I’m so excited by these books, I have to pass them along.
First of all, right now you can get for the incredibly low price of $20 this entire story bundle of writing books. I would have bought just one of the books on my own–the horse one by Judith Tarr, since I’m writing a lot of horse scenes these days for The Bradamante Saga and yes, I’d like to make sure I get them right–but then once I saw all the other awesome craft books in this bundle: SOLD. Because every writer can get better, and it’s such a pleasure to read a great craft book by authors who are experts in their field.
And speaking of authors who are experts in their field, the great young adult author Tom Leveen now has a new book out on writing dialogue. Before turning to novels, Tom spent many years in the theater as both an actor and director. I’ve taught writing workshops with him, and his tips for writing great dialogue are always FANTASTIC. Treat yourself to this book. You’ll learn a ton.
That’s it for now, gang. Happy Writing!
Read on Wattpad - Serialized Novel
From September 11, 2014 - October 30, 2014.
Read one chapter/day.
Click on cover to read the first five chapters.
I am excited to report that I have my first science fiction, adult-audience, short story published!
Last year, I attended a retreat in Oregon with Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch as the main instructors. They own WMG Publishing, and one on-going project is a monthly short-story anthology. I was invited to submit, it was accepted and is not in a bookstore near you! Fiction River #8: The Universe Between collects original stories by a wide range of authors. My favorite is the first story by Lee Allred, who writes scripts for DC, Marvel, and Image Comics, among other credits. “Slow Answer” is about an alien race who takes over Earth, providing a near utopia for humans; the twist is WHY they’d taken over Earth, and the answer is why you should read this anthology.
My own story, “Are We Alone in the Universe?”, is also a science fiction story about first contact with an alien race. I wrote it as back story for the trilogy that I’m working on right now. The story is about the parents of my main character: how they met, how they fell in love, and the fallout of a forbidden love. I was thrilled when the story was accepted because it’s my first short story ever published, my first adult-audience story ever published, and my first science fiction story ever published. That triple-whammy makes it exciting.
The Fiction River Anthology is available as an ebook, paperback, or Audible audiobook.
Support the Fiction River Anthology
Even more exciting today, though, is the Fiction River Kickstarter Project. To keep alive a short story collection publication, WMG Publishing established a Kickstarter, or crowd-funding, project. With 17/30 days left, they have already met their $5000 goal, AND their 10,000 Stretch Goal, and are going for gold.
Like many of the other Fiction River authors, I donated books for the Kickstarter project. I urge you to look over the project and think about contributing; even small contributions of $10 are welcome and helpful. However, if you’re really interested in helping, some of the rewards that involve my books are still available:
- Pledge $60 or more
E-UNIVERSE BETWEEN AUTHORS PACKAGE: Receive a one-year electronic subscription to Fiction River, plus an electronic edition of Fiction River: Universe Between. You’ll also get electronic copies of books by some of the contributing authors of Universe Between. You’ll receive The Unjust, Dust, and Hope by Rob Vagle; The Haunted Bones by Phaedra Weldon; Body Check by D.H. Hendrickson; Kell, the Alien (a children’s book) by Darcy Pattison; and Love, Venusian Style by Richard Alan Dickson. Plus, your name printed in the acknowledgements section of each Fiction River volume for a year and on the Fiction River website with a special thank you for your kind support. Limited (1 of 1 remaining)
- Pledge $125 or more
PRINT UNIVERSE BETWEEN AUTHORS PACKAGE: Receive a one-year print subscription to Fiction River, plus a print edition of Fiction River: Universe Between. You’ll also receive SIGNED print copies of books by some of the contributing authors to Universe Between. You’ll get Body Check by D.H. Hendrickson; Kell, the Alien (a children’s book) by Darcy Pattison; The Unjust, Dust, and Hope by Rob Vagle; and Love, Venusian Style by Richard Alan Dickson. Plus, your name printed in the acknowledgements section of each Fiction River volume for a year and on the Fiction River website with a special thank you for your kind support. Limited (1 of 1 remaining)
- Pledge $500 or more
PAPER BANG FOR YOUR BUCK PACKAGE: All the print volumes of Fiction River from Volume 1 through the end of year three! But wait, there’s more! In addition, you will receive a SIGNED print copy of a book from each of the following authors who have contributed a print book to this Kickstarter: Mary Jo Putney, Marcelle Dube´, JC Andrijeski, Laura Resnick, Annie Reed, Kris Nelscott, Leah Cutter, Dean Wesley Smith, M.L. Buchman, Juliet Nordeen, Michele Lang, Melissa Yi, Ryan M. Williams, Sharon Joss, Brian Herbert and Jan Herbert, Jeffrey A. Ballard, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Darcy Pattison, Lisa Silverthorne, Richard Alan Dickson, Brigid Collins, Karen L. Abrahamson, Thomas K. Carpenter, D.H. Hendrickson, Travis Heermann, Scott William Carter, Stephanie Writt, Joe Cron, Barton Grover Howe, Rebecca S.W. Bates, Richard Bowes, Louise Marley, Brendan DuBois, Ray Vukcevich, Carole Nelson Douglas, Julie Hyzy, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Kara Legend, John Helfers, Kerrie L. Hughes, Rob Vagle, Laura Ware, Patrick O’Sullivan, Dayle A. Dermatis, Kevin J. Anderson and David Farland. Plus, your name printed in the acknowledgements section of each Fiction River volume for a year and on the Fiction River website with a special thank you for your kind support. Limited (1 of 1 remaining)
Don’t think that big donations are the only way to go. Every level of support–even $1–is appreciated, and it’s helpful! Read more about the Fiction River Kickstarter Project.
READ the Fiction River Anthology — including my short story!
Oh, how I love this post by Dean Wesley Smith! It’s a rerun, and it’s worth rereading at least…
An intriguing question, and the kind of thing a lot of us writers are too afraid to confront.
But man up/woman up! (Writer up!) Read this and consider what’s true for you.
Technorati Tags: Advice for Writers, Authors, Books, Dean Wesley Smith, Publishing, Writing, Writing Advice
Long, long ago, back when I’d been rewriting the same novel for EIGHT YEARS, I took a class from bestselling and award-winning writers Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
And when they talked about writing multiple books a year–sometimes four books a year, sometimes double that–the scales fell from my eyes. No one had ever told me you could write more than one book a year, or that you could stop endlessly reworking the one novel you had and move on to something else.
I was cured. And thereafter became a happy writer.
Since then I’ve found my own personal pace and figured out how many novels my body and my brain like me to write every year. I’m not going to tell you, because as Dean says in this wonderful post about finding your own speed, people sometimes get mad when you talk about your method and your output, and it’s best to keep it to yourself.
If you’re currently stuck in the endless whirlpool of rewriting your one book, I encourage you to try the same experiment I did when I got home from that seminar: Just sit down and write a novel (or a short story, or whatever your favorite medium is) from start to finish, no stopping to rewrite those first three chapters again and again, and just see how quickly you can do it. For me that first time it was five weeks for a complete novel. I know a lot of people love to participate in NaNoWriMo every November because they have to finish a novel in one month.
Find your pace, but first be willing to see that it could be much, much faster than what you’ve always thought. Writing is fun. Fast writing is SUPERfun.
Onward!
Technorati Tags: Advice for Writers, Authors, Dean Wesley Smith, Kris Rusch, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Novel Writing, Novels, Publishing, Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Seminars, Writing Workshops
Writers: great new post by Dean Wesley Smith on giving yourself the proper business foundation before you ever start self-publishing. This post is part of a new series of his, so bookmark his website and follow along!
Technorati Tags: Advice for Writers, Authors, Dean Wesley Smith, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writers, Writing, Writing Advice
Here’s a great blog post from my favorite writing teacher, Dean Wesley Smith.
Agree with him or not, this should tweak some of your assumptions about how long it takes to write a novel.
And by the way, if you’re ready to start taking your writing career seriously and not only be published but make a good [...]
Thanks… I’m in the whirlpool. Needed to hear this again.
Good. Glad to pass along this valuable service to other writers. We all need to hear it sometimes!
Thank you for saying this!! I feel exactly the same way. My last novel got written in four weeks and very little has had to be changed. It can be done!
Yes! It’s so easy to forget that we’re storytellers, and that it’s not that different from sitting around a campfire with people and telling them a great story from start to finish. You don’t keep going back and saying, “Wait, in that first five minutes? I meant to say ‘whispering like a willow,’ not ‘creeping like a vine.’” Whatever! Move on! Tell us the rest of the story!