Starting a Twitter stream How do you go about starting a Twitter stream? Should you plunge right in, or hang back? Your Account You need a name! Let’s say you’ve taken my advice (or decided this on your own), and gone with an account just for writing. If you want a personal account, you make […]
Transitioning from fanfiction If you first wrote in someone else’s universe, and now you want to claim your own, you may be transitioning from fanfiction. Going from fan fiction writing to wholly original writing It’s more than just ‘filing off a few serial numbers’. How writing fanfiction can help you It teaches you how to […]
Scene Setting Scene setting is important to know. What is Scene Setting? Basic scene setting is a fundamental skill which every writer needs to perfect. Let’s look at some ways to do it. All the old familiar places When your story takes place during the present day, you’re in luck! You can get away without […]
Genre Treatments What are genre treatments? Genre Treatments When it comes to genre treatments, do you treat horror, science fiction, and romance all the same way? Or do you just stick to one genre and call it a day? What are Literary Genres? It might help to understand just what literary genres are. Let’s start […]
Review – The Real Hope of the Universe Hope was a huge theme in this book. The Real Hope of the Universe picks where The Real Heart of the Universe left off. As the book to wrap up the trilogy, it had to resolve a number of subplots. So many subplots. Hence the first draft […]
Review – The Real Heart of the Universe The Real Heart of the Universe continues the main story. This sequel to The Real Hub of the Universe brings back Ceilidh O’Malley, Devon Grace, Shannon Duffy, and Jacob Radford, along with the Boston Brahmins in the 1880s. In this, the second novel in the trilogy, Ceilidh […]
Review – The Real Hub of the Universe The Real Hub of the Universe tells the story of Ceilidh O’Malley Barnes, who leaves her abusive husband and runs off to America. So it’s 1876, and she works as a scullery maid, disguising her heritage with a put-on English accent and a fake name, Kay Lee […]
As a kind of personal ‘tell’ and Easter egg in my works, every longer piece (except for Untrustworthy, as none of those characters are human), somebody is named Shapiro.
Your Call is Very Important to Us – a Look at a Short Story Your Call is Very Important to Us comes from a general concept of ‘the world turned upside-down’. This short story was written for the third volume of The Longest Night Watch. All of the proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Association. […]
Review – Complications So Complications is one of those stories where it takes me a moment to remember – oh, yeah, it’s that one. And that never bodes well for readers. Background So this was originally a het fan fiction story. But with a few changes, it could go in another direction. And both of […]