Tag: featured
The Hustle-Free Writer
How ditching the side hustle helped me rediscover the joy of writing By Susan K. Hamilton I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few books and short stories published. And I knew that because my publishers were mostly small or indie presses, a lot of the marketing and promotion was going to fall on me. […]
The Story Behind The Boy From Dublin by Bronwyn Brennan
In my childhood home, at the very back of the garden, there used to be an oak tree that towered taller than all the other trees in its company. At the base of this oak tree, there was a small hollow, maybe the size of a child’s hand. And every summer, as the cicadas would […]
Knowing Your Audience: How to Write for #BookTok
By Kait Ballenger Character skits. Aesthetic videos. Shelf trophies and…masked men? #Booktok can be a confusing crowd for those unfamiliar with it. But in a publishing climate where influencers reign supreme and book sales are increasingly fueled by social media virality, what’s an author to do? The answer lies in knowing your audience. First, let […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal returns to Mars in this latest entry to the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Lady Astronaut series. “Kowal masters both science and historical accuracy in this alternate history adventure.”—Andy Weir, author of The Martian, on The Calculating Stars An instant USA Today bestseller! Years after a meteorite strike obliterated Washington, D.C.—triggering an extinction-level global warming event—Earth’s survivors […]
Cousin Stories by Jessica Levine
Cousin Stories My female cousins were sister substitutes and best friends for me growing up as an only child, and I’ve always been fascinated by cousin relationships both in reality and the arts. There are probably tragic novels about cousins and even more tragic Ph.D. dissertations about them, but the tales that come to my […]
FIRES BURNING UNDERGROUND, Nancy McCabe EXCERPT
FIRES BURNING UNDERGROUND It’s Anny’s first day of middle school and, after years of being homeschooled, her first day of public school ever. In art, Larissa asks what kind of ESP is her favorite: telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or telekinesis? Tracy asks how she identifies: gay, straight, bi, asexual, pan, trans, or confused? And thus kicks […]
Heidi Siefkas Shines a Light on Resilience with Look Up—Global Stories of Resilience
After surviving a life-altering accident in 2010, author and speaker Heidi Siefkas adopted a two-word mantra that helped her rebuild her life—Look Up. It became her compass for navigating loss, recovery, and personal transformation. Now, more than a decade later, that simple phrase has evolved into a global movement, culminating in the release of her […]
A Writer in LibraryLand by Kathy Anderson
By Kathy Anderson Today I’m the author of a novel, The New Town Librarian (NineStar Press, 2023). But once upon a time, I was a new town librarian in real life. Fresh out of graduate school with my Master of Library Science degree, I was hired as the director of a small-town public library in […]
The End: More Than Just Two Words
By Linda Rosen “The End,” the two treasured words authors adore typing. But is it really the end? It might be several months since you began your manuscript or, if you’re like me, several years. You’ve workshopped the story in a critique group, chapter by chapter, had a writing partner sitting shotgun along the way, […]
Writing Unforgettable Characters
By Tammy L. Grace As a reader, I am always drawn to characters in books. I remember characters from books I read decades ago, like Scout and Atticus Finch, Anne Shirley, Jean Valjean, and Hercule Poirot. As a young reader, I dreamed of becoming a novelist, crafting characters as unforgettable as those I still admire. […]
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