Women on Writing - WOW and WOW!
Women On Writing is an online magazine and community for women writers. Among major topics are novel writing, indie publishing, author platform, blogging, screenwriting, and more. Lots of contests and general jocularity sans frittering on the part of Earth's most powerful humans.
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It's funny that Sue recently blogged about picking and choosing your pathway with writing. I ran into that very realization lately. It all started with a flash fiction contest I entered a couple of years ago. Part of the appeal of the contest was that you write the 500-word story in 48 hours, and submit what you have by the deadline. This resulted in little revising and rewriting on my part due to the time constraints. And I loved the little story I wrote and thought it was so charming. Over time, I've attempted to rewrite that story. Through that process, I've come across various flash fiction contests and wondered to myself if my story was worthy. I've even submitted it…
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Over the last few months, I lost my writing motivation. I blame the summer along with some difficult job changes. The truth is I just couldn't get back into writing, and when these things happen, sometimes it's hard for me to get back on track. To get into a better place, I have a usual starting point - reading back over previous work. I have a stack of notebooks I'll grab and read through a bunch of old stories that I've handwritten. They aren't perfect by any means - far from it actually - but it gets me back in touch with my writing self. Sometimes getting back into my writing routine usually means I go in two different directions - I write new stories or I go back t…
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Without realizing it, I fell into a writing habit the past couple of months. It all started when I changed my weekend morning routine. Rather than turning on the coffee and skimming the news on my phone, I take out a notebook and write for a while. You see, this is remarkable to me because I've never been the type to embrace the idea of a writing habit. I've never thought it was for me. It reeked of the type of responsibility reserved for laundry, taxes, and Monday mornings. However, once I began to embrace this habit, I've started to write more. Not only that, my stories are better too. So, I wanted to share a bit of advice on how to find your writing habit. 1) A writin…
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As a writer, it’s crucial to stay green… to keep growing… to keep your craft fresh. If you keep doing the same thing, you’re going to keep getting the same results. Of course, if you’re Stepehn King or Jodi Picolt or Chuck Palahniuk, that’s not a problem. They sit down at their desk, and brilliance flows from their fingertips. For the rest of us, however, we have to change things up now and then. I thought about this recently. In the summers, I teach a graduate class. It’s full of teachers who want to write. Too often, they find themselves bogged down by lesson planning and grading, along with teaching. Educators expect their students to write creative pieces. Te…
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“Randy Hobler has written the best memoir of a Peace Corps experience that I have ever read. His amazingly detailed book instantly grips the reader by putting Libya in its properly rich and unique historical perspective. Everyone should read this book, to enjoy its humor as well as its insights."—Niels Marquardt Former Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros Peace Corps Volunteer—Zaire and Rwanda 101 Arabian Tales: How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya is substantially set apart from the over-1,000 published Peace Corps memoirs because they are individual memoirs and this is a unique collective memoir, garnered …
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A broken routine can yield...Every morning at 6 am you sit down and write. The kids aren’t up yet. Your spouse is in the shower. You have thirty minutes to put down words. You’ve been doing it for months. But today the words won’t flow. You have the same problem the next day and the next. Or you’re working on your latest assignment. You list what needs to go into the article. You rough the body, then the conclusion, and last you write the intro. This is how you’ve done it for years. But this time the piece is not taking shape. Your thoughts are scattered. ... something new and amazing.Fortunately there are three things you can do to solve just about any writin…
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As I look up various agents online, I get this strange feeling that I’m playing duck-duck-goose. Here’s an agent that might be suitable – duck. Here’s another one that could work - duck. This one looks like a great match – goose! In kindergarten the goose always gave chase. With agents it is much less certain, but you can improve your odds by putting your best foot forward with your query. Here are three things to remember when crafting your query letter. Out of All the Others, I Chose You Writers approach agents every single day. Some will have done no research beyond finding an e-mail address. These are the people who query an agent who only represents children’s …
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This market loves me, it loves me not. Not too long after I started yoga, I met another newbie. We laughed when we realized we are both writers. But Kay was shocked when she learned I did work-for-hire. My educational writing is work-for-hire, meaning I get paid a set fee and the publisher owns the copyright. “You should self-publish like I do,” Kay said. Her work focuses on personality assessment and group dynamics. She speaks at businesses, churches and women’s groups. Her workshops sell out fast. When I told her that I write for the school library market, Kay laughed. “Just ignore me. Your market would never find you if you self-publish.” Finding the right ma…
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It doesn’t matter who the writers are that I’m talking to. It might be my critique group. It might be my accountability group. It might even be my students. If someone is having troubles getting their writing done, they will blame it on time. And that makes a certain amount of sense. There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. We can only get so much done. But long before most of us run out of time, we run out of energy. Think about the language that you use when you hit that low. You say you are run down, you don’t have any . . . energy. To find the energy you need to write, try these 4 things. Monotask Is that a word? I’m not sure but I like it. F…
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We are excited to be back with Hugh Fritz and the blog tour of Book #2 in the Mystic Rampage Series, Public Display of Aggression. Earlier in the tour, Crystal sat down with Hugh for an interview and today she offers her own 5 Star Book Review for this fantastic read! First, here is a little bit about Public Display of Aggression: Soleil and Flarence are immortal Genies who can bend the fundamental forces of the universe through willpower alone. For centuries, they have considered themselves the most formidable beings in the world, but some newcomers just might give them a run for their money. Magic has always been limited to living things. Throughout his life, Solei…
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A passion for writing doesn’t always go hand in hand with a desire to monetize your work. However, if you’d like to share your writing gift with the world and still make money, it’s imperative to learn about the best ways to promote your book. It’s important to identify your goals beforehand because successful book promotion requires deliberate planning and execution. Promoting your book may seem like a daunting task at first but it doesn’t have to be. It involves communicating with your target audience in ways that make them want to buy your book. In this article, we’re going to cover 7 book promotion ideas that will help you reach your target audience and sell more boo…
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So, being a writer, I do this thing where whenever I think of an interesting sentence or a line just enters into my head because I’m a writer and odd lines are always coming into my head because, being a writer, I look at the world oddly, I write down these little lines and bits and quirky sentences and whatnots that come to me and later on I’ll use them as prompts. Life gets busy and does its busy life thing, but I make sure that every day I sit down and write something new for at least 10 minutes. If I don’t know what to write about, which usually is the case because I never know what to write about until I start writing, I pull out my list of odd lines, close my eyes, …
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I had the amazing opportunity to visit St. Thomas U.S.V.I. over spring break. We were nervous about taking this trip, as we we were still waiting on our first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but then we started thinking that my oldest daughter is a junior in high school and we may not have her to vacation with us much longer. We took the necessary COVID-19 tests the U.S. Virgin Islands required to arrive on the island, and off we went (at the time we planned the trip they had zero reported cases). I knew one of my favorite authors, Elin Hilderbrand, was on the nearby island of St. John because she goes there to write for five weeks each spring. I kept joking that I’d love…
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It's no secret, I've loved Cheryl Crow forever...like since back in the day when people purchased compact discs and put them on repeat in their boom boxes! I was already smitten back in 2002 when I pre-ordered a copy of the Soak Up the Sun CD and listened to it all the way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for spring break and then all the way back home to Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I'd smile so big while singing along with the sultry singer/songwriter "I've got a crummy job..." and "I'm still the king of me..." oh those were the days. Fast forward to today's technology driven world (don't worry, I still have my old CD's in a case although my boom box has been retired) and I…
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If you saw this cover, would you buy the book? photo by Sue B. Edwards I imagine not. However, what if the title didn't look like it was written in blood? And what if the blurb said something like, "Two men form an unlikely friendship, as they team up to fight the battle of their lives" instead of "Across the twilight of fear, the red-drenched, terrifying dream begins..."? Might the book at least prompt you to pick it up and give it a second glance? (By the way, Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin is one of my favorites. And bonus: it's not long enough to serve as a doorstop, unlike his Game of Thrones books.) The cover of a book is huge. I've not bought books beca…
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I feel a bit shocked that it's August already - nearing the end of third quarter for our business and time to go school shopping for most of our littles. We are just wrapping up third crop hay on our farm and getting ready for corn harvest. This is one of my favorite months of the year in my little corner of the cornfield. The corn is taller than I am, and I can't see the road from my patio. We have a long driveway, but this time of year, I have a cornfield as a privacy fence. It's all very fancy if you ask me - my allergies however are a different story. We all have well established farmer tans and freckles and we've cut most of the sleeves off our t-shirts. As much as w…
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So - here goes - let's talk about friendships, shall we? This isn't me telling you what to do or not to do - it's just a conversation and hopefully it will offer each of us a little something. Grab your favorite beverage (I'll fill my coffee mug) and we can chat a bit. If you're wondering, today's photo headline is me and my best friend on our wedding day - I still say marrying your best friend is a most fabulous idea! Take a moment to remember a friend who meant a lot to you - someone who is no longer part of your circle. They walked away, you walked away, etc... Take a moment to remember a book character you felt close to; someone you were sad to part with at the end o…
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So - here goes - let's talk about friendships, shall we? This isn't me telling you what to do or not to do - it's just a conversation and hopefully it will offer each of us a little something. Grab your favorite beverage (I'll fill my coffee mug) and we can chat a bit. Stop back in a few weeks for part three publishing on the 6th of September!. If you're wondering, today's photo headline is me and my best friend celebrating our engagement over a decade ago - he still makes me smile like this! Let's start with a quote by English writer Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Isn't that an interesting concept (and clearly not a new one)? I think about this as I start a new book. I'…
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I like to keep a list of national “days” handy because it can be helpful when planning content for magazines, podcast episodes, and blog posts. For September, I noticed we have “National Courtesy Month” to celebrate. Here’s what the website has to say about the holiday: There are so many ways to show kindness to people through courtesy. Hold the door open for the people behind you! Mow your elderly neighbor’s lawn! Compliment that shy person you see every day on the subway! Above all, SMILE at everyone you meet! Because this is a blog for writers, I thought I’d talk to about the importance of being courteous to one another. If you’re anything like me, you have highs a…
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I've gotten hard nos--lots of them. Over two hundred (no exagggeration or stretching of the truth) of 'em. When I was trying to get an agent or publisher interested in my book, I submitted it over 140 times. Some replied with "no thanks." Mostly, I got no response at all. No response--in the publication world--means no. Sometimes the agent or press has a long response time, but after a couple of years, I got the message from the majority of the people I queried. They were not interested clueless about how totally brilliant and soon-to-be award-winning my manuscript was. (I mean this jokingly--at least semi-jokingly.) Once, I received a rejection email less than twent…
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School is back in person for my daughter who is in 5th grade, and we live about a mile from the school. However, you have to cross a very busy street, and it does take about 25 minutes for a kid to walk a mile (this is a distracted kid who will want to stop and smell the roses). Right now, there are not enough bus drivers for kids who live even much farther than we do, and so this makes us car riders instead of bus riders. Many, many more families are car riders this year because of the bus driver shortage. As you can imagine, on the first day of school, this was a logistical nightmare, and I waited in line for about 30 minutes to drop my daughter off. Then, I prepared my…
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Recently, I sent my story around on a critique forum to get feedback, and one piece of feedback I received stopped me in my creative tracks. They accused my story of being boring. Worse, I believed them. I re-read the story and thought, good grief they are right. I almost overhauled the whole thing until I received a rejection letter. My story - yes, the one I planned on changing completely - had been rejected. Yet, something in this rejection made me pause. It made me wonder if that other person had been wrong. You see, the rejection was positive. It said, "It was good; it just wasn’t a perfect fit for the issue." Now, I know from my past experiences that receiving a pe…
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Not long ago, I attended a webinar on writing concept books. For those of you who don’t write for kids, a concept book is a picture book about . . . a concept. Alphabet books, counting books, and books about the Fibonacci sequence are all concept books. Yes, there are picture books about the Fibonacci sequence. Check out Joyce Sidman’s Swirl by Swirl and Sarah Campbell’s Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. The presenter for the webinar was Liz Garton-Scanlon and she recommended a long list of concept books. When they arrived, I eagerly sat down to read. I had to laugh after I finished One Dark Bird by Liz Garton-Scanlon and Counting Crows by Kathi Appel…
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Based Crystal’s post, I’m not the only one trying to establish new writing habits. How I go about doing it will be different after seeing Christine Carter’s TED Talk, The 1-minute Secret to Forming a New Habit. Carter, a life coach, helps high achievers set leadership goals. In her talk, she admitted how grandly she failed at her goals to reestablish her running habit. Early in the pandemic, she spent a week creating a detailed plan to train for a half-marathon but stuck with it for only a few weeks. She had failed at her key point in forming a new habit which is our … Step 1. Pick something simple you can do every day. As Carter explained, you need to pick so…
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Late in 2020, I prepped to write a middle grade science fiction novel. Because I read a lot more fantasy than science fiction, I knew I needed to compile a reading list. I found very little for this age group so I asked book fans and writers. I found online lists composed by reviewers and librarians. I requested a dozen recent middle grade novels and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. After I read the first contemporary novel, I examined the others. Every book was a boarding school story on another planet. Harry Potter goes to Mars, etc. Why oh why was the only unique recommendation War of the Worlds? And why didn’t science play a bigger part in these books? I also…
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Steinbeck's Rules for Writing - But do They Apply to Modern Genres?
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Links: Lee Pace, Fundraising, & More
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Depositphotos_52671211_original-300x200.jpgHey there! Welcome back to Wednesday Links! This is our little cozy routine where we huddle around and talk about cool or interesting or funny things we’ve seen on the internet recently. If you’ve been keeping up with me, I had a tattoo appointment on Saturday. The artist did an amazing job on the stencil. It’s larger than I was expecting (not a bad thing!), though that meant we had to split it up. Just the line work is finished. I’ll get the color and shading done in February and I’m v -
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Why Horror of Dracula is still the best, strangest, campiest Dracula movie ever made
I don’t really love Halloween, but I love one of its main characters. I love Dracula. I don’t even care about vampires but I care about Dracula, and, not to presume that the readers of this site are particularly attuned to the oeuvres of any one of its writers, but if you have noticed a glut of Dracula content on CrimeReads throughout the past few years, especially around this season, it’s probably because of me. I love Dracula, from Transylvania to London and back again. So, if you’re looking for something to watch this Halloween weekend, I ask you to look no further than Halloween’s undying -
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The Paris Review Podcast Returns
With our acclaimed podcast, The Paris Review gives voice to the sixty-eight years of our archives. Season 3 launches today, with the release of episode 19, “A Memory of the Species.” We open with a recording of the literary critic Richard Poirier in conversation with Robert Frost for the poet’s 1960 Art of Poetry interview, from issue no. 24. Next, the Italian poet Antonella Anedda and her translator Susan Stewart discuss Anedda’s poem “Historiae 2,” published in issue no. 231. The American vocal ensemble Tenores de Aterúe then reimagines the poem as a song in the folk tradition of Anedda’s n -
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Author Spotlight: Malcolm Devlin (UNEXPECTED PLACES TO FALL FROM, UNEXPECTED PLACES TO LAND)
Malcolm Devlin is the author of the collection ‘Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land’, published by Unsung Stories, and the novella, ‘And Then I Woke Up’, published by Tor.com in April 2022. His first collection, ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ also published by Unsung, was shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. He currently lives in Brisbane. Welcome back to the Hive, Malcolm. Let’s start with the basics: tell us about Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land. What can readers expect? Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places t -
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“The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.”
When day comes, we ask ourselves: Where can we find light In this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb Anyone who has ever walked through tough times can tell you that light isn’t always easy to find. Tough times can either make us or break us, but we exist in the in-between for the longest part of the journey. When we lose something we love — whether it be a job, a lover, a friend, or a family member — we are thrust into a world for which there is no simple escape. We exist between the tough times and the breaking or strengthenin -
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Horror Fiction In The Age of Covid: A Roundtable Discussion
I came to horror the same way I came to Rihanna—later than most, but with the commensurate fiery passion of a true convert. Crime and horror have, after all, been slowly converging for many years, as domestic suspense transformed into the New Gothic, and psychological thrillers took over from procedurals as the dominant trend in the genre. And yet, despite my newfound fandom, I’m about as poorly informed a horror reader as one could be (I’ve only read one Stephen King novel and it was Mr Mercedes). So I invited a whole bunch of authors with horror novels out in 2021 to join me for a roundtable -
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Scary Monsters and Spooky Freaks: Bernie Wrightson Unleashed
After mom confessed to binging on Creature Feature/Chiller Theater flicks when she was pregnant with me, I realized that my passion for horror was in the blood. By the time I was seven I’d already seen Night of the Living Dead, which gave me nightmares for a week, and was a regular viewer of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond and horror/monster movies on Saturday nights. As a comic book fan since I was a six year old New York City kid, my tastes eventually swayed from Marvel’s Manhattan-based superheroes to spooky four-color supernatural strips. While comic book shopping in -
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October’s Best Debut Novels
CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debuts in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Erin Mayer, Fan Club (MIRA) If Catie Disabato and Amina Akhtar had written the screenplay for Josie and the Pussycats, it might read something like Fan Club. In former Bustle editor Erin Mayer’s blistering debut, her millennial narrator is bored out of her mind working at a women’s magazine, obsessing over the beauty editor’s many freebies and taking as many coffee breaks as possible. “One day, she finds new purpose in the hidden meanings of a pop star’s new hit, joining a devoted group of superfans who -
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As the Wicked Watch
“Jordan, we’re live in sixty,” said Tracy Klein, my favorite field producer, nudging me to get into place. “Okay, hang on,” I said, distracted by a rush of butterflies and the sudden urge to pee, which happened every single time I was about to go on the air. I guess it was my body’s way of preparing me for the moment that never got old, but soon panic struck. My earpiece was in, but the anchors’ voices sounded like Charlie Brown’s parents. “Hey, you guys. I can’t hear. You’re not coming through very clearly. The echo is killing me,” I said. I looked up. Please, not today. In an instant, t -
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The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater
B+ The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater September 28, 2021 · Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Science Fiction/Fantasy TW/CW TW for: violence, police brutality, racism, unjust incarceration, house fire that spreads and burns down large sections of a town and causes mass evacuations, pressure to continue an unwanted pregnancy, death of a parent The Liar of Red Valley is kind of awesome, despite an abrupt ending and some world-building is -
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NaNo Planning
I know that NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) is kicking off in just five days, but better late than never when it comes to planning, right? And this time, for once, I’m not joking around. Planning is crucial if you’re jumping into this annual November writing challenge. So for those new to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo/NaNo), let me explain what it is (or just borrow from their website as they put it so well): “NaNoWriMo is a non-profit that believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achie -
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Holiday Romance, Book Bundles, & More
John Eyre John Eyre by Mimi Matthews is $1.99! Thanks to everyone who commented and let us know about this sale! This is a retelling of the Bronte classic and has similar elements of a Gothic historical romance. Have you read this one? From USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews comes a supernatural Victorian gothic retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s timeless classic. Yorkshire, 1843. When disgraced former schoolmaster John Eyre arrives at Thornfield Hall to take up a position as tutor t -
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Redux: Sick Fish
Every week, the editors of The Paris Review lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine’s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by signing up for the Redux newsletter. Samuel R. Delany in his New York City apartment in 1983. This week at The Paris Review, we’re dreaming of other worlds, and highlighting writers of speculative and science fiction. Read on for Samuel R. Delany’s Art of Fiction interview, an epilogue chapter to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series, and Margaret Atwood’s poem “Frogle -
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The Undead, a Thriller, & More
Mating the Huntress RECOMMEND: Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert is $2.99! That might be the regular price for this paranormal romance novella. Elyse loved this one and gave it an A: Overall this book was a delight. It locked on to my need for female rage, for men to support that rage, and for cupcakes, and it was funny. This Halloween, love bites back… hard. Chastity Adofo knows a monster when she sees one. As soon as Luke Anthony wanders into her family’s coffee shop, she recognises
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