The Dragon in the Garden – Erika Gardner
Erika Gardner is a personal friend who’s publishing her debut novel, The Dragon in the Garden. I couldn’t be happier for her. Preorder now on Amazon and Smashwords.
Category: Writing
Proposal to Modernize Our Spelling System
First, eliminate the unnecessary letters C, X, and Q, which can be replaced by S or K, KS or Z, and KW, respektively.[sic]
Cover Reveal – Are You Kidding Me? by Stacey Gustafson
Stacey Gustafson is a friend and fellow member of the California Writers Club/Tri-Valley Chapter. A humor writer who finds funny in suburban family life, she will publish her new book in Fall 2014 in both print and electronic forms. Here’s the teaser:
My Writing Process: A Blog Tour
Acknowledgement Thanks to Wendy Terrien for inviting me to participate in The Writing Process Blog Tour. Wendy is an author of young adult fiction who has written stories since her age was in single digits. Having studied organizational communication and business, and worked her way up the corporate ladder at a number of organizations, she’s happy to be […]
How to Critique a Writer’s Website
Introduction Though skilled at critiquing writing, critiquing websites pulls writers out of their comfort zones a bit. I wrote up this simple scoring guideline to help facilitate critique and discussion. I think it is also useful for writers to review their own site, and also the sites of successful authors to understand how and why […]
Make Them Laugh! Using Humor in Characterization
I write epic fantasy novels for young adults. That means I make up a lot of stuff — some of it works, some of it does not. I test my chapters on young adults, particularly my own children, and listen for one thing as they read: laughter. That is the sound of success. If they […]
Me and Obama: Compelling Characters From A Father-Daughter Moment
“Daddy, do you know what me and Obama have in common?” My daughter asked me this question a long time ago, during the McCain-Obama presidential contest in 2008. I remember being impressed that my precocious little seven-year-old with pigtails was even aware of presidential politics. “No sweetie, what do you and Obama have in common?” […]
Social Media: a new kind of critique group?
I took the microphone at my local writer’s club the other day and asked the audience two questions. I opened with, “How many of you were told that you need to build ‘a platform’?” Almost every hand went up in the air. Then I asked, “So, how’s that working for you?” The audience chuckled.