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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Phoenix Island Inspires TV Series Intelligence

Guest Blogger: John Dixon All over the world, proponents of transhumanism (or H+) are looking to give the human race an upgrade. Relying on emerging technologies and pharmaceutical enhancements, transhumanists are looking to engineer an accelerated evolution that would push us past our limitations. Faster, stronger, smarter, and more aware, …

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The Eye of a Writer

Guest Blogger: Khaled Talib After I had finished writing my first novel, SMOKESCREEN, a thriller, I promised myself not to write another.  I wasn’t sure if I had energy left to struggle with the same problems and obstacles of writing:  the lack of time, rejection, and the frustration of revision.  …

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High Crimes, High Drama and Current Events

Guest Blogger: Richard Craig Anderson In COBRA CLEARANCE, an elite group of counter-terrorist operatives are out to stop a presidential assassination. Okay, fine. But what separates my newest novel from other stories about plots and plotters? The answer is clear: COBRA CLEARANCE’s relevance to current events, coupled with its credibility. …

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Headline News or Headline Blues?

Guest Blogger: Jon McGoran This past May, millions of people around the world joined together to protest how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are being silently forced upon them. In June, there were headlines about GMO wheat mysteriously appearing in a field in Oregon, and super fast-growing GMO salmon breeding with trout …

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What to Do When You’re Stuck (Or How Scorpion Deception Almost Didn’t Get Created)

Guest Blogger: Andrew Kaplan You know you’re in trouble when you’ve got a contract to write the next book in a popular series (OK, not top of the NY TIMES bestseller list popular, but Bookscan and Amazon top 20 popular), a looming deadline, and you don’t have an idea in …

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On Writing YA and Adult Thrillers

Guest Blogger: James Phelan SURVIVOR is the second installment in my ALONE trilogy for Young Adults.  It follows a 16-year-old protagonist, Jesse, in a post-apocalyptic setting in NYC. The trilogy started because I’d already written 3 adults thrillers and was contracted for 3 more, and needed a different writing challenge.  …

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Point of View is Not Always a Good Compass For the Truth

Guest Blogger: Anne Greenwood Brown I love writing in the first person point of view. Somehow, telling the story how one character perceives it helps me channel that character’s emotions and capture a unique voice. I think first person works particularly well with YA fiction, where the reader wants to …

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The Secret Lives of Characters

Guest Blogger: Hilary Davidson While I while writing my first novel, I discovered that characters and their histories take up as much real estate in my brain as close family and friends. More, really, because I didn’t have to think about the long-simmering antagonism between two friends unless I’m inviting …

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