by Amanda S. Green I've spent the last couple of days trying to decide what to blog about today. I could write about the ongoing kerfluffle between PublishAmerica and J. K. Rowling. If you aren't familiar with it, PublishAmerica has offered -- for the low price of $49 -- to get your book to Ms.... Continue Reading →
Celebrating Genre Writing and Cover Art
Rowena here. It's my turn to do the Saturday post. I think you might have gathered by now that I'm a visual person. From the polls I've done it seems most writers are aural - they make up play lists and immerse themselves in certain music while writing their books. I have a background as... Continue Reading →
Dialogue
by Chris McMahon Reading a few new authors recently, I've realised how much of range there is in terms of dialogue. Some authors - including very successful ones - manage to get away with almost 60% dialogue in the text. Somehow I always feel that's cheating, but then again good dialogue is difficult to write.... Continue Reading →
The Fine Art of Character Torture
by Kate Paulk You've all heard it many times - if it's to be meaningful, your characters have to suffer. I've seen any number of wrong ways to do this, and so far only really found one right way. The wrong... well, it's worth going through some of them, simply because there are plenty of... Continue Reading →
Deaf and Blind
Yes, I’m doing a series of craft and "stupid things writers do to themselves" posts. Partly because as I am packing and getting ready to go to World Con I’m not reading as many field blogs as I should. Partly because for the last week I’ve been running into people who are – I think... Continue Reading →
Why writers shouldn’t be connected to the internet while writing …
I found this article by Sam Leith on books, the internet and kindle and one paragraph in particular struck me. He was talking about what people do at work. ' In some ways, though, the question of whether we do our reading off paper or plastic is the least interesting one. More interesting is what... Continue Reading →
A country with no ghettos for anyone – or why I don’t believe PC is a good idea
-By Dave Freer On another list I belong to a comment on political correctness and racism brought out the guardians of that sacred fire, who shut it down. It got me thinking about the issue, because it impacts writers heavily, more so now that the internet means the reach of those calling for a crusade... Continue Reading →
Oh, you didn’t just write that!
by Amanda S. Green When I write these Sunday posts, I can usually tell if they are coming from the editor side of me or the writer side. Every once in awhile, they come from the reader side. Today's post comes from all of the above, but mostly from the reader side. A little background... Continue Reading →
The Ricketty-Racketty Club (WIP) — by Dave Freer
"You Son-of-a-bitch!" she screamed. "You're gonna DIE, damn you!" I dived forward. Rolled. Metal shrieked above me. "Can't we talk?" I yelled trying to get flatter than the 10 inch steel I-beam I was hiding behind. I didn't even try and reach for my gun. Lead would just make her madder. "Talking time is OVER,"... Continue Reading →
Story Pace
by Chris McMahon I have been re-reading George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series recently. On the first read I can recall being terribly frustrated by the lack of pace - and by how thin the progress of the storyline was stretched between the huge number of PoV characters. Talking to others I am not... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 