Tag Archives: books

The nonfiction behind the fiction of Pretty Much True…

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A friend told me I was being too “journalistic” when answering interview questions about
Pretty Much True… .

You wrote a fictional story in which the characters and actions were different but the feelings and the fear were the same. Get PERSONAL.

I never wanted to do that before, because I wanted to emphasize that the overall feeling of the experience, not my experience but the experience, was what was important. But she made me see that one experience, the story, wouldn’t exist without the other, the reality. Continue reading →

Just Cause

Ian T. Healy, New Superhero Fiction, and “Lucious Melons”

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Everything I know about superheroes (and whatever the Transformers are) came from movies. I’ve watched Spiderman, Superman, Batman, X-Men, and the Green Lantern, but I never read superhero comics as a kid. I was an Archie girl. Continue reading →

Craig Lancaster Discusses His New Story Collection, “Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure”

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Craig Lancaster’s short story collection, Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure, releases today. I invited Craig to contribute a guest post so you can learn a little bit about the book & then head over to order a copy. – Kris

QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE ART OF OVERCOMING DESPAIR

by Craig Lancaster Continue reading →

Self-Publishing “Lacks the Cool Factor”? But, Hasn’t Independence Always Been Cool?

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A few weeks ago, in “Kill the First Novel? Are You Insane?” I responded to Edan Lepucki’s decision to semi-permanently put away her first novel after it received a series of rejections. In her piece, Lepucki touches on self-publishing as a possibility and then quickly dismisses it as an option (for her).

This week, in “Do it Yourself: Self-Published Authors Take Matters Into Their Own Hands,” Lepucki examines the benefits and pitfalls of self-publishing and presents a few ideas that beg to be addressed.


1. Continue reading →

RJ Keller Talks Second-Novel Blues and Pie

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I had so much fun interviewing RJ Keller about The Wendy House (working title) before that I thought I’d do it again. (Admittedly, I might have been finding a passive-aggressive way to say, “Hurry up and finish so I can read it!”)

Q: Let’s just dive right in, shall we? I, like many, have been Continue reading →

The books not getting Dan Brown coverage…

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…can be tricky to find out about because, well, they’re not getting that coverage.

But there’s a blog site I discovered yesterday that can make finding something to read much, much easier. A number of books you may be interested in, and that are being favorably reviewed, appear in  The New Book Review, blogged by award-winning author Carol Howard-Johnson and named to Online Universities’ 101 Book Blogs You Need to Read.

This review spot is NEW because it embodies the new idea that a book should not be judged by its cover or its press. If a reviewer thinks a book is great, The New Book Review lets readers know about it. – Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of  the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers.

I’ll be interviewing Carolyn for the Self-Publishing Review in the next day or two about her blog and her books, and I’ll post a link when it’s live. What I’m most curious about is what prompted her to start the blog, and whether there are books she discovered and came to love as a result of starting the blog.

Speaking of the Self-Publishing Review (SPR), the website has been revamped and looks outstanding. Check it out. What used to be an online publication is now a combination online publication and community for readers and writers. Like the oringal SPR, the site can still be  accessed by people who simply wish to read the articles and opinion pieces, but those who want to be part of the reader/writer community may also create a membership and participate in the new chat forums.

And in more updated website news, Waiting for Spring author RJ Keller has a beautiful new site just waiting for a domain transfer. Here’s  her blog. I’m sure she’ll post an update when the site is ready for bookmarking. She sent me a link to the site in progress, and I couldn’t help it; I was so impressed by it that I used the same web design creation site (wix.com) to create a new homepage, myself. ‘Tis the season!