Nancy Christie's Blog, page 85

January 20, 2014

What's your reading preference: “e-” or “p-”?

In the January 5th Bookends column in The New York Times, two writers weighed in on the subject of e-books versus printed books: what they liked about each type and what ultimately was their preference. (Spoiler alert: It appeared that print books won!)

For my part, I am more than a little curious about the marketplace's preference, since my published works include a non-fiction book out in both formats, two short stories in e-book format only, and a fiction collection that, when it comes out...
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Published on January 20, 2014 06:00

January 13, 2014

What do readers want—and is that only what writers should give them?

There has been a lot of conversation—in the media, on writing blogs and forums and at writing conferences—about
How writers can find readersHow writers can build their platform. How writers can show their publishers (or potential publishers) that they have enough followers to deserve a shot at being published.
And I freely admit that this is a conversation I have been following with no little interest. As I work to build a platform for myself as a fiction writer (my two short fiction e-bo...
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Published on January 13, 2014 06:00

January 10, 2014

Turning a faint glimmer into a full story with the 5 Ws

Has this happened to you? 

You overhear a tantalizing tidbit of  a conversation or you happen to glimpse an interesting interaction between two people (or one person and a pet or an inanimate object or whatever!) and your writer's mind seizes on it because it just might be something that could turn into SOMETHING — a piece of fiction, an essay, a poem, an idea for an article or a book.

But when you sit down to start working on it, your creativity engines stalls out and you go nowhere. ...
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Published on January 10, 2014 06:00

January 3, 2014

January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!


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Published on January 01, 2014 05:00

December 27, 2013

Looking back at 2013

With 2013 drawing to a close, I wanted to take a look back at what I accomplished in terms of my writing goals and where I am heading in 2014.

While I don't wait until December 31 to measure my performance or make changes to improve my income or abilities, I do like to take time at the end of each year to look back at the past 12 months and see what I did right (or wrong) and then plan for a better outcome in the upcoming one. So here is where I am — and in the next post, where I hope to be g...
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Published on December 27, 2013 06:00

December 21, 2013

Agatha Christie: An Autobiography—An "Essential"

I have long been a fan of Agatha Christie, devouring every one of her cozy mysteries, from those featuring Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot to the Tommy and Tuppence ones. 

(How much of a fan? When I started writing professionally, I decided to use a pseudonym and chose "Christie" as my new last name, changing it legally several years later after my divorce. Now that's a fan!)

But in this post, I'm not talking about her fiction but about her non-fiction—specifically her autobiography—a book...
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Published on December 21, 2013 06:26

December 13, 2013

Help Santa bring more books to Glowinski's Library


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Published on December 13, 2013 05:00

December 9, 2013

December's markets for writing

Here are some markets that might be right for your writing talents! Check out the sites, then contact the editors for more information!
CAKE&WHISKEY magazine is devoted to women in all stages of their business journey.
It seeks to motivate and spark women to dream bigger, reach higher, and achieve greater things. For the modern woman, successful navigation of today’s business landscape requires mastering the fine art of CAKE&WHISKEY, finding the balance between spirited strength and lif...
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Published on December 09, 2013 10:30

December 6, 2013