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Books! Books! Books!

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Nerine Dorman shares a sane, sensible approach to writing for the long term in a volatile industry Those of you who’ve gotten started on this whole business of being an author may have seen some folks share about how they write and publish anywhere between six or even twelve books a year. There’s also a method put forward by certain author groups on Facebook that if you can publish a certain amount of novels, it’s possible for you to make a decent living off your writing, by working with the Amazon algorithms. And who among us haven’t at some point dreamt of what it must be like to support ourselves writing novels instead of having that nine-to-five McJob? I understand all too well the allure of being a professional author. It was precisely this dream that drove me to not only burn my candle at both ends, but melt it in a bonfire, when I was in my early 30s and miserable as all hell working in newspaper publishing. I suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown that saw me suffer ...
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Seven Tips for Reaching Your Ridiculous Reading Goals

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Laurie Jane  shares some of her tips for digging into your reading pile with gusto. So, you’ve seen people on the internet bragging about reading a hundred books or more in a year, and you’ve thought to yourself… could I do that? The first month of 2020 is already over and perhaps you haven’t read the necessary 8.33 books required to have you on track for this staggering goal. You’re thinking of giving up. Well, that’s reasonable. Reading a hundred books in a year is, for many people, excessive and entirely unnecessary. You don’t need to read a hundred books in 2020, but it’s a great idea to have an ambitious goal anyway. If it motivates you to read even a few more books than you might’ve read otherwise, where’s the harm in that? If you don’t succeed, there aren’t any dire consequences, and if you do succeed, then you can feel great and treat yourself to the reward of your choice, and perhaps even become one of those internet braggers. There’s no way to lose. Whatever your reading ...
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Fiction and Folklore: A Match Made in Reader Heaven

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Icy Sedgwick shares her love of folklore and how it's enriched her creativity My love affair with folklore started with a small book from a Northumbrian castle. It was more of a pamphlet, really – a handful of pages in a cardboard cover, stapled at the spine. There was a whole series of them that I went on to collect. Each one contained tales of ghosts, fairies, monsters, and ghouls.  Heinous murders and bloody revenge stained some of the stories, while the others glittered with the promise of magic. Make no mistake, these were not the cute fairies of Disney, or the "wise Fae" so beloved of the Mind Body Spirit crowd. These were the fairies that struck bargains and made sure you read the small print. Perfect reading for a pre-teen, wouldn’t you think? Whether I've been conscious of it or not, folklore has rippled through many of the short stories and novels I've produced. Except my first western, but what are westerns if not modern myths?  But this post isn’t abo...
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Celebrating the release of Andrew Berac's A Sinister Radiance

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We would like to congratulate Skolion author Andrew Berac on the release of his dark fantasy novel A Sinister Radiance – a slowly unfolding tale that blends dark fantasy and mystery elements as we follow the doings of a mage named Kai.  After too many years locked away in a church-controlled thaumaturge, Kai has taken advantage of the chaos wrought by the caster rebellion to escape to the shadowed city of Falkirk. Starting a new life at thirty-one would be challenge enough, but being identified as a magic caster could get him killed. Then there’s his estranged family, less-than-spectacular love life, and the disturbing secrets Falkirk hides under its facade of staid respectability to contend with, before a human monster from his past surfaces… All that pales before the threat Kai inadvertently discovers thanks to a missing friend and a spur-of-the-moment lie. It’s madly dangerous to keep up the act, but his curiosity overrides the sensible part of his mind that’s screaming you coul...
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Five ways to deal with a writing rut

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Stuck with your writing? Cristy Zinn has five helpful tips to lift you out of the funk I’ve had to dust off my keyboard for this blog because it’s been so long since I last wrote. I have projects on the horizon but getting my head around them has been like trying to walk through quicksand. This is by far the worst writing rut I’ve ever experienced. I’m beginning to ask myself that question: am I a writer if I’m not writing anything? I’m sure I’m not the only writer in the world who has dealt with this so here’s my take on those seasons where you feel like you can’t write and what to do during those times (and FYI, this is totally me, talking to myself right now): 1. IF YOU CAN, PINPOINT THE WHY. For me it’s two-fold. Firstly, it’s been a rough end to the year with multiple personal and work-related dramas, but, secondly, it’s also been some of the most rewarding months creatively because as a children’s book illustrator I’m finally finding my space. I think part of my lack of drive to ...
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How to Get Your Kids to Read More

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Carrie Clevenger shares some tips for getting your little ones into books With all the reading programs out there to reward the kids for reading at school, I suppose there’s a need for an article like this. I’ll level with you: Our family are readers, kids included, so I asked my eleven year-old daughter for some help on this topic. She is the subject matter expert after all. Associate Favorite movies or TV series capture the minds of young and old alike. The good news is, sometimes that story doesn’t have to end with the credits. A lot of movies and shows have novelizations, which means your kids (or you) can stay in that world a little longer. There are also books that expand the lore. I’ll provide an example: Supernatural , the television show (does anyone actually have cable anymore?). I know they have a lot of fans out there, myself included. Did you know there have been a number of novels written in that universe? There has! Another example is the Marvel Universe, which began lif...
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Music and Writing go together!

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Xan van Rooyen shares how they pair music with writing Music has always been a huge part of my life. Some of my earliest memories are listening to Mozart with my grandfather or wiggling away to Elvis with my parents. I’ve dedicated my life to music, first with grandiose ideas of becoming a world-renowned flutist, and now as a music teacher for elementary school kids. The latter is far more rewarding, and enjoyable! I couldn’t imagine a day going by without music and I absolutely couldn’t imagine writing without it either! Music as Inspiration Music often serves as my muse. Sometimes it's the lyrics that get me, conjuring a certain emotion or even a whole scene in my head that plays out like a movie, which I inevitably end up incorporating into a story. I often seek inspiration from visual sources, scrolling through Pinterest, hoping to stumble upon something that speaks to me. Music videos prove doubly rich sources of inspiration, combining both visual and auditory stimuli, telling...
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