writer needs
Someone once said, “A writer is not a writer without an audience.” I don’t necessarily agree, but I will say this: a serious writer will not be satisfied until he or she finds one.
4
10, 2012
The tricky trek toward those two little words
In my experience, writing the end of a novel has to be the hardest part.
25
09, 2012
Don’t let minor characters usurp your MS
At a recent Allied Authors of Wisconsin meeting, I was thrilled to receive unanimously positive feedback on a particular character in the chapter I read. The only problem is all that praise went to a pretty minor character who appears in just one scene in the entire novel and doesn’t even have a name.
6
09, 2012
Want to write? Get a life!
Close your eyes and imagine a writer. What do you see? A free-spirited young woman writing in a leather-bound journal beneath a tree?
21
08, 2012
Why sci-fi and fantasy?
While I didn’t become addicted to books with dragons on the cover until freshman year of high school, I had more than a few flirtations with the genre as a child.
3
08, 2012
Art vs. entertainment
Jealousy is an emotion we unpublished novelists know too well. Every success story of an out-of-nowhere-bestselling writer stirs up a storm of frustration, indignation, and, at times, incredulity.
12
07, 2012
Battling genre bias with the magic of an open mind
Reading books with dragons on the cover says something about a guy.
14
06, 2012
How to make a person
The problem with stories is they require people. I’m not talking about author and reader—though they, as well as their relationship, are fraught with challenges too—but rather the individuals that populate the story itself.