Read or Write Anywhere

    Summer is about to begin!  But just because it’s summer doesn’t mean we should stop reading and writing. I’ve teamed up with the YA Chicks and many participating authors on a global campaign to encourage readers, writers, students, and teachers to share pictures all of the places—both ordinary …

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The Things You Learn Doing Research

Guest Blogger: DP Lyle Writers are constantly doing research to make the story at hand more realistic, or at least more believable. That “willing suspension of disbelief” thing. One false move can yank the reader right out of the story and that’s never good. The reader loses confidence in the …

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Get Mind Blown

Guest Blogger: Donna Galanti In my paranormal suspense novel, A HUMAN ELEMENT, book 1 in the Element Trilogy, Laura Armstrong can perform telekinesis. What exactly is telekinesis? It’s the action of mind on matter, in which objects are caused to move as a result of mental concentration upon them. Is …

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ON RESURRECTING AN ICONIC CHARACTER

Guest Blogger: Eric Van Lustbader I wrote THE NINJA in 1980 and it became an immediate worldwide sensation, ultimately spending twenty-four weeks on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list. The book was picked up by 20th Century Fox to be made into a film. Five more novels featuring the protagonist, Nicholas …

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Creativity Conflicted

Guest Blogger: Rita Ashley There is an unrestful silence now. The reception for my exhibit of my first art photos was yesterday; a day for meeting fellow artists and many visitors to the obscure gallery in Ashland, OR. The unrest? My reaction to much praise, no purchase. It seems, for …

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The Magic Pencil

When I was young, I’d look at a pencil and think it was magical. I imagined all the words the pencil could write, all the stories it could create. Then I thought of all the magic pencils out in the world and all the books they had written. I wanted …

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3 Writing Truths

There are no hard and fast rules in writing, but here are three principles I adhere to: 1. Write with your heart. 2. Edit with your head. 3. Tell the truth of the story.       Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net  

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What’s on Your Self-Editing List?

I’m over at The Blood-Red Pencil Blog discussing what’s on my Fiction Search and Destroy List. Humans, by nature, gravitate toward patterns, so when we write we often make the same mistakes. Of course, these errors are only mistakes if we don’t correct them in the final draft. My Fiction …

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5 Things to Inspire Creativity

There are so many things that inspire me. Some inspire me to work harder, others to play more, and some to be a better person. Inspiration comes in so many forms. Here are five things that inspire me and that can inspire you too: 1. Looking at Photographs — Whenever …

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5 Reasons Why I Love Libraries

1. One of my favorite memories from my childhood is of going to the library on Saturday mornings, checking out a huge stack of books, coming home and spreading them across the floor, deciding what order to read them, and then digging in to those pages that magically transformed me …

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