Thoughts About Fiction Categories and Keywords We humans love patterns – they’re a time saver, so we don’t have to make the same decision each time we come across something new. “Look at that big tawny cat,” thought a dimwitted ancestor, “I saw one pounce on and eat a gazelle last month. I’m not a…
On Writing Romance: Character Flaws vs. Flawed Characters Pet Peeves, Round 2This is another in my “reader’s pet peeves” series, primarily in the romance genre. (In case you missed it, here was my previous post on pet peeves.) I’m rather annoyed by impossibly beautiful heroines/heroes who don’t know they’re beautiful, and successful people who don’t…
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,…
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,…
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