by Autumn | Jul 1, 2016 | News and Events
Did you know I lived in a yurt? Well not now, but very recently. Before and during the construction of my little off-grid cottage that my husband and I built ourselves. Because we’d built, lived-in, and trouble shot a yurt. After that, building a house was a...
by Autumn | Jun 24, 2016 | Tips, Writing
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...
by Autumn | Jun 17, 2016 | Tips, Writing
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...
by Autumn | Jun 10, 2016 | Tips, Writing
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...
by Autumn | Jun 3, 2016 | Tips, Writing
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...
by Autumn | May 20, 2016 | Tips, Writing
“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...
by Autumn | May 13, 2016 | Tips, Writing
Floundering. I won’t say writer’s block, but I will admit that when I started my current WIP the flow came in drips and drabs. I dreaded starting a new chapter because I just didn’t have a good sense of what was going to happen. Or what should...
by Autumn | May 6, 2016 | News and Events
I talk a lot on this blog about tips to improve your writing. Because great writing is important to me. Not just as an indie writer wanting to make the perception of self publishing a bit more elevated. But because, as a reader, I just want to read more darn good...
by Autumn | Apr 29, 2016 | Tips, Writing
What makes a good novel beginning? How do you capture a reader’s (or agent’s) attention? How much detail should you have before it becomes too much? Working on slides for my writing course got me really thinking about the beginning of novels. Everyone says...
by Autumn | Apr 22, 2016 | Games of Fire, The World of Myrrah, Tips, Writing
As I mentioned last week when I listed a brainstormed master plan on how to launch a book, this week I’ll let you know strategies I actually tried when I released Spark of Defiance at the end of March. As much as it is nice to do everything I mentioned last...
