This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 23, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 21, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two different box sets plus a military sci-fi adventure from a USA Today bestselling author.
Sci-fi author uses AI to promote new book about AI
Reading Time: 2 minutes Best-selling Brazilian author PJ Caldas used AI technology to release a book trailer for his first novel in English.
Flowers for Humanity
Reading Time: 4 minutes A haunting tale of the Fundamental Equation of life in this Universe, and its accidental misapplication by the hidden god of the ancients.
On Our Own
Reading Time: 4 minutes On a dead planet, two prospector friends find two huge statues with a secret.
The Last Thing Taken
Reading Time: 9 minutes When Sophia meets Oloku, she thinks it’s the perfect, strings-free affair. But when she learns his secret, she finds there’s a price to pay for loving him.
How to create a good author profile photo
Reading Time: 6 minutes Some free and easy ways to create good-looking author headshots and profile pics.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 16, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. We have 86 links this week, covering every topic imaginable.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 14, 2023
Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a circus troupe traveling through a fantasy world, a grim reaper who breaks the rules,
Can Claude AI fix your grammar mistakes? No, it can’t, but there’s an AI that will.
Reading Time: 11 minutes Claude AI, the hot new chatbot for book authors, works well as a grammar tutor, but is bad at fixing mistakes in your text. However, I did find one AI-powered tool that caught every error I threw at it.
Gentle Autumn Rain
Reading Time: 4 minutes The ages have been kind and humanity has spread to the stars, but the sun’s time is growing short, and all of her children are coming home.
10 ways Claude AI can help you self-edit your book — for free
Reading Time: 16 minutes Claude AI is the single best editor I’ve tried so far. And it can do a whole book at a time. For free.
The Road to Vitebsk
Reading Time: 4 minutes A dedicated officer refuses to leave until others are safe. Death sometimes does not defer duty.
Book editing with AI: Code Interpreter vs. Claude — there’s no contest
Reading Time: 8 minutes Anthropic’s Claude beats ChatGPT hands-down when it comes to analyzing full-length books.
Magic Makes Fools of Us All
Reading Time: 4 minutes An unusual family plots a summer camping trip that will satiate their blood-lust. It doesn’t go entirely as planned.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 9, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we got an interview with Brandon Sanderson where he talks about the future of publishing — and what he thinks about AI.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 7, 2023
Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes witches, werewolves, aliens, and magic schools.
The Ways We Played the Game
Reading Time: 6 minutes A LitRPG jam in Singapore, with a code that really works for those that want to try it.
Hugo Award nominations are out, and She-Hulk made the list
Reading Time: 5 minutes This year’s Hugo Awards nominees include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nope, and an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Two authors are suing OpenAI for training ChatGPT with their books. Could they win?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay’s lawsuit claims their books were used without their consent. But copyright protection doesn’t apply to ideas – they’ll need to demonstrate the likelihood of economic loss.
The Burning Point of a Soul
Reading Time: 4 minutes How do I discover what my soul burns for? Do I even want to find it?
Fingal’s Cave
Reading Time: 17 minutes A rogue scientist’s intrepid search for life becomes a metaphoric and existential journey of the heart that explores how we connect and communicate—with one another and the universe—a journey intimately connected with water.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 2, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, lots of great tips for creating a writing habit, plus practical advice for using AI to help your marketing — and your writing.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 30, 2023
Reading Time: 14 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes four ghosts who murder bullies and take over their bodies and several fantasy romances.
Dragon Dancer
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every year as migrating dragons pass by from across the endless sea, tradition mandates one woman jump into the thunder and dance with the wild beasts as they pass overhead. This year’s Dancer is Lanitia’s sister. The Dancer must die or arrive at The Decent; this time, something new happens.
Best free Canva fonts for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Reading Time: 6 minutes More than 70 great free fonts for Canva ebook covers for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres.
Uranians by Theodore McCombs
Reading Time: 2 minutes Uranians — an anthology including four short stories and one novella — is the perfect marriage of sci-fi and queerness.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 25, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got some great videos from the 2023 AuthorTube Writing Conference.
Midjourney’s new zoom out feature great for book covers
Reading Time: 7 minutes Midjourney adds zoom out feature, which is great for creating art for book covers.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 23, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a space opera about a man who watches all of humanity get destroyed by aliens.
Behind the Standing Stones
Reading Time: 4 minutes Craig and Hailey had very different ideas about how to celebrate their anniversary. One wanted sunshine and drinks on an island beach. The other was more interested in the enchantments that might be found beyond the standing stones.
The Last Time I Saw the Yellow Skies of Venus
Reading Time: 5 minutes Terraforming Venus is a dream come true, but what about the people who already live above the clouds, eking out a living through technology and grit? The pioneers-on-balloons are forced to relocate, leaving everything their families have built for generations.
Follow Me
Reading Time: 21 minutes When Influencer Jan Pham downloads an app from the dark web that promises fame, fortune, and – most importantly – more followers, she gets more than she bargained for.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 18, 2023
Reading Time: 10 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got all about deep point of view, the pros and cons of using ChatGPT as a writing coach, and more than 90 other advice articles.
Elden Ring, Everything Everywhere All At Once Win Nebula Awards
Reading Time: 4 minutes The film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and the video game Elden Ring were big winners in the Nebula Awards this year.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 16, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list features an action-packed space opera by a USA Today bestselling author, a secret organization like Men in Black, but for fairies and dwarves, and a couple of very sexy aliens.
A Sampling of Seven Dragons
Reading Time: 4 minutes Before any of the more artisanal offerings you’ll be tasting today, let us begin with a fairly traditional preparation. Yes, the one just before you, and then we’ll go round the plates widdershins from there. Anticlockwise, that is. As you take a bite, note the full-bodied ferocity, the natural balance between dread and might, that …
Snail’s Pace
Reading Time: 6 minutes Becoming the tutor of an alien on a ship sounds like the perfect answer to Susannah’s problem — she’s orphaned, alone, and penniless in Hong Kong in 1884. What she doesn’t know is that the alien is not Chinese, and the ship is not on an ocean. When she finds her new charge is from another planet.
Ashes
Reading Time: 17 minutes Thirty years after the Burn, Jackson, an aging ex-soldier, is just trying to survive. A moral person in a world where morality isn’t a particularly good survival trait, Jackson has to choose between his self-interest and doing what’s right.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 11, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, learn about impostor syndrome, self-kindness, and how to set better goals.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 9, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a space opera by a USA Today bestselling author, a Western with outlaws and mages, and a cynical private eye who shape-shifts into a wolverine.
Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid
Reading Time: 2 minutes Troubled young lovers, an awesome-but-miserable wizard father, a setting based on a Ukrainian city amid industrialization, and a door-mat protagonist who gradually finds her strength…
Adobe will indemnify customers against lawsuits
Reading Time: 2 minutes Adobe promises to cover any legal costs that companies might incur as a result of using their AI-powered image generation tools.
The Update
Reading Time: 3 minutes When an almost heavenly woman, Sister Mary, dies she expects she’ll go straight to heaven. But the stranger who shows up for her soul has a trick up his cell phone.
A Visit from the Tooth Fairy
Reading Time: 2 minutes An obsessed tooth fairy finds a new way to collect now that their favorite child is all grown up.
The Mistaken Haunting of Seth Harrison
Reading Time: 15 minutes Excerpt
Lizzie Borden took an axe.
Gave her mother forty whacks.
But did she?
Three grifters get caught up in the Lizzie Borden murders and it plays itself out one hundred years later.
It’s Not in Your Head
Reading Time: 2 minutes When The Soul© chip is implanted in the cerebral cortex at birth, it’s imagined it will create an immortal soul. But there are problems.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 4, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, more conversations about AI, but also the usual good advice about writing, publishing, and staying motivated.
Claude AI can read and analyze an entire book at once — here’s how to use it
Reading Time: 19 minutes Claude can read a 75,000-word book and identify structural and style problems. It can also create outlines and character sheets.