Blog
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Alex Winger – birth of a Star Wars Expanded Universe character
With the resurrection of “Shades of Gray: from the Adventures of Alex Winger“, I thought it would be fun to take a look at Alex’s history. A LONG TIME AGO…I loved Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but the universe created by George Lucas flew off my radar after Return of the Jedi (RoTJ)…
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Writing historical fiction: researching the Third Crusade
“Did Queen Berengaria and Queen Joan (or Joanna as she’s sometime referred to) depart Cyprus for Acre on the same galley as King Richard?”¹ You’re dying to know, right? Isn’t everyone? Ah, the joys of historical research! Donna Gillespie at Pen in Hand writes “Research helps you shape your story, and on a good day…
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E- and Print, That is the Question…
Dean Wesley Smith asks indie self-publishers to think about publishing their works in print. He reminds us that we’re ignoring 65-70% of the market (see shot #9), and has a cool graphic showing trends in book reading & buying. Hey – I’m the first to admit that I love the feel and smell of a…
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Family Peace shipped to editors
It’s done. Keeping the Family Peace (FP) has been shipped off to my editors. Like the thistles in Graham’s photo, it may be a bit prickly, but you can see the broad landscape and this round of revisions is done. The nuking process went well. I think I’ve tightened up my writing quite a bit. I’m…
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Nuking the manuscript…
NOVEL REVISIONSI wrapped up round 1776 of revisions on my novel yesterday. Okay, I’m exaggerating. I don’t think the number of revisions is anywhere near that high, but when you’ve read, re-read, edited, trimmed, added, etc., so many times, it’s just one big blur. I addressed some of the concerns my 3 betas spotted. I…
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What’s in a [pen] name?
If you’ve followed along since the beginning of time, er, rather the opening post on this blog, I started contemplating the use of a pen name about a year ago. My lovely graphic header included the words “fiction home of Charlene Newcomb & Kate [insert various names].” I’d even created a separate blog for Kate,…
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Vacation 10 – Writing 0
Can a writer fully embrace vacation? Is it different for a writer with a day job vs. a full time writer? I love my vacations, whether to visit family or friends, whether it’s a 3 day weekend or 10 days off. But I miss my writing time. With a full time day job, I don’t…
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The book blurb
How do you distill a 93,000 word manuscript down to 2 paragraphs? While my novel is off in beta hands, I’ve been writing, editing, scrapping, and re-writing my book blurb, or as it’s called on Amazon, the “product description”. That’s not very romantic, is it? If I was buying a blender or a new laptop,…