The Eye of the Beholder: Breaking Down Book Covers

The Eye of the Beholder: Breaking Down Book Covers

I’m in the turbulent undertow of changing an entire series of book covers. Why? They just didn’t work. There are a lot of reasons to select the books covers we, as authors, do. Because they fit what we can afford. Because they are a scene from the book (one of my...
The First Step in Fantasy World Building

The First Step in Fantasy World Building

What is the first step you take when creating a fantasy world? If you read my post on Map Making 101, you know I like drawing a visual map. It creates a world that is entwined with my growing story faster than just about any technique. But there is actually one step...
Seeking the Source of Inspiration

Seeking the Source of Inspiration

A young writer asked me how I came up with story ideas. I told her, I create a character. It took me some time to come up with that answer. Because I started wondering where ideas come from and how they develop into a story, much less a unique story. And somewhere in...
Map Making 101

Map Making 101

When I wrote Born of Water, I got as far as chapter 3 before I got lost. Well I should say the characters lost me. Because they were heading out of the one town I had visualized and created into the unknown on an adventure. That is all well and good for a reader, but...
5 Secrets to Writing a Page Turning Chapter

5 Secrets to Writing a Page Turning Chapter

“I stayed up way too late reading this book. I couldn’t put it down!” Who wouldn’t love to have that sort of review? Hearing that you hooked a reader and kept them going until the wee hours of the morning is not just praise. It is an...

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