I've seen this "first lines" meme all over the place and thought it looked fun. The rules are simple: post the first line from any (or all) of your books/works in progress. Play along in the comments with your own first lines, if you like. Here goes mine:

"I stiffened at the red and blue lights flashing behind me, because there was no way I could ( Read more... )

How did you plan the last novel you wrote (and successfully finished)? Outline? Synopsis? Summary? Divination Rod? Nuthin' at all?

A combination of things. When I start a book, I know who my main characters are, who/what the antagonist is, and the consequences if that antagonist isn’t defeated. That’s about it. Oh, I might have a couple specific ( Read more... )

The other night, my husband and I were discussing inspiration. It wasn't the first time, and our conversation ended the same way it had the previous time - at a stalemate. See, I believe in inspiration. I think it's possible that a person, place, song, event, movie, poem, picture, etc., can have enough of an effect on someone that it brings a ( Read more... )

Two days ago, One Foot in the Grave, Jeaniene Frost’s sequel to the bestselling Halfway to the Grave was released, and I was thrilled for the opportunity to pick Jeaniene’s brain. Read on to find out why Cat Crawfield can be hard for her to write, why writers should treasure their publishing firsts, and what Jeaniene has coming up next…

RACHEL: ( Read more... )

Friday I received the editorial letter on my third book. As most of you know, an editorial letter is the feedback where your editor starts off by listing the things he/she liked about your book...then tears you a new one over everything that's bad ;) To summarize the five pages of feedback from my editor: Great beginning! Great ending! Middle... ( Read more... )

A watcher emailed these questions in, and since there are a few FFF members with pen names (and maybe more than I'm aware of), I thought it made for an interesting discussion. So, here are the questions ( Read more... )

The other day I was innocently waiting in a drive-thru line when, on the phone, Melissa started on about Zodiac signs. I'll be honest (sorry, Vicki!) I don't put stock into horoscopes or pay attention to Zodiac signs. The idea that the month/date I was born on has anything to do with who I am as a person rankles me. It makes me feel like my free ( Read more... )

In case you haven't heard the news, FFF members Ilona Andrews and Nalini Singh will be in a new UF anthology coming out summer next year. Other authors in the antho are Charlaine Harris and Meljean Brook. Way to go, ladies! I'll be looking forward to picking that one up.

-Jeaniene Frost

Melissa  asked for posts on subjectivity and experiences with it. Yeah, I've had some. I also saw the list of things an author had shown as being the top 25 common tropes in young adult fiction. Several writers left rueful comments that now, they'd have to delete any of those twenty five tropes that they had in their manuscripts .

Of course, ( Read more... )

All last week, I watched the news unfold about the Cassie Edwards plagiarism scandal. For those of you who haven't heard of it, you can get the details by going HERE and HERE. For a hilarious, irreverent timeline with opera-themed explanation, go HERE.

Long story short, Mrs. Edwards is an author who was first accused of copying passages from ( Read more... )