Amazing Stories columnist and fellow VPXV alum Chris Gerwel talks this week about The Care and Feeding of Chapter Breaks.

Chapter breaks are one of the tools writers use to form and direct the reader’s experience, and every break does, as Chris says, “bridge our emotional engagement with the chapter that follows.” That “bridge” is a role often ( Read more... )

I read a trilogy recently that had me so captured, so invested, that there were times I felt I couldn't read quickly enough to find out what happened next.  I was frantic in a couple key scenes.  I can still hear the voices of the characters, still remember their expressions, still clearly picture the world in which they lived.  I've already ( Read more... )

To date, I can claim about 40 reported sales--which is about 30 more than I expected.  Those 30 sales are in all likelihood due to the wonderful review sartoris gave the novel at BookView Cafe and Goodreads, and the support of my VPXV classmates.  (Where would I be without you guys? :)  The majority of sales came through Amazon, though it also sold through ( Read more... )

Fellow Viable Paradise alum Stephanie Charette has posted her answers for the Next Big Thing: The Blood of Wolves.

Her answer to the question of what would pique a reader's interest has certainly piqued mine.  I would very much like her to finish it by Spring. :)

This is fun: writers answer ten questions about a new or upcoming project, then tag other writers to do the same.    sartorias was kind enough to tag me, and the writers I'm tagging will be listed at the bottom of the post.  I'll link to their answers next week.

Here we go:

What is the working title of your current book?

Sword and Chant

Where did the idea come ( Read more... )

You have four weeks to prepare and submit your submission for Viable Paradise!

My primary post about Viable Paradise is here, and the post includes links to posts from some of my VPXV classmates, and their posts include links to more.

Still wondering if you're "good enough" to even bother applying?  I played that wondering game for many years.  But ( Read more... )

I had a story-dream last night--long and detailed, unfolding around me like a hologram movie I could stand within.  Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman played key roles.

Then I woke up in a dark movie theater, and it took me a moment to realize I'd fallen asleep during a movie I was seeing with the students and instructors of Viable Paradise.  sartorias leaned ( Read more... )

Saturday, I leave for Hawaii.  It's a business trip, I swear.  I love it when conferences are scheduled in cool places, and when I can take Dev with me.  My parents will be there as well, which is a fact more cool for Dev's sake than mine, really.  Dev and my father will spend a week doing pretty much whatever they want while my mother and I spend ( Read more... )

Via sartorias, I see submissions are open for Viable Paradise.

This is a Viable Paradise entry for those folks who have gone searching for Viable Paradise information--hoping it will help them decide to apply--and somehow ended up at my little LJ.  I know I went looking, and read every little comment I could find.  (I did that for years before I actually ( Read more... )

This last year ended up being so very different from anything I could have predicted.  I learned so much about people, and about myself, but in ways I never would have sought.  Yet learn I did, those lessons of love and mortality and loss and parenting and doing what I never thought I'd have the strength to do.  I didn't know what raw emotion was ( Read more... )