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Research For Historical Fiction – Part II

March 10, 2013, by admin

Hi from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com. I'm sorry I missed the blog last month. I was staying in Sedona, AZ for two months and we'd driven back to Michigan and empty half my office into the living room and boxes of so many things we lug with us, and it took a few days to get organized. But I'm back again and happy to share more about researching for fiction. In January, I talked about Writing Fiction in general. Today I will share Part II of the information on Researching Historical Fiction.

PUGS Pointers #19

March 1, 2013, by admin

Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about "PUGS"–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling…tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. Each blog post will have one tip for each of the four categories. (For more PUGS tips, check out my website, www.KathyIde.com, or get a copy of my book Polishing the PUGS (available through the website or at the conferences where I teach). If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the…

PUGS Pointers #18

February 1, 2013, by admin

Five Keys to Triumph Over Internet Insanity

January 28, 2013, by admin

Anybody out there dizzy like I am? Are you being bombarded by offers, suggestions, advice, luring seminars, and workshops—all to expose your writing, enhance marketing efforts, and boost sales? Confessing…I’ve been caught in the gotta-try-that frenzy. Most of us are dashing here and there, hoping to get that platform built. Eager to get our books promoted. Trying to get that door to open, one that will make our work soar to the top. Trying to book that big speaking engagement. Trying, trying till we collapse into bed, our head exploding with endless possibilities—too many to try. And some, too…

Right There, Right Then: Immediacy

January 25, 2013, by admin

Peace to you! Maureen Pratt here with my monthly blog about specific aspects of the writing process. Today, I thought I'd highlight some suggestions about immediacy in our writing. Whether we're writing fiction or non-fiction, we want our prose to carry the feel of immediacy, or a sense of time and place that draws the reader in to the exclusion of all other distractions and detractions. Compelling central plots do this to a certain extent, of course, but to carry someone along for the duration of a book requires some hooks-within-the-hooks. Immediacy boosts action to a more lively level, and it helps root scene and character…

Research For Fiction Writing — Part I

January 11, 2013, by admin

Happy New Year from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com I hope this new year brings you blessings. No matter what month or year, I always look forward to sharing some of my expertise in writing fiction. This year I’m celebrating my 50th published novel. It will be in stores at the end of month and if you’d like to take a peek or pre-order you can do that from my website link at http://www.gailgaymermartin.com/books/her-valentine-hero/ It’s the first in the Sisters series. If you take a look, leave a comment and you’ll be entered into my free book drawing in March….

PUGS Pointers #17

January 4, 2013, by admin

Seven Ways to Conquer Fear

December 31, 2012, by admin

“You have to go to school,” my father ordered. My 12-year-old heart beat fast with worry. Just off the airplane from Bolivia, I knew no English. And America was too big, too different, and strange. Weeks of anxiety at school made the adjustment harder. But what paralyzed me with fear were the relay races in which I was told to participate. The distance I’d have to run between the starting point and the next runner where I’d hand off the baton made my stomach cramp. With each new race, I anguished—what if I should stumble or drop the baton? What…

Picture It? Perfect!

December 28, 2012, by admin

Hello! Maureen Pratt here to bring another blog post to you. This time, I’m going to continue along the theme I began last month and talk more about capturing the visual aspects of writing – how working with a camera when you are writing can help you bring dazzling details to your work of fiction or non-fiction. Sometimes, when we write (particularly fiction, but also nonfiction), we think that our work has to come from our imaginations. This is, of course, true to a point. But in order to make a place come alive to the reader, we have…

Dissecting Your Novel – Part 2

December 14, 2012, by admin

Wishing you Christmas blessings from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com Drop by and see my lovely new website. On November 9, Dissecting Your Novel – Part 1 covered three aspects of editing your own work with a fresh look to tighten and brighten your novels. The elements I covered were: Motivation-reaction unit, cause/effect arrangement of sentences, and the plight of using adverbs. This post will continue with the last three elements: Placing the most important/emphatic in a sentence. Margie Lawson, Lawson Writer’s Academy http://www.margielawson.com/ and Strunk & White, The Elements of Style Use beats instead of tags. Browne…