Fiction book blurbs—more properly described as “book descriptions”—are hard to write. Whether they’re on the back of the paperback or the first part of the ebook listing, they’re the first taste of what’s in the book, and they will make or break the sale. They have to confirm the genre (the cover should be…
Speaking as a reader, I’d like to make some gentle suggestions for author websites. Have an Author Website First things first: please have a website. I’m astonished when I run into living, still-active authors who don’t have at least a simple page or blog site, but it happens. Bonus if the website is easy…
Alpha heroes abound throughout genre fiction, and nowhere more blatantly than in the romance genre and all its subcategories. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll take a beta hero any day, thanks. OK, that sounds a little snarky, but I’m kind of over the whole larger-than-life, my-way-or-the-highway, macho male role and the…
Overload Flux (A Central Galactic Concordance Novel) is available today at an e-tailer near you: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and (soon) iTunes. It’s a science fiction-action-romance novel with mystery, adventure, corrupt pharma companies, fights, space battles, and strong characters to root for. It’s also the start of a new series. By the way, pretending…
This is a two-part post written primarily for other independent authors on cover design for fiction novels, with personal opinions and experience galore. There’s a lot to cover (heh!), so let’s dive right in. Great Cover Design Sells Books Fiction covers, experts will tell you, will make or break a sale before the reader even…
Good Books for 2014 and Beyond, or What’s RIGHT with Books These Days It’s easy to kvetch about what’s wrong with books these days, and I’m certainly guilty of it. To be fair, I thought I should balance my complaints with some praise about what I think authors are doing right, considering this is 2014,…
Sure, I’m a writer, but I’m also a reader with opinions. I like comedy, especially absurd comedy, witty comedy, biting comedy. I co-wrote a retro-SF comedy called Hooray for Holopticon, which I’d call a romp. I wrote a screenplay called “It’s Your Bank” that’s a farce. It’s hard to write good comedy, and I deeply admire…
Pet Peeves About Romance Novels There are things that drive me crazy about romance novels these days. When I was ready (OK, driven) to write a science fiction/action series that starts with Overload Flux, it came to me, as I outlined the story arc, that all the planned novels involve romantic elements. Along with science fiction, action,…
A friend and fellow traveler as an independent author asked what three writing tools I couldn’t do without, so here’s my list. I’ll focus on tools for fiction writing for now, because the list varies when we’re talking about writing plays, screenplays, or technical documents. For capturing and sketching out ideas, I start with…
As a reader, I’m deeply grateful to the people who read books and take the time to review them. A few adventurous souls buy and read independent books on a chance, that is, trusting the blurb is true to the story, and that the book has been professionally produced. Most readers of independently published books…
Abigail Ruth Reidy as Maggie Palmer Nick Turner as Rory Quinn Kevin Nolan as Luther These are photos (taken with my smartphone, so forgive the photo quality) of the cast of fabulous actors who performed my short play, “The Secret to Dying,” which premiered on 6 Sept. 2014 at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival….
I wrote a “car play” for the first-ever Fort Collins Fringe Festival last year, and had a blast, so I looked forward to participating again this year.** What’s a car play? A play written to be performed in an actual car, with the audience standing around. I’m surprised you had to ask! This year,…
The world premiere of my short play, “The Secret to Dying” will be Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014 at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. It stars Abigail Ruth Reidy, Nick Turner, and Kevin Nolan. Rory Quinn has come all the way from London to a New York speakeasy to collect one of two things: a debt,…
I’m surprised you’re reading this, actually. It’s the first post on my newly designed website, because I have start somewhere. I’m in the final stretch of finishing Overload Flux, the first novel in a new series. It’s an independently published science fiction-action-romance novel of around 99,000 words, and will be available for Kindle, Nook, Kobo,…
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