Writer Unboxed - The "Connect Kitty" Approves
AAC can't help but deliver the best bloggish content that will inspire writers to new leaps of imagination. This one is mostly new releases, bestsellers, literary fiction historical fiction, mysteries, popular non-fiction, memoirs and biographies.
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My wife and I recently had dinner with another married couple—old friends whom we hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. We went through the usual greeting rituals and settled into our seats, me directly across from Burke, who seemed particularly ebullient. “What’s up?” I asked, sensing there was something. “What do you think of the audiobooks thing?” he all but burst in reply. It took me aback. “It’s huge,” I said. “And growing fast, by all accounts.” I’m sure all of you realize how true it is. In fact, according to a recent Publishing Perspectives piece by our own Porter Anderson, audiobooks have just completed their seventh straight year of double-digit growth, with…
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Please welcome author-in-progress Kristina Stevens to Writer Unboxed today! We were approached by WU contributor Jim Dempsey about Kristina’s journey, which has involved writing a novel that began as a memoir. How did she decide on that change? What did that change entail? And would we be interested in sharing the journey (yes!). More about Kristina from her bio: Kristina lives in Glasgow, Scotland where she works in education. Kristina has an MA in English Literature and has recently completed a six month mentorship programme for under represented writers with Arkbound Foundation. Kristina is interested in outsiders and modern interpretations of gothic themes in fi…
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Last month, I wrote about how hard it is to write morally good characters. In the comments, it came up that writing evil characters can be just as hard, though for different reasons. Evil characters can be easy to write because they’re often more clearly aware of their intentions than good ones. But to write believable evil characters, you have to get inside their minds. Anyone who gives advice on writing will tell you that you have to humanize your bad guys for them to be effective — cartoon evil is no more interesting than cartoon good. But writers also need a warning about just how painful it can be to enter an evil mind. A lot of writers try to dodge the questio…
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Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors and agents often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. In a customarily formatted book manuscript with chapters starting about 1/3 of the way down the page (double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point type), there are 16 or 17 lines on the first page. Here’s the question: Would you pay good money to read the rest of the chapter? With 50 chapters in a book that costs $15, each chapter would be “worth” 30 cents. So, before you read the excerpt, take 30 cents from your pocket or purse. When you’re done, decide what to do with those three dimes or the quarter and a nickel. It’s not much, but think of paying 30 …
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There’s no shortage of writing exercises to choose from. Just google it. Eight Exercises to Strengthen Your Writing. Thirteen Creative Writing Exercises. Twenty-four Exercises to Become a Better Writer. Fifty Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises. There are lists of eleven, fifteen—even one hundred writing exercises! No one can, or should, use all of them. On the contrary, heaping your plate with an abundance of a la carte exercises can be counterproductive, leaving you with conflicting “advice” and competing priorities. So how can you decide which are worth your time? One strategy I’ve found helpful is to consider each exercise in the context of when to employ…
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This contest submissions season covers deadlines from June 1, 2022 through August 31, 2022. Summer is a slower time for any literary journal or contest associated with a university, but there are still opportunities between beach waves and new drafts. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests. Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your excep…
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We’re thrilled to bring you a Take Five interview with New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling novelist Sarah McCoy (Marilla of Green Gables; The Mapmaker’s Children; The Baker’s Daughter) about her latest novel, out this past week: MUSTIQUE ISLAND. “It’s the early 1970s, and it’s perfectly acceptable to name-drop visiting royalty, whether rock (Mick Jagger) or Windsor (Princess Margaret)… sun-drenched and frequently frothy, McCoy’s underlying tale of women-in-crisis who claw their way back to strength carries sobering messages about the importance of family loyalty and resiliency.” — Booklist One bookseller called Mustique Island a “literary rainb…
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I signed my book deal with Red Hen Press over two years ago, before COVID times if you can even remember those days! It comes out on June 7th and I’m in the freak-out-and-get-ready phase right now. The process of working with this indie press has been very positive and I’d be happy to chat about it sometime. (Do I recommend Red Hen Press for other authors? Yes!) But the funny thing is that, while having this good experience with a small press, I’ve also been thinking a lot about the gatekeepers involved in getting a thing out there into the world. I’m using the term “gatekeepers” loosely because in some cases these gatekeepers are more in my head than in real life. Bu…
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At some point in your career you may get asked to participate in a story anthology with other authors. If the collection is clearly linked to the themes, style, and subject matter of your own work, a “yes” response is often simple. But on other occasions the premise of the anthology may seem so far removed to your customary niche, and you may wonder if you can contribute meaningfully, or it’s worth your while to try. I was recently asked to participate in a nonfiction anthology about voter suppression and intimidation. (It’s the third in a series titled Low Down Dirty Vote; the specific focus of this collection, which come out this Sunday, is The Color of My Vote.) All o…
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photo adapted / Horia Varlan We were good students, most of us. At the very least we loved reading and writing, and if our interest flagged in other subjects, we were either daydreaming or reading novels hidden beneath our desks. Complete sentences were our currency. We never started one with a cheap conjunction like “and” or “but,” or ended one with a preposition like “with” or “to.” Each paragraph featured a topic sentence supported by subsequent points. A truly creative writer knew several dozen alternatives for the word “said” when attributing dialogue and we proved it (she bragged). In our hot little hands, we held fistfuls of hall passes giving us free rein for u…
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Recently I attended a book launch for Slipping the Noose by Meg Caddy, second book in a YA duology about notorious pirate Anne Bonny. Many attendees embraced the invitation to dress as pirates for the event. (Reader, I did not dress as a pirate.) The most exciting part, for me, was seeing a young writer whom I had mentored when they were in high school now launching their third novel to considerable acclaim. Even better, the launch was attended not only by the author’s family and friends, but by many enthusiastic members of the local writing community. The event brought home to me what a privilege it was to have been involved in the early stages of this writer’s developme…
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My friend’s 15-year-old son has just had his heart broken for the first time. He’s also just written his first song. It’s about a guy who got his heart broken. He’s a talented musician, so it will probably be a pretty good first song. Many wonderful creative works have come from strong emotions. Aristotle wrote that everyone who “attained excellence in philosophy, in poetry, in art and in politics, even Socrates and Plato, had a melancholic habitus; indeed some suffered even from melancholic disease.” In a recent episode of the excellent Happiness Lab podcast, Helen Russell, author of How to be Sad: Everything I’ve Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad Better, call…
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One of the things that has struck me most forcibly throughout my career as a writer and, later, as publishing director of a small press as well, is how important good book design is. Humans are visual creatures and an unappealing, amateurish or confused design will turn us off immediately, even if we cannot explain why. A design that might be technically accomplished but too much ‘in your face’, overshadowing the content, is not right either. Great design is both invisible and yet very much present, working its stylish magic in the way that’s most appropriate to the book contents. Great design is crucially important of course for all kinds of illustrated and photographic …
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We are so pleased to share a look at a new book by long-time contributor and multi-published author Sophie Masson called Inside Story: the Wonderful World of Writing, Illustrating and Publishing Children’s Books! The book, which releases on May 1st in Australia and this summer in the states, is a gorgeous and unique resource–as Sophie is about to explain. Q1: What’s this new book about? SM: Inside Story is a fabulous showcase of the richness and diversity of contemporary Australian children’s books. An attractive full-colour production, it is packed with tips, advice, illuminating quotes and anecdotes. The stellar list of contributors includes writers, illustrators, edi…
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(How I picture the Writer Unboxed Community. Look at that glow!) If it takes a village to raise a child, it requires a community to create a book. If you are a part of the Writer Unboxed UnConference alumni group, you probably know I had a book launch this week. But what you may not know is that DARLING GIRL is my second book. My first, EVENFALL, came out 11 years ago. Yes, you read that right. That first book was a quiet one, and although I received some lovely reviews, it slowly sank from sight. But, hey, I wasn’t ALL that worried. I’d sold a book, so how hard could it be to sell another? You already know where this is going. It was pretty damn hard. Part of th…
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(Yes, this actually IS a photo of F. Scott Fitzgerald.) In my previous post, I focused on the importance of the written word in the time of Covid, and on how I was embracing a newfound reliance on written correspondence to stay connected with people – in particular, people I care deeply about. Among the books I mentioned in that post was this collection of letters written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I recommend to anyone who’s a fan of the author. Since posting that, I stumbled onto a powerful quote from F. Scott. (By the way, how cool is his name? I actually went through a phase in college where I insisted on being listed in musical programs as “K. Daniel Cronin.” Go…
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How nice when a novel boils down to one simple idea. Oh, my life as a literary agent gets easy! Pitching becomes a breeze. Everyone from editors to reviewers are happy too. There’s little to explain. No one needs to be sold. The story sells itself. The premise rings like a starting bell and the horses are off and galloping away. The novel has practically written itself in our brains. Except… High concept novels have instant appeal but reading a novel doesn’t happen in an instant. There are hundreds of pages to fill. With what? That’s where this business of writing fiction starts to get complicated. A good idea gets you going but going where? How do you hold…
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At the start of any mystery or whodunit, often authors find themselves grappling with a conundrum: how, exactly, do I hide my villain or “bad guy” in plain sight? This individual is often a key player in the story, meaning we need to introduce the reader to our villain early (ultimately, this makes for a more satisfying ending: no one wants to learn that the villain is a minor side character who shows up in act III.) We also need the reader to engage regularly with the hidden villain throughout the story. When keeping our villain’s identity under wraps, we want the reader to not only understand this key character’s motives, but even root for them. And of course, we want …
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When you read the headline of this piece — you can’t do it all — did you bristle? Relax? Recognize your own struggle as a writer? For most of us, it can be a combination of the three. We want to do it all, of course. If a great book idea comes into our heads, we want to write that book. If we have a book releasing into the world, we want to visit every bookstore and write every blogpost and promote! promote! promote! on social media. We want to share wonderful memory-making moments with our families and friends, take care of our responsibilities, do our jobs to the highest standard, field the curveballs life throws our way, all while maintaining healthy lifestyles, clean…
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We are thrilled to bring you an in-depth look at Writer Unboxed contributor Liz Michalski’s second (and very high concept) novel today: DARLING GIRL! In a nutshell? Darling Girl is a modern-day re-casting of Peter Pan. He isn’t who we thought he was. He isn’t charming. He can get older. And the stakes couldn’t be higher for the women in the Darling family. Just this past week we learned that DARLING GIRL was chosen as one of this month’s picks for the Book of the Month Club! DARLING GIRL is climbing the charts pre-release. And there is more exciting news that can’t be shared yet (darn it). Just know that this little book that could is one to watch! “This addictive tale…
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