Reading Time: 7 minutesChoosing your point of view and narrative perspective was one of the first choices you made when penning your manuscript, but how can you be sure that default perspective was the right one for your story? Immerse the reader in your story world and set them on a path to build emotional connections to your characters and their circumstances.
Reader Experience Depends on Perspective (Use it Well) Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a gun-toting private eye, a magical artifact-toting private eye, alien messages, and a human real estate agent who falls in love with an orc billionaire.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 14, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen a robot does something right, Dr. R says, “Look, Mr. Butterfield. A breakthrough, Mr. Butterfield. What do you think of that, Mr. Butterfield?” It goes in a box with the other good robots, then trucks come to get them. When you’re good, you go outside.
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile his father’s once-famous bait shop struggles to survive against the threat of an impending storm, Dill encounters an unexpected solution.
Reading Time: 7 minutesGabriel awakes to his monotone world. The white sun is reaching fingers through the twisted roots of orchids. As Gabriel looks toward the light, he sees that a flower’s throat is freckled deep crimson. On the table, a cigarette paper is dark red. Everywhere, the world is streaked, stained, and tinted.
Reading Time: 4 minutesKnowing that sustainable change is important is one thing. Putting sustainability into practice, however, is something else entirely.
Writing Advice of the Week: Change is Hard (but Necessary) Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a space opera, and fantasy both epic and urban — and wild western.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 7, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe earliest account is from our foremother, Rhoda. You know her better as Red Riding Hood. That’s right, she was a real person. Back then, the handbag was still a handbasket, but more on that later.
Reading Time: 9 minutesSometimes, from my prison cell, when the time of year was right and the night was clear, I could see Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Many ancient cultures thought of it as a dog, or a wolf. For me, it was a beacon of hope between the bars. Just one light in the night sky, so bright it looked like a searchlight.
Reading Time: 9 minutesSmall actions allow the reader to feel the bigness of the emotion. Plus: more than 100 all-new links to articles, podcasts and writing advice videos from around the Web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Small Moments Make Big Stories Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes witches, a war with Russia, and a hard sci-fi box set.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 31, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesA story about a society in which a mechanism was invented to increase pleasant dreams. Old men prefer to sleep unawakened rather than live. One man tries to resist.
Reading Time: 3 minutesGwen examined the table so she didn’t have to meet the impatient eyes of the family members. Had one of these cups of tea held the poison responsible for the corpse lying beside an overturned chair at the head of the table?
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile burning barrels light the state capital’s torn paint and hunger pains ravage his stomach, a man looks into a mirror, seeing what he could become and reliving what he had to do to survive.
Reading Time: 9 minutesSuddenly, something hard and strong strikes his back, knocking the wind from him, propelling him onto the ground. He thrashes wildly. Two needle sharp spikes pierce his neck. A warm, sensuous peace floods over him. He smiles and despite the beard, looks momentarily like a small happy child.
Reading Time: 9 minutesSetbacks are going to happen along the success journey. One way to adapt is through appreciation. Plus: nearly 100 links to writing advice articles, podcasts and videos from around the Web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Setbacks Happen. Adapt and Overcome. Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. And the top book on today’s list totally gets the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy vibe!
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 24, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutes“I’ve heard it’s still contaminated,” Ollie says, a hint of a question in her voice. Her eyes shimmer, opalescent with reflected fog as she looks at me. A definite challenge. “I heard people were getting sick, some kind of virus.” I grit my teeth, realizing that Ollie is definitely more than she seems. But then, so am I.
Reading Time: 8 minutesAt 2:00 am, there are no children about. The police still on duty are sleeping in their cars or hunching over coffee in all-night dives. Even the homeless are asleep, huddled in doorways under blankets of cardboard and crumbled newspaper. But as River walks past, the scent of the sweets weaves into their dreams and makes them smile. Some dream of a time they’d been full of hope. Others live for a while inside illusions, as knights on horseback, or sprouting vast shimmering wings to rise above the city and soar.
Reading Time: 10 minutesRo No Na, the thief, breaks into a gangster’s pleasure palace in Pendír, Bijoon, and ends up being chased by gangsters, revolutionaries, clones, and Agent Wood and the Z’Dhia, in the third volume of The Book of Dreams series.
The Thief of Pendír: Book 3 of The Book of Dreams series Read More »
Reading Time: 11 minutesRevising a story means assessing what the story is and re-envisioning what it can become. Plus: more than 100 all-new links to writing advice articles, podcasts, and videos from around the web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Editing is Out (Revision is In) Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a witch who makes robots die when they get near her, space battles, and a spoiled rich woman who’s kidnapped when the elf slaves rebel.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 17, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesDo we need new rules for a society where androids are becoming more and more lifelike?
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs the world untethers from reality, moderate to severe distortion in time, leading to invasions from Normans, Saxons, and Romans in Dover; possible Vikings in Thames. High likelihood of property damage and loss of prevailing cultural norms. Squally showers.
Reading Time: 6 minutesStarting today and running through May 20, Amazon is holding a giant book sale with tons of great book deals, including gorgeous collectible editions and box sets of classic fantasy books.
Awesome fantasy sets and special editions on sale on Amazon through May 20 Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutes15 of the best sci-fi books ever written, including some box sets, are on massive discount this week on Amazon.
Classic sci-fi books on sale on Amazon through May 20 Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesA prisoner with no knowledge of their own identity is kept in solitary confinement, visited daily by human projections designed to prevent mental deterioration. When the opportunity for escape is presented, a dormant instinct resurfaces in the prisoner, and the need to fulfill this drive supplants the desire for freedom.
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhen he leaves Bert’s in the wee hours before first light, River feels extremely foolish, but warmer and happier than he can remember. Huck lands on his shoulder, squawking loudly. He complains noisily the entire walk home.
Gods and Monsters Installment 12: The Mystic Eye Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesJune joined the Memory Keeper team to help her family forge a path to abundance. When it became harder to meet quota, June learned that she was trapped in a business that viewed her as another commodity. And sometimes, the consequences of faith in an idea are greater than we can imagine.
Reading Time: 11 minutesHumans are rule-breakers. What writing rule will you break? Plus: links to 100+ articles, podcasts, and writing advice videos from all around the Web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Break a Rule (for Voice’s Sake) Read More »
Reading Time: 12 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a no-nonsense small town cop taking on werewolves, a private eye specializing in cheating spouses pulled into a magical war, and a servant forced to pretend to be a prince.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 10, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn the dark, something shambles toward you, its squelch squelch squelch sound getting louder, and louder. Is it here for you?
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen I get the call for a Code 43, I have to pull my truck over and consult my Codex of Supernatural Beasts and Cryptids to make sure I’m not mistaken. “Forty-three?” I ask over the walkie. Maybe Dispatch meant 42 (Mothman) or 44 (Batsquatch). “A Nightraven? You sure?”
Reading Time: 8 minutesDive into 16 enchanting tales of love that transcend time, space, and even the boundaries of reality, plucked right from the pages of MetaStellar.
Reading Time: 3 minutesSome expected the aliens to solve the problems of humanity, while others were afraid of genocide or enslavement. But it all turned out differently.
Reading Time: 6 minutesSan Francisco has a wealth of vampires. The city calls to them. Perhaps it is the early morning fog that keeps the sun from their flesh a bit longer than most places. Perhaps it is the nightlife. Perhaps it is the dearth of werewolves, who tend toward more rural haunts. Or maybe they just feel at home in the cool, grey city of love.
Gods and Monsters Installment 11: Cool Grey City of Love Read More »
Reading Time: 11 minutesMirabyi has been tapped to join the moon colony to explore the possibility of converting the dusty surface to life sustaining soil. Her experiments have unexpected results and maybe not the good kind.
Reading Time: 11 minutesReaders naturally gravitate to a cadence, or style, done well. Plus: links to 100 articles, podcasts, and writing advice videos from all around the Web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Rhythm Reaches Readers Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a sexy horned alien, two apocalyptic events, and two different maids living in fantasy worlds.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 3, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith his life spiraling out of control, and a desire for revenge taking over his mind, a man takes drastic actions.
Reading Time: 4 minutesThey whisper it like rumors between old wives: in confidence, in shock, in need. They complain over it, bawdy and slurred, between men and their beers—the secret that everyone knows. All of it doing my work for me, letting everyone from cottage to castle-side know I’m here, and what I can do.
Reading Time: 26 minutesCan Allii come to grips with the pain her family has inflicted on a nation and heal a land wounded by centuries of injustice, hate, and fear. (And find the killer of her beloved stepmother).
Reading Time: 6 minutes“It sounds,” River says, “like the orchid is smarter than the bee.” He considers. “I’d still rather be a bee though; I’d like to be able to fly.”
Reading Time: 13 minutesThree big things you don’t need to start writing? Motivation, purpose, or vision for the future. The one big thing you do need to start writing? Grit.
Writing Advice of the Week: Skip the Hacks, Find the Grit Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes shifters and warlocks, vampires and hellhounds, faerie cities, and a magical princess about to enter into an arranged marriage.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for April 26, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesI cut into the girl on the table before me, exposing her living viscera to air as biology never intended. I am committing a trespass of integument in order to heal, a perversion of the natural order in order to preserve what is natural. An apparition stands in the corner, watching with interest. Death says: “Your work continues to fascinate, Doctor.”
Reading Time: 9 minutesFrom his booth inside the club, Gabriel sees her spinning on the dance floor, beautiful as a fallen star, deadly as the arsenic hidden inside the seed of a perfect apple.
Reading Time: 26 minutesYoung Daisy must evade the clutches of forest-dwelling witch Madame Sosostris and Malcolm, the town brute, as she tries to solve the mystery of her friend Violet’s disappearance.
Reading Time: 13 minutesSure we have innate storytelling skills, but if we’re not using those skills regularly, they get rusty. And rusty storytelling skills make for a clunker of a story. So, how can we pull those dormant storytelling skills to the surfaces of our overstimulated brains and make good use of them?
Writing Advice of the Week: Experience is Storytelling’s Companion Read More »
Reading Time: 12 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a mysterious bookshop, cursed swans, and two different books based on the Hades and Persephone myth.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for April 19, 2024 Read More »
