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Some memoirs I read in 2015
I read several biographies/autobiographies/memoirs this past year, and here is what I thought of them: Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew Actress Kate Mulgrew offers up vignettes of her life as an actress and also her personal triumphs and tragedies. Some remember her as Mary Ryan on Ryan’s Hope; some remember her as Captain Janeway…
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My favorite fiction titles I read this past year
See, I read stuff besides Science Fiction & Fantasy. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Genre: Contemporary Fiction; World War II Fiction An indirect connection between a blind French girl and a German soldier boy guides them through the ravishes of Germany’s invasion of France. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel can be compared…
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Science Fiction and Fantasy I read this year and why I did or did not like them
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Genre: Science Fiction; Space Opera A starship, thousands of years old, has been dismantled and its memories downloaded into one of its mechanic beings that seeks revenge. First of all, the narrator of this story is the starship who cannot distinguish gender, so every character is male, although some of…
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Storming
Next on my to read list is a newly published book by K.M. Weiland called Storming. Not only are her stories entertaining–I read her novel Dreamlander earlier this year–her non-fiction books on writing have mentored me as I complete my novel. Check out her awesome website and blog. You will find tons of resources and…
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The answer to the question
As a fiction writer, I have always wondered how to break into the publishing companies that announce on their manuscript submission guidelines: “We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. We only look at manuscripts through an agent.” Then when trying to find an agent — a legitimate agent — the agents are only looking for established…
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Exposing “exposure” for what it is: an insult
As much as I love designing book covers, I don’t have time to do it for free. Last year I designed book covers for a couple of different small publishers. I figured out one publisher would not be paying enough for the time I put into the projects, so I told the publisher I quit.…
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Quense tells how he writes his books and doesn’t apologize for it
Here is my review of Hank Quense’s Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir as it appears in Goodreads and Amazon: I’ve read many books on writing fiction and after a while I see the same theories and best practices over and over. This is not necessarily a bad thing because a reminder is always helpful. However,…
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How to Hack a Flashback: Secret Shortcuts of Bestselling Authors
Great article on writing flashbacks by author Christopher Kokoski.
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Writer’s Block: Just One Sentence
I overcome writer’s block by tricking my brain. I tell myself: “All I have to do just write one sentence for today, and that’s it. That’s today’s quota.” I’ll write that one sentence and then I’ll just keep going. I think telling myself one sentence is enough removes the psychological barriers of “I have to…
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