Fantastical histories for modern feminists
Smashwords is presenting E-Book Week from 4-10 March 2018. You can download over 75,000 e-books for FREE, including my novel The Archimedean Heart. There’s no catch, just free books. The site has so many freebies, it might be hard to find my book, so here’s the direct link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/648549.
You’ll find all the info at https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek.
Andrea Lundgren wrote an interesting piece about turning an old story (and aren’t they all?) into something fresh and yours.
I think the crux is really finding something new to add to the story, say a different perspective.
Read more at How to Make an Old Plot New
I am a bit obsessed with character names.
by Ryan Lanz
A common question I hear tossed about is how to create character names. Some writers find this simple, and yet others struggle with naming every single one, particularly concerning the main cast.
In this post, we’ll talk about tricks and tips for creating character names, and perhaps we’ll bring some ease to the process.
View original post 813 more words
Short story writing contest, open-ended.
Since embarking on a sci-fi dystopian novel, I wonder about my “usual” genre of historical fantasy. Yes, I love to read historical fantasy but is it the right one for me?
<wrings hands>
A great read about the subject: via Admitting You Are Writing In The Wrong Genre #SundayBlogShare #writers
Ms. Spruzen talks about techniques to make sure your characters sound like they live in the era you’re writing about. Nothing throws me out of a historical fiction story more than modern dialogue.
via …Authoress friend, Dorothy Anne Spruzen, illustrates how easy it is to misuse ‘period’ WURDS…
My latest story, “Prophecies of an Electric Man,” has been published! This short novella appears in The Clockwork Oracle, an anthology released by L.E.G.
The Clockwork Oracle Amazon listing is live.
My story in The Clockwork Oracle is set in the world of The Roboticist of Versailles. The main character (the Roboticist of Versailles herself) is Adelaide Coumain, one of the leads of The Archimedean Heart. This is my fourth story featuring her. I love Adelaide. She’s definitely got a lot of me in her. She is a lady-scientist in a field dominated by men so she has to push back to not be trampled.
In this story, Adelaide is still trying to get her Automated Dauphin to function and the appearance of a stranger with a mysterious device diverts her in a new direction.
I will have paperback copies of The Clockwork Oracle for sale at Clockwork Alchemy in Burlingame, CA, March 23-25th.
I lurked on the NaNoWriMo forums and Scribophile a lot last year and plenty of writers talked about having multiple writing projects going at once. I hadn’t really tried that before. I finished writing and editing the Archimedean Heart before starting on Sand and Bones. I worked on Sand and Bones during the 2016 NaNoWriMo challenge and then took 9 months to finish it.
I then wrote a novella for an anthology (The Clockwork Oracle).
The revisions to Sand and Bones sat waiting.
I hadn’t planned to do the 2017 NaNoWriMo challenge but this idea just niggled at me so I wrote 51,000 words about Idonny in her flooded tower block.
The revisions to Sand and Bones sat waiting.
November ended and now I had three active projects. I hadn’t finished Idonny’s story (The Hollowness), I had a deadline for revising the novella and yes, the revisions to S&B sat waiting. And did I mention life?
Some people say they like having multiple projects going. It helps to switch when one isn’t going well. Me, I just feel guilty. I have abandoned poor Idonny in the middle of a scene, with her boyfriend bleeding to death on the floor of her flat in favor of revising and deepening Elsie, Clara, and Nne-Ala’s stories. I’ll be back, Idonny, I promise. I’ll get you out of there. Eventually.
This is exactly what I needed to fill in the gaps between plot points!
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky
I think about story structure. A lot. I’ve read countless books and studied hundreds of movies to gain a deeper understanding of narrative structure. I’ve reviewed the classic philosophies of act, scene and beat structure – from the Three Act Structure, to the Eight Sequences, and beyond to the 15 Beats. There is a plethora of information out there, in writing guides, on websites and forums, in blog posts, and from seminars and conferences. It can be a lot to take in, and over the past year I have worked my way through them to try and translate them into a language and format my brain can understand. And, this morning, I think I have had my enlightenment moment: Everything you need to know in order to understand narrative structure – whether you write screenplays or novels – can be boiled down to the Five Turning Points and the Gaps…
View original post 3,077 more words
I resisted signing up for NaNo this year, really I did. I still have to revise Sand and Bones not to mention finishing and revising Prophecies from an Electric Man, the novella follow up to The Archimedean Heart. So I have things to do but I have this story buzzing around my head about this girl named Idonny who lives in a partially flooded tower block in a near-future London. NaNoWriMo is great for getting lots of words on the page for me so I took the plunge.
Here’s to an insane November. May it be deliciously productive.
BJ Sikes, author 