Writer Syndrome Episode 31

HOST Book Launch

It’s been a week since I released HOST and so far response has been good. Mostly pushing to friends and family with plans for wider reach over the next few weeks. Hoping to leverage everyone for reviews and ratings. This portion of the project, the sales, marketing and promoting, is Read more…

Cover Art Process

They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover but…come on…we all do. (Note: The original idiom is traced to the novel The Mill on the Floss, written by George Eliot in 1860. In the novel, the reference is to a physical book when the character, Mr. Tulliver, uses it when Read more…

Comps & Originality

Finding good comps is harder than I expected. Comps (short for comparable titles) is an important step in the post-writing / marketing / selling phase. The phases I love…not one bit. If you’re going the traditional publish route comps serve as a quick pitch for potential agents / publishers and Read more…

AI & Writing

What a fun time we live in. Artificial Intelligence is starting to make its mark on the world, to the point where it feels like we’re entering the early stages of a sci-fi story. I wouldn’t mind having a droid around to fix the car, or make me a sandwich, Read more…

Writing Action

The first action scene I wrote was not good. Plain and simple. It was supposed to be a calm opening, that built tension up as one character searched for another in a museum, which led to a fisticuffs ending. Yeah, that’s not what actually happened. I remember re-reading it and Read more…

Countdown to Launch

Just a few more tweaks, another pass by the editor to make sure those tweaks didn’t ruin everything (fingers crossed), adjustments to the cover art, and then, finally then, I’ll be ready to publish. Holy smokes. Of course it’s not that easy, and there’s marketing, advertising, promotion, social media, newsletters, Read more…

Writer Syndrome Episode 23

Story v Plot

Is there a difference? Spoilers: yes, there is. To put it simply, plot is the events that occur, where story is the change that occurs with the characters. Their arc, lesson learned, or heart of the story as a whole. Took me a bit to really figure this one out. Read more…