... in our last installment, Professor Ghostly and the Wildly Gesticulating Windup Sparrows from Tomorrow's Spain were facing off against the Whimpering Menace of the Cutout Dolls while the Perpetually Perky Percy Pureheart and the Men from Boy's Own Adventure, Ltd...
"My name is Chris and I ... until recently ... used to be a printed book addict." Yes, dear readers, I had it bad: bookstores used to suck me in, tearing the money out of my wallet for, at first, a single paperback, but then whole boxes and then entire bookcases of...
There's no doubt about it, things are really tough right now: aside from the depression/recession that seems to be killing publishers daily and making life even harder for writers, there's the too—often—painful transition from print to digital books, and the problem...
Every author wants their books to sell ... no duh, right? Listen long enough and you'll get a bookstore (remember those?) full of theories about what can push a title up the lists from few to many to bestseller and maybe even beyond: reviews, podcasts, blog tours,...
A couple of weeks ago I had a delightful lunch with the always-great writer/always-great person Donna George Storey (who also has a column here on ERA, "Shameless Self-Promotion") and my partner-in-all-things Sage Vivant. We talked about a lot of things, not the least...
So now you have a blog (and if you don't, then why not? See my previous column, "To Blog, Or Not To Blog"). What do you do now? Your immediate instinct might be to start trumpeting the horns and shouting from the rooftops: I HAVE A BLOG! But I advise restraint. For...
Should you blog? Yes. What, you want reasons? (sigh) Okay, here are a few good reasons why you should immediately—or close to—start your own blog and what you should put in it. First of all, as I said last month, everything's changed, especially in the writing world....
It doesn't seem that long ago. When Adrienne here at ERWA asked me ... or did I ask her? ... about a writing column when I'd only been a 'pro' for five or six years. I loved writing those years of Streetwalkers, because doing it was kind of a strike against all the...
"Imagination is intelligence with an erection" —Victor Hugo Characters are the heart and soul of any fiction, erotic or otherwise. You can have a great plot, vivid descriptions, nuances up the wazzo, but if your characters act like sock puppets, spouting endless...
"Imagination is intelligence with an erection" —Victor Hugo While it isn't the most important thing to do before sending off a story (that's reserved for writing the story itself), drafting an effective cover letter is probably right below it. So here is a quick...