August 2010 Blog Posts (301)

Back in the late 1980s when I was in writer infancy, I massaged a plot for a mystery novel. I did the submission two-step, sending out query letters and sample chapters only

to discover literary agents weren’t sure what to make of what I was

writing. I combined genres which was a

no-no back then. “Write mystery or

science fiction, but don’t combine the two.”

I had read once to write what you like to read. I liked to read…

Writers of historical fiction have things “both” ways: on the one hand they want to give us a convincing, realistic portrait of actual historical figures and a time and place in the past, and on the other they’re not bound to the facts as historians are. They can let their imaginations roam freely among the nooks and crannies of what actually happened and give us a free-form, entertaining evocation of whatever it is they’re writing about. History is to historical fiction as…

Hi! Iʼm Manoj Rao, creator of WMDs the comic, available on the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch& iPad. When I approached Giovanni about reviewing our first two issues, WMDs #1.0 & #1.5, I’d also pitched

the idea of writing a guest blog for him, he graciously agreed and so here I

am. I thought I would use this as an opportunity to share with you, the

journey, perils, pitfalls & rewards of self-publishing in the digital age.…

Kyrins insite... Rickard Jackson author of "The Gift of Fury" aka Kyrin is one of my favorite book reviewers. He only likes Sci/Fi and Fantasy. He is tactful and cool in the sense that he can tell you that a book was just ok without crushing the author. We indie writers have ego's and a bad review review can be a stellar blow. Sort of like a mule-kick to the sternum. He will give you the low down and he gives a sort of a pre review called a"First Impression" which is pretty cool too. Start…

Middle Time by Priya Vasudevan is a historical mystery and adventure to be published by Niyogi Books- featuring Maya and Achale- two exceptional women on similar quests,…

I didn’t know if this was going to be something I could enjoy, a mystery surrounding race horses. I know absolutely nothing about horse racing or horses in general other than the fact that they have four legs,

consume food, and it comes out the other end in large steaming piles. Fortunately

for me this novel was not a big steaming pile.

I was as shocked as anyone that I got a groove on this. I would say the reason was that Dean…

Yesterday we went to a fund-raising bike-a-thon in Ohio, between Columbus and Cincinnati. It was a great event. We got to meet people, they had a live band, ice cream truck, free Vitamin Water, except for the heat it was a perfect day. The heat did keep away a lot of folks especially since heat is not a friend to suffers of MS. AS a result we fell short of our goal to raise money so we are offering our t-shirts online to be able to hopefully reach more people and achieve our…