In my prior article, Neptune’s Sandbox II—The Benefits of Being Boxed we talked about the benefits of staying in your genre, and the costs of venturing out of bounds. Today we’re going to talk about how to position your first book when you know you’re planning a career that crosses …
Rejected Terrible Titles Your titles can make or break you as an author—they are the first thing a reader sees about a book—and the first bar most books fail. Waxing Dark actually went through multiple title changes. It started out as Ending Academy, which was unbelievably dull. Deciding I needed …
Today is Easter—it’s also April Fool’s Day. Do books surprise us, do they pull April Fool’s style pranks? Sometimes. More often than not, though, they fulfill our expectations—and that’s often not a bad thing. The books I re-read the most are usually comfort fiction—when my world is dark, I turn …
Today is a weird happenstance that won’t happen again for 11 years. It’s Easter—it’s also April Fool’s Day. We’re looking for surprises—pranks or Easter Eggs, we’re on the lookout, on the hunt. But so are our readers, and it’s not a one-day-a-year thing for them. Surprise in Fiction Readers like …
Sugar Pyramids in Sugar Sand—You Know You Want It! Last time in Neptune’s Sandbox I—The Sand You Want we talked about the desire to write beyond the bounds of one genre. Today we are going to cover why that might not be a good idea. There are benefits to being …
My significant other in real life noticed a trend in the men I write—the male protagonists and love interests tend to be rather undersized. They’re not physically intimidating. Here are my current scrawny love interests/protagonists: Solaris— Undersized, scarred with burns from attacks of other Fire clan children and from the …
Previously in Writing Skills: Voice—The Kudzu You Cultivate we talked about voice in your writing—how to decide if you want voice to color your writing, and how your voice takes off into the stratosphere. But is Your Voice Always Channeling You? This is where we get into the deep magic. …
Do You Have a Strong Voice? This is something you mostly hear in politics and publishing—but it means different things in the two venues. In politics, strong voice means: does your voice have traction—can you effect change? In publishing, it’s more like one of those retinal scanners—or the voiceprint security …
Flow, Inspiration, and Seizing the Moment I believe it’s best to let inspiration sweep you along while the flow is coursing through you. Or perhaps you could look at it as surrendering to the moment when cupid is gunning for you. He’s notoriously fickle and his attention doesn’t keep—your love …
The Trunked Horror In the trunk under the bed—the sepulture of failures past—lurk corpses. The person who sleeps atop this trunked graveyard is an author. When you venture onto the author path you hear horror stories. You say to yourself fiercely—not me! I will be smarter. I will choose wisely. …
