Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Melodie Campbell This month, I will have the privilege of interviewing both Ian Rankin and Linwood Barclay, at separate conferences and festivals. Both are world-renowned crime writers (and wonderfully witty men besides.) As I read through their latest books in order to prepare for being the hostess with the mostess (naughty thoughts aside – […]
by Anne R. Allen Song lyrics inspire a lot of writers. Often a song that means a lot to you may be what inspired your book in the first place. Or you may need to quote those Garth Brooks lyrics to give an authentic tone to that bar scene in your memoir. The band played […]
UPDATE: “Rose Ankh Publishing” was referred to as a vanity press in a number of the comments on this post. Such statements were untrue. Rose Ankh Publishing is a legitimate small independent publisher and NOT a vanity press. David Conway, whose recent biography “Magic: A life in more worlds than one” was published by Rose […]
by Anne R. Allen One of the worst crimes publishing scammers perpetrate on new authors is bullying them into buying junk “book marketing packages.” Often these cost astronomical fees — $10,000 and more. The useless book marketing the scammers push involve Tweets (which haven’t sold books for over a decade), presence at book fairs (where […]
by Ruth Harris Why is cooking — often? usually? sometimes? — more appealing than writing? *Even if you’re only a halfway decent cook, just about everyone will eat and enjoy what you made — and tell you so. * If you’re only a halfway decent writer, no one will enjoy what you wrote — or will […]
by Anne R. Allen Social Media Executor? That may not be a term you’re familiar with, but believe me, you need one. That hit home for me this week after the tragic death of my friend, the kind, talented, funny author Barbara Silkstone. I hadn’t heard from her for a month or two, so […]
by Joseph Perry When you sit down to write your book, there are some legal issues that you need to be cognizant of. These include defamation, invasion of privacy, and right of publicity (a form of privacy). There are other items to be aware of as well, but let’s focus on these three for now. […]
by Anne R. Allen Secondary characters are often glossed over in popular fiction. They’re in the story to further the plot, and can sometimes devolve into broad stereotypes or cardboard cut-outs while the protagonist (and maybe love interest) dominate the story. You can avoid the problem if you think of the secondary characters as […]
by Ruth Harris How often should you water a cactus? What is the name of the president who came before Abraham Lincoln? How do you blow up a bridge? What’s so special about the Sydney opera house? What does SPECTRE stand for? In the course of writing a novel, a writer — one who will […]
The adversity cycle vs. the Hero’s Journey by Stefan Edmunds A Fresh Definition of Story I imagine that in the earliest days of storytelling, people took real-life adventures, like raiding a village, surviving a storm, or abducting a woman of another clan, and told the tale at the campfire. Over time, storytellers gilded real-life adventures […]
Blogging is a great way to build platform by Anne R. Allen I started this blog on March 13th, 2009. It was Friday the 13th. Obviously I have a need to tempt fate. I knew pretty much nothing about blogging. I simply wanted a place to put the unpublished columns I had written for Inkwell […]
The Sensitive Plant (Mimosa Pudica) by Anne R. Allen A friend recently hired several sensitivity readers to review his YA novel, which features characters of diverse ethnicities. He’s about to get on the query-go-round and wants to make sure the book won’t be found insensitive to those minorities. This is becoming increasingly important to the […]
by Ruth Harris Here are Some Pro Tips And Tricks To Absolutely, Positively Raise Your Anemic R-Score. Are you embarrassed by your pathetic R-quotient? Do other writers sneer at your R-score? Has your pile of rejection letters stalled out? Have your R-levels been diagnosed as too low? Has too much time gone by since your […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris