Anyone keeping up with jenniferechols knows that she's currently answering some questions on her LJ for a friend who is teaching a class on writing and genre. She passed a few questions along to me, in order to give the class a different perspective on the industry, so I'm going to try to answer a few of them here, particularly as I think the answers might be of ( Read more... )

Needed to point out that sartorias has a wonderful post up today about the openings of books, including a useful bit of discussion regarding whether or not to include a prologue and much on how to get that all-important back story into your novel without boring the reader to tears. Check it out.

rachelmanija has written a post on the third alternative, an interesting and informative post that looks at the different ways in which you can conclude a narrative in a satisfying manner and yet still manage to avoid the most obvious route. Given how often manuscripts (and published novels) seem to get off to a terrific start and then fail to deliver with a ( Read more... )

With so many popular fantasy series being transformed into films (first The Lord of the Rings, then Narnia, and soon His Dark Materials), I love to go back and reconnect, not only with the original books, but with the authors. Of course, with Tolkien and Lewis this means searching out biographies or old interviews. However, Philip Pullman has been ( Read more... )

One of my clients finally decided to out herself online, meaning she's taken the plunge and is blogging in her own name and not just under one of her growing number of pseudonyms. That would be mockingbird39, who has started Novelist in Progress. It's all part of my evil plan for cyberspace domination: book people will rule the known universe sooner than you ( Read more... )