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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query writing. Sort by date Show all posts
Dyane Forde, purple morrow cover
Canadian writer Dyane Forde has always had a love for writing and decided to get serious about it around three years ago. Striking out to achieve her goal of publishing a book led her down many interesting and wonderful roads, learning many valuable lessons along the way. Dyane also has a blog dedicated to writing with the goals of both creating a place for readers to discover her work and to also serve as a writing resource. Her articles are often geared to inspire and encourage others from what lessons she has learned, as well as to provide practical writing support and tips.

Dyane
's love of writing began with an early interest in reading and of words in general leading to a life-long desire to write all types of things, from short stories, novels, flash fiction, poetry, etc. 
"I enjoy delving into genres and forms of writing that are different from what I’m used to in order to stretch myself. Every story or book represents new challenges. I write to communicate, meaning that writing becomes a means through which I seek to connect with people on a level deeper than intellect."

So today, Dyane has come here to share some information and answer questions I have for her.  We are both excited that the timing of this interview is coinciding with her book The Purple Morrow just coming out, which is the first in her trilogy Rise of the Papilion.


How long have you considered yourself a writer?

I loved writing since I was a kid and dreamed of being a writer when I grew up but life took a different route. About 3-4 years ago I decided to take writing seriously and set to writing books and stories and what not, so I suppose I would consider myself a writer from that point on.



What inspires and motivates you to write?

I love words. I love seeing what they can do when mixed and matched in various ways, how they can be used to create a mood or a feeling, to stimulate the senses or to move people’s emotions. In a world dominated by visual stimulation, there’s something special about being able to stir the heart and imagination with the written word.

What inspired the name of your blog “Dropped Pebbles?”

The idea behind the name was in regards to the ripple effect that occurs after one drops a pebble in a pond. When I started the blog, I hoped that each story, article, interview etc. would reverberate like that, connecting with and affecting readers, and over time, one day make its own place within the writing community.

I’m back! I've been out of commission a few weeks but that doesn't mean the old brain has stopped thinking about writing or blogging. Spending days alone in a hospital room—by some miracle, I lucked out and was given a private room—I had PLENTY of time to think. And to think some more. So, what conclusions did I come to during this time?
 woman writer looking thoughtful author pondering from www.genevieveng.com
from www.genevieveng.com
Well, I decided it was time to close the book on my ponderings about the writing life for the moment, and that this last post should do it. Like anything new, understanding the writing business and my place in it took time but I think I finally came to grips with something important.
Brace yourselves.
I concluded that it’s entirely possible that this dream of making it as a successful writer could end up being little more than an expensive hobby.
Gasp!
Somewhere in the backs of our minds we already know this but hope, passion, and drive shoves the possibility aside. Only, once you get your feet wet, once you start putting in the real elbow grease to sell your books, that’s when reality really hits. This is really hard!
It’s aggravating. When I think back over these last few years and what they involved, it was the hope of success that pushed me through each challenge—I climbed those mountains because of the carrot dangling at the end of a rope. And that’s not to say that I have failed, nor is this sour grapes. I achieved my life-long dream of writing and self-publishing a book (The Purple Morrow) and I am proud of it. I've gone ahead and written the sequel and started the last book of the series. I plan to write and publish those and the other books I've got brewing in my head. I’m blessed that Morrow is selling, and, thanks to you all, my blog is doing well, and people like my stories. It’s just that the business part of this writing gig involves so much time and effort (and money!) and it doesn't always pay us back in kind—in other words, we don’t always receive according to what we've put in. Or worse, more is required before we begin to see any form of meaningful return.
Do you see where I’m headed? I don’t know about you but I've got a full-time job and a family to support. Luckily, I've made back the investment to produce my book but therein lies the truth we keep hearing all over the web: writing is also a business. In order to make money, you have to spend money. Which involves risk. Realizing that any further investment in time and money might not bring in a decent return gave me pause. How far do I want to go? How far can I go? These are some of the questions that every serious writer should be asking themselves.
I’m not at all saying that we should only write to make money. But there is a difference between writing as a hobby because we love it and writing because we want to publish so we can reach larger numbers of readers and earn something for our efforts. Most of us write because we love it. So much so that we lock ourselves away from our own families and the rest of the world to ‘live’ in another, made-up world. And that’s the way it should be, at its heart. We do what we love because we love to do it. I just think it’s important to know why we write so that we can know what to expect before jumping in with both feet.
So… is this post all about discouraging people from wanting to publish their books? Not at all. As usual, my goal is to share of my own experience for the benefit of someone else. If even one person comes away from this with a clearer and more realistic picture of what awaits them, then I’m good.
If you are thinking about writing seriously, here are some things to consider:
Writing is competitive: There is a ton of competition out there. Anyone can publish a book these days, and for reasons unknown, even poorly written books suddenly strike it rich. Does that mean quality doesn't matter? No, it definitely does. Putting your name on a book will associate you with it until the end of time. Write your book but write it well; your reputation is at stake. Also, success or failure aside, it’s important to do your best to produce something you can be proud of. Just know that no matter how well-written your book is it might not sell as well as you’d hoped. Reality check number 1.
Writing is time consuming: It takes time to produce something of quality. This is true whether you write part-time or full-time. You will write, rewrite, edit and re-edit until you can’t stand you story anymore, but these processes are essential. I think readers can tell when a story has been thrown together versus one where the author took time to nurture and develop the world and its characters. I think any reader who lays down money for a book expects to be treated to a well-told story, so be certain you put in the time needed to properly craft your tale.
Writing is expensive: There are many ways to publish books. There’s doing it for free on a site like CreateSpace, there’s hiring a company to help with editing, book covers and formatting, or the traditional way of going through an agent to maybe one day get a deal. In any of those cases, a quality edit is needed—again, regardless of the format chosen, it’s important to have a manuscript that is as clean and free of plot holes and content errors as possible. IMO, this means paying a qualified person to do the work. Friends and family might be okay for a beta read and to build the morale, but if you are asking readers to lay down their hard-earned money to buy your book, do them a favor and get a good edit. Again, your rep is on the line, and after all the hard work you put into the story, you deserve to have your manuscript shine in the best light possible.
Writing is full of disappointments: As high as we can feel after creating a piece we love, there are some intense lows that come hand in hand with writing. Rejection after rejection letter from agents, publishers, magazines, are some examples. A story that didn't get the attention or reaction you wanted, or a book that didn't sell as well as expected, are others. There are no guarantees in any venture we undertake, but knowing that the road ahead is not all sunshine and rainbows can help us better prepare mentally and emotionally for the ups and downs.
Writing is taxing: We all know this. Not only do we have to write well, we have to market well, we have to find and connect with the new markets, we have to connect with our readers, we have to… the list goes on. And on. And on. There is never ANY end to the number of things we have to do. And those who have more time to dedicate to it all naturally have a leg up on those who don’t. They say that writing should be considered as a second job, and in a lot of ways, it is. If you add up the hours spent writing, platform building, and in social media I’m sure you’d be surprised at how much it added up to. And we wonder why we are always tired!
So what is a writer to do?
What is a writer to do? Writer with question marks all around their head. www.picstopin.com
www.picstopin.com
That’s what I have been struggling to figure out these last few months through my posts. I have been slowly coming to the conclusion that perhaps writing just might become an expensive hobby. Or, that it might take a lot longer than expected before there are important returns on the investments I have made and will continue to make. It’s sobering, but as far as I can tell, it’s the truth. I haven’t yet decided on what to do next, or how to handle this possibility, but I am taking the time to re-evaluate my priorities and expectations. I think, for the moment, that’s the best I can do.
How about you? What do you think? Where are you on your publishing or self-publishing road?


book cover art steampunk novel
Brooke is the author of The Brass Giant and The Mechanical Theater (initially released as The Clockwork Giant and Le Theatre Mecanique) part of the Chroniker City series for young adults. Her geeky obsession with mechanical science and history is the driving force behind her writing, flavoring her steampunk with scientific accuracy and her fantasy with the rich cultures of ancient civilizations. When she isn't writing, she enjoys a plethora of hobbies: drawing, painting, paper-craft, sewing, and baking a Jack of all trades, master of none, in true bardic fashion.

If the world were a tabletop role-playing game, she would be the studious bard of the party, her husband the fiercely-bearded paladin, their dog the cowardly wizard who only knows one spell, and very soon to join them, their daughter, who will certainly choose her class once she arrives. They currently reside in Northwest Arkansas, but once they earn enough loot and experience, they'll build a proper castle in the mountains, defending themselves against all manner of dragons and goblin-kind. 


book cover Chroniker book one
How long have you considered yourself a writer?

I was twelve when I made the decision to be a writer, but I don't think I ever really considered myself a "real" writer until after I graduated college. Until then, I had been a student, an artist, a gamer, spending very little time actually writing. But after college, I dove headfirst into the career I wanted to devote my life to, spending hours upon hours working on my stories every day, not just an hour or two a week. When people asked what I did, I could tell them I was a writer because that's what I did day-to-day; it became my job.


What inspires and motivates you to write?

Various things inspire me —a line from a book, a character from a movie, a random thought or dream, a painting or drawing, or even just a name or a combination of words. I don't try to explain where my inspiration comes from. It just happens, sometimes when I'm looking for it, sometimes when I'm not. But what gives me the most inspiration, what really inspires me to write, is reading a good book. Reading a good book makes me want to write something that someone else will read and be inspired. Really, that's the driving motivation behind my writing. I want to share stories. I want to make people cry because they care about a character I created. I want people to dream about the worlds in my stories. I want them to believe, for just a moment, that the world I created with my words, the people who live there, that it's all real, that if they could step through the pages of my book, they'd find a real place and real people, and hopefully, they wouldn't want to leave. That's what I want to accomplish with my stories, and that's why I keep writing, to share those stories, to share those worlds and people with others. Otherwise, they'd only exist in my head, and that's not fair.

Why Steampunk and how did you come to write Y.A.?

I sort of stumbled into writing steampunk by accident. Before writing my first steampunk novel, The Brass Giant, I was in the middle of editing a garbled mess of a fantasy novel, and it wasn't going well. One night, lying awake in bed, I had a thought: A machine is truth. It was an odd thought, and I wondered who would think such a thing. So I started exploring the idea, and out of it came my main character, a clockwork mechanic, and my setting, a city built on steam and clockwork technology. I had read a few steampunk novels by this point, and the thought of writing one terrified me since I had only ever written fantasy, but I had a story to tell. So I did.

Writing young adult fiction was also a sort of accident. My favorite stories are middle grade, meant for readers between the ages of eight and twelve, and I always wanted to write stories for that age group, but every time I came up with a story idea, it didn't fit middle grade. My protagonists were too old, their problems too complicated, and of course, I have a fondness for romance that's better suited for teenagers and older. Writing young adult wasn't really a decision so much as my stories just happening to fall into the young adult genre. My actual writing style also lends itself more toward young adult and middle grade instead of regular adult fiction. I write very simply, which works well for children's fiction and young adult.

What is the publishing process like?

The actual act of publishing a book is pretty simple. It's getting to that point that takes time and effort. My process from first draft to finished product is pretty similar from book to book. Once the first draft is done, I let it sit and mellow for a while, spending time working on something else to get my mind off it. Then I go back and do my first round of edits. After that, I might send it to beta-readers or do another edit after some time away, especially if I made a lot of changes in the first edit. I usually like for the story to be as good as I think I can make it before sending it to betas. Once it's with betas, I spend that time working on something else, usually whatever I worked on while letting the story sit after finishing the first draft. This is usually two months or so. And then once I have all of my beta feedback, I go over all their comments and follow-up with them with more specific questions if I have them. Then I do what I call my beta edit according to their feedback. After that, the book will sit for a few weeks while I work on cover art, formatting, marketing, and any other product packaging for publication. I'll do one more edit after that, make adjustments to the product packaging accordingly, and then get everything ready with retailers so that when I near my publication date, all I have to do is press "Publish."

I'm pretty lucky that I know how to do most of this stuff on my own. I have a background in graphic design and art, so I do my own cover art. I may work with another artist sometime in the future, when I have more funds to play with, but until then, I'm confident in my own work. Formatting comes pretty easy to me, and ever since publishing my first book, I now draft in the format I plan to publish in. The hardest part is always the editing —knowing what to cut, what to keep, what to change. Sometimes, it requires a second opinion, even before the beta stage, especially if I'm having a really hard time looking at the story objectively. And it takes the most time. I easily spend twice as much time editing as I do writing. 

But once the book is edited and formatted and has cover art, all I have to do is upload the files to Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Createspace, make sure everything looks like it's supposed to, and publish. 

What’s your typical writing session and environment like?

My desk is generally pretty cluttered. I have a bad habit of sticking post it notes and to-do lists everywhere, and because I snack quite a bit, there are usually dirty dishes, pudding cups, and half a dozen empty water bottles littering my work space. I likely have a chapter or two of my current manuscript printed out and marked up in pen, maybe a few handwritten pages of scenes or brainstorming notes half-hidden beneath my keyboard. My plot board is close by, scene cards pinned to a cork-board with pretty colored, star-shaped push-pins. 

I generally start working after lunch, once all the goofing-off-on-the-internet is done and I know I won't be disturbed. I sit at my desk, open up whatever manuscript document I happen to be working on, and start reading over the previous day's work before writing new words. I have Google+ chat going on my second monitor so that I can talk to my writer friends during the day, and depending on what I'm working on, I might have a document or two relating to the manuscript open for reference. While I write, I listen to music —usually film scores and video game soundtracks, sometimes techno. I very rarely listen to anything with lyrics. 

I tend to write in hour-long spurts and take short ten to fifteen minute breaks between. I aim for 500 words per hour, which is a really good pace for me. It's challenging but doable. I usually get three to four hours of solid writing done in the afternoon. Sometimes, I'll write another hour or two after dinner if I'm feeling particularly productive, but most of the time, my day is done when my husband gets home from work. The afternoon is my best writing time. In the morning, I'm too sleepy and distracted, and at night, I like spending time with my husband. This is likely to change soon, as we're expecting an addition to the family this fall, but I'm sure I'll figure out a new schedule eventually, even if it's not as productive as before.

What tools do you prefer to write with?

I write on a desktop computer, dual monitors for sufficient work-space, and an ergonomic keyboard for comfort. I draft in Microsoft Word 2010, which baffles many of my writer friends, who all use Scrivener, but Word works well for the way I write.

What is the most surprising response you have had to your writing?

Honestly, the thing that surprised me most was whenever my grandma read my novella. I thought she might like it, since it's a quieter, character-driven story, but I never expected her to like it so much that she read it in one sitting because she couldn't put it down. I think I always wanted her to believe in my writing and prove to her that I made a good choice with my career, so when she read my book and loved it, it sort of validated my career. I wouldn't have quit writing or anything had she not liked it, but the fact that she enjoyed my book and is proud of me and my writing, it means a lot to have that support from family, especially from a family member who thinks that job security is more important than following your dreams. 

Do you have any regrets pertaining to your writing?

Two. First, I regret rushing to publish my first book. I didn't really understand how important editing was, and I think had I waited, my book would be much better than it is. I'm still happy with it, but I think it could have been better if I would have given it the time and attention it deserved. In the future, I'll give each book the amount of time it really needs, even if that means pushing my deadlines and publication goals back. Second, I wish I trusted myself more. This is more of a general regret, but too often, I doubt myself when it comes to my work, and I make bad decisions based on that. It's something I'm working on. 

What plans do you have for future work?

My career goal is to publish fifty books. I've published two so far, so I have forty-eight to go. For short-term goals, I have the final two books in the Chroniker City series to write—The Guild Conspiracy and The Chroniker Legacy —which I plan to publish in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and I also have The Wizard's Heart, a fantasy novel in the middle of edits that I plan to publish next year. Outside of those books, I plan on pursuing traditional publication with a middle-grade fantasy that's still mulling about in my head. By the time I finish all of that, I'm likely to have twenty more ideas begging to be written.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Write what you're passionate about. I've seen too many young writers write what they think will sell, or they write what other people tell them to write. They give up on the books they love because people tell them that no one reads those books, that it's not "real literature", or that publishers won't buy a book like that. Nonsense. If you write what you're passionate about, you'll write something worth reading. It's as simple as that.

Find Brooke Johnson online…
writer profile photo
Available on Amazon:



Marcy Luikart of Santa Barbara, California is primarily a writer, however, she also exercises her creativity by painting and playing the fiddle. She approached me with the idea of discussing in her interview how the different art forms infuse the writing. For example how does a writer "paint" a picture with words; is it similar to the process of putting color on canvas?  

Luikart's current novel is River Braids which tells us stories spanning 100 years.  In this interview she will be talking about the novel in terms of the visual process involved in addition to sharing from her personal experiences as a writer. Her short stories have appeared in The Iconoclast, Bellowing Ark, Pangolin Papers, Beginnings, QWF, and the Connecticut Review.

river braids cover photo for book
How long have you been writing in your current genre?

I've been writing my whole life.  This is my first historical fiction novel, but in reality writing historical fiction was more of an accident for me.  I started out writing a short story and while researching my story I found myself back at the 1904 World’s Fair. And then I found myself with a big “what if?” And the next thing I knew I was writing a novel.  Prior to this I was primarily a short story writer.  And I've got a couple of unfinished mysteries floating around on my hard drive.  I don’t have a genre. Each story is a new story and it tells me where it wants to go. What genre it wants to be. I know that’s not the trend. Writers are supposed to fit into a neat marketing box, but for me it’s all about the story.  I read all kinds of stories, mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, literary. I love all stories, and I like to write all stories.

What inspires and motivates you to write?

People motivate me.  I write to discover people.  And ultimately I discover myself.  There is something very exciting about putting people in imaginary circumstances and watching where they go. Sometimes it begins with a place and I imagine the people who live in that place.  Sometimes it’s a picture and I find myself wanting to know the story hidden in the picture.

Jennifer J. Chow is a Chinese-American married into the Taiwanese culture. Her fiction has appeared in several literary magazines.  Her Taiwanese-American novel, The 228 Legacy, made it to the second round of the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest and was published by Martin Sisters Publishing in July 2013.
The 228 Legacy novel book cover
Book Cover for The 228 Legacy


The 228 Legacy was inspired by the family stories she heard after viewing photos of a two-million-person human chain commemorating 228. She has traveled multiple times to Taiwan and visited places dedicated to the incident. Her experience with the elderly comes from a gerontology specialization at Cornell University and her geriatric social work experience. Visit Jennifer online at her site  www.jenniferjchow.com to learn more about her work. 

What is your genre? 

My tagline is “Asian American fiction with a geriatric twist.” My recently released novel, The 228 Legacy, is categorized as multicultural women’s fiction.


Would you consider The 228 Legacy to be historical fiction?

You could reference my book as historical fiction since it explores the effects of a historical event which occurred in 1947.  However, it is officially categorized under "multicultural" and "women's fiction." I think this is because the novel is set in the 1980's which is sometimes too close to be considered historical. 

How did you get started writing? 

I started out as a young kid scribbling on scraps of paper and stealing my dad’s typewriter to bang away on its keys. As I got older, I joined school clubs like yearbook, newspaper, and the literary magazine. I also wrote poetry on the side. When I graduated from college, I focused on fiction. I have short stories published in several literary magazines. I also wrote and shelved three manuscripts before landing a contract for my debut novel. 

What is the publishing process like? 

Nowadays, the publishing process is more fluid. It used to be harder: You needed to secure a literary agent to get the attention of an acquisitions editor to present the manuscript to the publisher’s committee meeting for a vote. Writers today have more avenues to see their name in print, whether it’s through a big publishing company, a small independent press, or by self-publishing. 

What’s your typical writing session and environment like? 

I tend to write in solid chunks of time. Since I have two young children, I used to write exclusively when they went down for bed. I still like the nighttime to write. It works well for me because I require absolute quiet to craft my sentences. 

What are your favorite writing tools?


By Edward Ashcroft-Hamilton 

Calligraphy is not simply writing but more a type of stylized writing. It is important that a beginner understand this concept well to calligraphy write the letters. It is a process of putting different letters together to form a perfectly patterned and well placed set of angles and letters.

The difference between normal writing and calligraphy writing is that when you calligraphy write you literally draw your letters artfully, rather than just write your letters. Calligraphy writing requires a certain amount of adherence to styles and form in writing. It is necessary that the beginner studies the shape of each letter thoroughly and considers them as pictures rather than letters, or as a collection of pictures rather than a collection of words, meant to represent an idea.


Western calligraphy
Western calligraphy by Alliance française de Wuhan



Naomi Bradleigh
What inspired the name of your series "Starbreaker"?

I stole the name from a song by Judas Priest, from their Sin After Sin album. It sounded suitably badass for a weapon capable of killing demons from outer space - instead of just destroying their avatars.

Like I said in part one of this interview, "Stormbringer" was taken. I'm already too close to writing "Elric on a Harley" for comfort.

What's your typical writing session and environment like?

I'm a lunch break novelist. I bring a laptop to work with me, and drive down the street to a nearby pizza parlor to eat a slice of pizza and belt out a scene. On a good day, I manage between 500 and 1500 words of raw text in about an hour.

I'd love to be able to write at home after work, but I rarely manage it. After a full day as a software developer, my brain shuts down once I come home. I'm more likely to curl up with my wife and read, play video games, or mess around on the net than I am to write.

When I'm writing, I put on headphones and try to find music that suits the scene and character I'm trying to write. My playlist usually includes music by Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, the Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Queensryche, Bruce Dickinson, Iced Earth, Nightwish, Without Temptation, Delain, Nemesea, Blind Guardian, The Worshyp, The Protomen, Savatage, Black Sabbath, Therion, Joe Satriani, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Coheed and Cambria, Ayreon, Symphony X, Nobuo Uematsu, and Shoji Meguro.

I tend to turn off wifi when writing. I don't think much of Jonathan Franzen's fiction, but I suspect he might be right about the difficulty of writing good fiction while jacked in.

The Milgram Battery

Tell me about influences, if any:

I'd have to be especially arrogant to claim complete originality, free of any influences. However, when you ask any novelist to name their influences, you impose upon them a nigh-irresistible temptation to claim a part in the literary traditions of the authors they most admire, while omitting any mention of authors they despise.

I'd love to claim that I draw upon European Romanticism and the daring SF and fantasy for which such authors as Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Stephen Brust, Robert Heinlein, C. J. Cherryh, C. S. Friedman, and M. John Harrison are justly famous. However, I might not have proved as successful in escaping the shadows of Tolkien, Donaldson, Jordan, and Goodkind as I hoped.

An accurate account of the influences on my work is a task better left to critics, and not to novelists seeking to promote their own work.

What is the most unexpected reaction you have had to your writing?

My writing is how I've met every woman with whom I've been intimately involved, including my wife of nine years, who I courted for four. Catherine and I met on a Yahoo! forum for aspiring fantasy writers, and started out by reading each other's work. It's a long story, and perhaps beyond the scope of this interview.

Do you have any regrets pertaining to your writing?

I sometimes suspect I picked the wrong trade for a day job. Software development gave me valuable technical skills, as well as experience I used while writing Starbreaker, but it's a bad trade for writers. The demands on one's time and intellect often leave little time or energy for writing, even when I avoided working in Silicon Valley and in start-ups in favor of taking jobs involving government contracts which should only require a forty hour workweek.

Aside from that, I have no regrets. I needed to do something with my life, and writing gives me a sense of purpose. It allows me to indulge all of my nasty little control-freak tendencies without actually hurting anybody.

What plans do you have for future work?
Ashtoreth

Without Bloodshed, the first Starbreaker novel, comes out in about a month or so. Curiosity Quills Press is currently doing a new cover. I'm working on The Blackened Phoenix, as well as a short piece called "Tattoo Vampire". For Christmas, I've started kicking around some ideas for a story called "Cardigans" in which we'll see a young Morgan Stormrider knitting. I'm thinking of expanding a novelette, Steadfast, into a full-length NA science fantasy novel starring Naomi Bradleigh called Silent Clarion. I also have to plot and eventually write the last two main-sequence Starbreaker books: Proscribed Construct and A Tyranny of Demons.

After that - let's just say that chronicling the life and crimes of Imaginos could be a lifetime's work. I could write a Michener-style epic about Nationfall, the social/political/economic collapse that sets the stage for the rise of the society in which Starbreaker is set. I can do with Starbreaker what Tolkien did with Middle-Earth, only I cheat by taking our world and screwing around with history.

What is the best advice you want to share with aspiring authors?

This first bit should be obvious, but for the love of all the demons ever venerated by humankind, READ. Read your chosen genre. Get acquainted with its tropes and cliches. Figure out what readers expect, so you can screw with them if you want to. Once you're done reading within your genre, read outside it. You might find ideas and elements you can import into your chosen genre, and exposure to different styles and voices will help you develop a richer style of your own.

Half of what you hear about building an author platform is arrant nonsense, but I can't tell you which half. I've had people tell me Google+ is a waste of time, and that I should use Facebook and Twitter instead. I ignore them, because I've tried Twitter and Facebook. Twitter is the men's room wall of the internet. Facebook is how the Daleks will justify our extermination. Google+ is where I found my audience, which is currently about 18,000 followers. Maybe a tenth of them will bother to buy my book, but nobody builds an empire overnight.

Some people will tell you that fanfic is a good way to develop your technique, but I don't agree with them. I think working with an existing setting and existing characters makes it harder for writers to learn how to develop settings and characters of their own. Instead, I recommend the pastiche. Instead of taking Kirk and Spock as is, and working around them, use these characters as templates for new characters of your own creation if you lack the confidence to start from scratch.

I'd suggest learning a bit about computer programming. You don't have to do it for a living, and I lack sufficient sadism to suggest that aspiring writers take on software development as a day job. It's thankless work, and frequently makes writing unnecessarily difficult. However, learning to code requires learning logic, which serves writers as well as it does mathematicians, scientists, and programmers.

Be ruthless in pursuit of your art. Defy everybody who opposes you, and never give them time to discourage you. The converse is also true: acknowledge and treasure everybody who has ever supported you. If you're lucky enough to have a lover or spouse who's willing to help you, don't screw up that relationship.

How do you promote your work both on and off the internet?


Christabel Crowley
I've focused the vast majority of my promotional efforts online, especially on Google+. I got my publishing deal by posting bits and pieces as I wrote them. Afterward, I'd talk about the plot as I worked on Without Bloodshed. I'd also post dialogue stripped of narrative context using hashtags like #ShitMyCharactersSay.

Since I'm a metalhead, and music is incredibly important to my writing, I also make a habit of posting YouTube videos of songs that helped me develop some aspect Starbreaker, and discuss why these songs matter to me.

I worked with artist Harvey Bunda of Gunship Revolution, commissioning portraits of several of my major characters. I use this character art in posts about my work and characters.

I help promote other independent writers and musicians, recommending their books and music. Sometimes they ask, and sometimes I come across them, check them out for myself, and decide they're worth mentioning.

I also comment on current events, especially if they apply to the Starbreaker setting for some reason. For example, when Google Glass was first announced, I linked it to Witness Protocol, a technology in the Starbreaker setting that allows people equipped with implanted computers and the appropriate software to record everything they see and hear.

What are your favorite writing tools?

My laptop runs CrunchBang Linux, and I tend to write my drafts in plain text files formatted with a markup language called Markdown, which I can convert to HTML and other formats using freely available tools like pandoc. When I'm ready to submit a piece for editing and publication, I use LibreOffice, which can cope with Microsoft Word's formats and includes "track changes" functionality.

I also run a dict server on my laptop, which allows me to get definitions and synonyms by typing a command into a shell prompt, such as "dict bazooka". Because I write my drafts in plain text, I can use any text editor I choose, even heavy duty programmers' editors like vim and emacs. I currently favor an app called PyRoom, an open source clone of Hog Bay Software's WriteRoom app for Mac and iOS. It's a full-screen plain text editor, which allows me to focus on my writing without distraction.
Claire Ashecroft
Because I run a Unix-based OS, I can use the OS itself to organize my work. I have a documents directory, just like you Windows and Mac users. In it, there's a "starbreaker" directory. In that "starbreaker" directory I have directories for each story using the Starbreaker setting. For novels like Without Bloodshed, the directory consists of a file containing the title named "00.title.md" (.md for Markdown files); a "scenebreak" text file consisting of a blank line, a line with three asterisks, and another blank line; and a directory for each chapter, named so that the OS orders it for me: "01.theunforgiven", "02.norefugebutaudacity", etc. In each directory, I have another "00.title.md" for the chapter number and title. I also have a file for each scene whose name is based on the order in which the scene occurs, and the viewpoint character's name, such as "01.morganstormrider.md", "02.naomibradleigh.md", etc.

I can then put it all together using a small shell script written so I can use it to convert any story I write into a single file for conversion to standard formats. It uses the "cat" (concatenate) command. If I want word counts for scenes, chapters, or the entire story, I can use the "wc" (word count) command. If I need to do a find, I use "grep". If I need to do a story-wide find/replace affecting more than one file, then I use "sed".

I started using Linux in 1999, after my first computer (an secondhand IBM PS/ValuePoint running PC-DOS 6, if anybody cares) died by my hand. I was trying to swap out the hard drive when my cat bit my toes to get attention. This startled me, and I ruined the computer by driving my screwdriver straight through the main board. I had to build a new one, I didn't want to keep running DOS and writing, I didn't want to pay a hundred bucks for a copy of Windows 98, and I couldn't afford a Mac. So I bought a copy of Linux on CD (Red Hat 5.2, if anybody cares), installed it, and alternated between writing and tinkering.

Since my day job involves software development on Windows, I trust Microsoft's offerings as far as I can throw them. Macbooks are nice, and I used one from 2006 until 2012, but overpriced for the hardware you get inside the pretty case. And if George R. R. Martin can keep using WordStar 4 on DOS, why shouldn't I use Linux?

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I think you and your readers are thoroughly sick of me by now, but you might also be interested in interviewing some other independent authors whose work I enjoy and recommend: Michael Shean (the Wonderland sequence), Lynda Williams (the Okal Rel saga), K. H. Koehler (the Nick Engelbrecht series), Charity Bradford (author of The Magic Wakes and Stellar Cloud), and Michael Reeves-McMillan (author of Realmgolds).

However, if I might beg your indulgence a bit longer, I'd like to mention that while Without Bloodshed is not yet available, I do have a story entitled "The Milgram Battery" available in the Curiosity Quills Primetime charity anthology. Five bucks gets you twenty short pieces of weird fiction, and ten percent goes to reputable no-kill animal shelters across the United States.

How to find Matthew Graybosch online...
author in new york, matthew graybosch
Available on Amazon:


You can also try conjuring me, but the last person to try squiggled a line that should have been straight while drawing his summoning circle. The poor schmuck ended up as a chew toy for the Hounds of Tindalos. So it goes.



Talented author Gorg David Huff of Austin, Texas has agreed to an interview to tell us about his adventures in writing.  This is a road not traveled alone and he reveals to us how others have affected his writing career along the way. Rather than be a man of many trades, he decided to put his all into writing and it has become his life's work.
1636: The Viennese Waltz (The Ring of Fire) Gorg Huff
Book #18 in the multiple New York Times
 best-selling Ring of Fire series



What is your genre? 

Now that's a question that is subject to interpretation. If you mean writing, painting, sculpting, music, then it's mostly writing with a bit of cartography and some painting. As to type of writing, it's science fiction, mostly alternate history, but also magic and space opera. The painting is mostly impressionism to abstract.

What can you tell us about "Ritter" in particular?

A decent respect for the opinions of mankind compels me to define Ritter. A ritter, in this case, is not a German knight, but a writer who can't spell. Not being able to spell, as you might imagine, makes the writing process somewhat more difficult. It makes or made for most of my life, being published not just impossible but unthinkable. Even now with the literally amazing advances in spell checking, I'm still close to unpublishable without my co-author Paula Goodlett, who can spell as well as find the many and varied other errors that creep into anything I write.

How long have you considered yourself a writer?

From the moment someone paid me for a story. In my case that was the publication of "The Sewing Circle" in the first Grantville Gazette electronic version. If I recall correctly, I was paid two and a half cents a word. The paper version of GGI was published in 2004, so the electronic magazine was probably in '02 or '03.

For a while I wrote about the writer’s life, noting its ups and downs and the lessons learned along the way. You can read about them in the Essays menu but some of the most popular are: My Real Writing Life and The Real, REAL Writer’s Life and Final Thoughts on a Writer’s LifeDuring my time away from blogging I continued to learn writing’s tough lessons, ultimately surviving what I now refer to as the Writer’s Black Hole.
image from youthvoices.net

image from youthvoices.net
In the posts mentioned above, I was very honest about my struggles. I had thrown myself into writing, trying to learn the craft and the business aspect at the same time. Like most, I sacrificed a lot--money, family time, energy and sanity to move the mountains necessary to succeed at this thing. The more I pushed to ‘make it’, running around like a possessed chicken without its head, two things were happening: 1) I was burning out, and 2) I was beginning to accept that success doesn’t happen overnight, no matter how hard I wished it to. Notice I said accept. See, I’d already realized that truth on a brain level but not at an emotional one, and the latter is where the magic happened this time around. Both points were excruciating to swallow.

"In writing, you must kill your darlings." - William Faulkner
2008-01-26 (Editing a paper) - 20
Source: Nic's events on Flickr
This kernel of wisdom imparted by an accomplished author is often misunderstood. How writers should correctly grasp this valuable concept and implement it in their work will be covered in this article. Faulkner's homicidal-sounding choice of words grabs immediate attention. It is obvious that he is telling authors that they need to kill things that they love and the words chosen indeed represent the gut-wrenching feeling authors experience when executing such a task. The wording may seem harsh, and for writers it is honestly a very personal and often difficult rule to follow. In order to correctly embrace the concept it is important to open your eyes to the actual meaning intended. If the written work in question is a novel, an essay, a dissertation, an article, or even a letter, killing your darlings ultimately benefits readers. It is my hope to demystify this commonly misinterpreted and wrongfully applied writing concept.

It may seem that this saying is specifically telling an author to kill off beloved characters. This is often the meaning drawn, however, that is not quite correct. Even the popular horror-fiction author Stephen King has reiterated this advice to writers with:  "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings." Although King's characters often die, which is typical in horror more than in other genres, the point being made is not pertaining to characters, but actually entire segments of writing in a work. Occasionally there may be characters that will be cut from the story if without the darling segment they end up completely irrelevant; this would be a collateral damage situation in which the author must lose the character in the process of cutting out their darlings.

Here is one more quotation that actually predates Faulkner's by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch that I give here as a prelude to fully explaining the Kill Your Darlings concept: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings." His advice admonishes against being so attached to a piece that it is sent to be published on impulse based on only the writer's high opinion of how great it is. This impulse can be something that lasts for not mere seconds but actually over long periods of time. The idea is that there is an emotional connection making it dear for the author, but this does not translate for the readers by default.

Here is the lesson writers are to take from "kill (or murder) your darlings:" the point is to remove - effectively kill - the things in your written body of work that do not serve the readers well. This could be an entire piece of a story that has survived many revisions and editing passes. Something that is, in the writer's heart, held dear - a true darling - but is completely unnecessary and disposable. It can be difficult for an author to take an objective look at the writing that resulted from intense labor on their behalf. It is hard to accept that others see bits of the overall story as bad and not the precious elements that the writer liked enough to ultimately decide to include. All the parts of the whole must be scrutinized, not based on the author's personal attachment, but instead to consider the impressions of an editor and/or an objective reader prior to publishing. 

Sometimes a writer can come to a more detached state where they can be able to identify a darling piece that only exists on their whim alone, if they allow a considerable length of time to pass between writing and editing. This is a concept very similar to one applied in visual arts. For instance, many painters say that they do not reveal a work to the public, or perhaps even consider it finished until they have stashed it away for a few months and come back to it without any newly perceived misgivings.


Exclude darling elements that:
  • Obscure the subject or theme of the story
  • Stand alone and do not serve the content's purpose
  • Read like prose instead of actual storyline
  • Are redundant beyond purposeful emphasis


Remember that this advice is not telling you to cut all and anything you like or enjoy from your work; if you did that the result would be soul-less and likely unpleasant for all who read it. Sometimes you can salvage the darlings by making them more relevant to the aim of the story. Or, if they seem to be part of a completely separate story, take them out of the current story and use them in a new one at a later point. Make sure that all elements come together and add value to the overall story. No one wants to feel like they just took a trip outside the story while reading the story - an exasperating experience that can turn readers off. It is easy to fall in love with our own ideas and certain phrasing of words, so as a final act before publishing it is best to seek outside opinion. After all, in order to Kill Your Darlings they must first be identified.


John Kipling Lewis writes micro fiction that is not only easy to read but simultaneously creates stories in enough detail that readers find themselves surprised by their brevity. Fully formed characters, worlds, and encounters are all created in crisp and clean sentences. His work invites re-investigation and rewards observant readers.


unselected, book cover art
What is your genre?

My genre is Contemporary Fantasy (or Modern Fantasy) but that term is very open to interpretation and easily misunderstood. Basically I like to take reality and bend it. It's close enough to the world around you that you'll recognize it but with something basically shifted left of center, as Susan Vega would put it.

The work is the creative outlet of so many different themes and experiences that they can defy definition. Many people come away wondering how I can write well on so many different topics. Most importantly I love to make my readers think and to bring new ideas into the reader's mind. Nothing makes me happier than hearing someone say they were dumbstruck by something I wrote.

How long have you considered yourself a writer?

I would say I've been writing for about nine years. It was only after moving to Costa Rica two years ago that I seriously put effort into getting my work into the hands of the public. 

What drew you to move to Costa Rica? And how did moving there inspire you to bring your work out into the light?

Costa Rica is number one on the World Happiness Index and this is reflected in everyday life. It's such a contrast to life in New York City, with its stress and its paranoia inducing crowds that when I arrived here, for the first time I felt like I could breath. I could stand still and not be bumped and pushed by the constant struggle of being one of the millions of New Yorkers.

What I found when I stopped was my family, my love, and a pile of blank books in which I had been secretly hiding all my fears. As I read through what I had collected in the time between the dark dystopia and calm of home and family I realized I had something special to say.

One lonely night, after we had settled into life here in Costa Rica, I started to assembled the pieces into a whole. I had to leave the crushing city to find it here in what the locals call Pura Vida... the Pure Life.

Unselected was the result.

What inspires and motivates you to write?

I love to make people think. The moment when the reader understands the premise or gets the point of the story, that is the thing I treasure. I like to watch people reading one of my pieces and there's sometimes a moment where they simply pause. They get a distant look in their eyes and I know I've got them thinking. Nothing compares for me to that kind of moment.

How did you get started writing?

I wrote as a way to pass the time on long subway commutes in New York City. With nothing to do, I'd sketch out a scene or play out a character's reaction to an idea I had. I would write in small Moleskines or Field Notes. It filled a long-held desire for blank books. I find them in odd places and I have to fill them up.

What’s your typical writing session and environment like?

I'm constantly carrying a blank book with me and this gives me an outlet for all the thoughts that race through my brain on any given day. This is the first filter. If I can get even a few sentences down in this format, then I have the essence of what the story will be. 

The next phase is to transcribe what I've written on paper to digital format and this is very much like a rewrite. 

The entire piece can change as I move it to the digital world and the flow of the sentences becomes more real to me. 

The final stage for me is polish and this is all about reading the work with my inner voice. I swear that my inner voice came straight out of an encyclopedia or a documentary. There's only so much I can let myself get away with when I read it with that voice and if it doesn't work there, I have to crush it and remake it until it does work. Often the work is shortened at this stage.

Then it goes off for editing.

What are your favorite writing tools?

Blank books are absolutely required and I'm partial to the ones with graph paper inside rather than ruled or sketch books. They aren't easy to find here in Costa Rica so I've been using up my current supply and thinking about how to get some shipped here. Paper doesn't last long in Costa Rica.

I've become very fond of a program called Scrivener, for the Mac. It simply feels right to me for first drafts, although it's used much more for people as a compilation tool. Having said that, my favorite writing program for the Mac is TextEdit. It's auto-correcting lets me type gibberish and have it come out as a sentence that works. This is a great relief to that inner voice of mine. 

What is the publishing process like?

Now that everything is digital it's a learning curve, but one that I'm extremely comfortable with. Having done web design and development there's nothing in the process that I haven't seen before. My one weak spot is definitely in marketing. I don't have experience doing that aspect of publishing, so for me it feels mysterious or even mystical.

Have you ever been surprised by a reader's reaction to your work?

I asked my wife to describe to me what my style of writing was.  She said "It's like a punch in the face." At first I was taken aback by this and a little insulted, but I quickly realized that she loved my work and what she was saying was that it had impact and was surprising. This comes from the distillation of the concepts I work with. It's extremely hard to create characters, scenes, and whole worlds in micro fiction, but when you get it right, it's like a jab in the face.

Do you have any regrets pertaining to your writing?

I wish I was better suited to longer form works. I have a novel I'm working on but it simply doesn't come to me in the same way my micro fiction does. 

What plans do you have for future work?

The previously mentioned novel is about 1/3rd done. All the plotting and characters are there, waiting like a scaffolding of a skyscraper but with the birth of my baby girl my time is at a premium. I've contemplated creating a new work that is more complementary to my style and to the time I have to work with.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Write. Whatever it is that makes you want to write, make sure you get it and keep moving forward.

How do you promote your work both on and off the internet?

I speak to people I meet about my work, so it sometimes passes hand to hand, but most of my sales and readers come from my internet communities. Google Plus has been particularly helpful.

Where do you sell your books?

My books are available on Amazon and Smashwords. 




man in diving gear
Contact author John Kipling Lewis: