Sometimes, internal industry shenanigans spill out to where the public can see it. This is one of those times. Recently, an author registered and trademarked the word "cocky". Then she contacted every author who had the word "cocky" in their book titles or subtitles or on the cover anywhere and threatened them with legal action
During 2017, a discussion via my newsletter and email from various readers alerted me to the confusion over book lengths and what makes a book a book, or a novel a novel. Novels and books are not interchangeable terms, anymore, although they used to be. A “novel” is a preset wordcount range that defines a
I just realized that "SFR" (science fiction romance) could also stand for Self-empowered Female Readers. Very cool. Last week, the producers of the newest Star Wars movie, Rogue One, released the first official trailer. I saw it, loved it and can't wait for the movie to come out (December!). Within hours of the trailer release,
On Women and Love in Dystopian Novels Today my guest author is Beth Elisse, and she has written a thought-provoking look at dystopian stories, which have become such hot property in the last few years -- particularly in the Young Adult genre. ______ Novels foreseeing the fall – and subsequent repression – of human society
Have you noticed that some or <gulp> most of your reviews are being deleted by Amazon, lately? Yeah, it's a big club. Some history. First, a bit of history about Amazon reviews, so you can understand why Amazon are doing what they're doing. Amazon have always had a "review policy" that determined what was an
It probably seems like the completely wrong time to be talking about a convention that is happening sometime next year, but the fact is, the RT convention is only 4 months away. Are you going to RT? Are you thinking about going? If so, let me know. I’ve added a sticky post to the top
My latest Indie Author column had just been released over at Night Owl Reviews. This month's column is "Add More Sales Channels" - and is the latest installment in the Year's Resolutions Series. Click here to access it. ______________
Romantic suspense and urban fantasy romance are littered with über strong female leads, who kick ass as good, if not better, than their heroes. I’ve always personally leaned towards strong heroines. The virginal, trembling heroine that many historical romances seem to specialize in have sub-zero appeal for me. I’m not even going to touch the
So, my small rant about sex and stories recently got me invited to Denise Agnew’s blog. The post is running there, and I’ll be interested to see if Denise’s readers agree with me the way you guys did. You might want to swing by and see what the comments are like…maybe wade in yourself. Denise
Paper folding has been around forever. The Japanese call it Origami, but there are all sorts of complex and quite beautiful forms of paper folding beyond Origami, as the image to the right demonstrates. If you’re curious, plug “paper folding” into Google Images. The styles, creativity and beauty of some of the finished pieces is
