Writers, put down those red pens, because I have bad news for you. We’ve all seen the lists of words to weed from your prose, phrases editors hate, little pet peeves that get on other writers’ nerves, and even those of a few readers. If you are a dutiful and Good™ writer, you went through… Continue reading Writing Is the Least Important Part of Your Book
Let’s kick off October with something scary–every author’s worst nightmare. It’s not that we’re afraid you won’t like what we like; disliking it is fine. What kills authors is if you don’t read our books at all. Think of a great recipe sampled only by one person, a sofa sat on by two or… Continue reading What Every Author Fears the Most
Post-apocalyptic is all about one thing: if the world as we know it ceased to exist tomorrow, would I survive? Take away my cell phone and television, cars once the fuel runs out. Remove the airplanes from the sky and the shipments of exotic fruit from the grocery stores. Eliminate the grocery stores. Eliminate society… Continue reading The Point of Post-Apocalyptic: A Time for Thick Walls
All of you readers–and I’m betting that’s all of you–love a good deal. Here’s a great place to catch one! Grab your copy of What Boys Are Made Of for $0.99! And while you’re at it, choose from over one hundred other sci-fi and fantasy titles for less than a dollar each. Grab your summer’s… Continue reading 99 Cent Books!
It turns out I hate a lot of books. This came as something of a shock to me, because I grew up as that sad stupid kid who had books for friends. Various characters guided me through life, informed my (occasionally idiotic) choices, and in general were there for me. I always had a book… Continue reading Where the Good Books Hide
Recently I was reading a few studies about how even when women speak less than men, they are perceived to be noisier. In fact, in one study, conducted by Australian researcher Dale Spender, when women spoke only 15% of the time, they were perceived as having spoken an equal amount to men. And when they… Continue reading Gender Ratios in Novels: Check Your Biases
The piece I’m writing right now, it’s, well. It’s something else. I can’t decide if it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever written or absolutely brilliant, and I love it. It started, as all of my side-books do, as a short story. An accident. A total mistake of fate, where I went to jot down an… Continue reading Banal Evils Are the Kind That Win
Ah, marketing. Can you believe that before my book came out last month, I was actually excited to give it a try? Marketing is, it turns out, a jerk. You wouldn’t think it’d be hard to sell eight hours of entertainment for literally less than the price of a cup of coffee, but alas, publishing… Continue reading What Makes People Buy Books?
I don’t plot my books; they come to me in the spur of the moment from a single scene, idea, voice. Sometimes I know where I’m going, sometimes I don’t. In the writing world this means I’m what’s commonly known as a pantser: I write by the seat of my pants. It’s a pretty accurate… Continue reading Finishing Yet Another Silly Manuscript
Less than six days until book day, and it’s time for a final preview of What Boys Are Made Of! Yeah, I know. This time next week, I will officially be a published author. Well, okay, yes, my short story was published last fall, but now I will have a book for sale! Oh, wait,… Continue reading What Boys Are Made Of Final Preview: Chapter 3
Under-Paid, Over-Enthused 