J.K. Ullrich's Blog, page 9

Flash Fiction with #VSS365: May 2019

Don’t have time to read a novel? Or a novella? Or even a short story? Try some flash fiction! #VSS365 (Very Short Stories, 365 days a year) is a Twitter hashtag game for micro fiction. Each day, a new writing prompt challenges participants to craft a tweet-length story using the featured word. I’ve known about … Continue reading Flash Fiction with #VSS365: May 2019

A Game of Tomes: Two Dangerous Dichtotomies of Storytelling

Tonight the bloodstained curtain falls on Game of Thrones, the epic HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. In a fittingly meta twist, the final season’s harshest feud unfolded not between Starks and Lannisters, but viewers and writers. Denouncing television adapters David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as “incompetent”, … Continue reading A Game of Tomes: Two Dangerous Dichtotomies of Storytelling 

Guest Posts and Interviews – Spring 2019

I’ve been busy as an endangered bee this spring, working on revisions on Binary Chop (I dispatched it to my beta readers this weekend, so I get a few days to rest my fingers and wallow in anxiety before the final round). Thankfully, the good people of the writing community gave me several opportunities to … Continue reading Guest Posts and Interviews – Spring 2019

From “Drought Town” to “Blue Karma”: 25 Years of Cli-Fi

Last month, book blogger Alex at ScribblesAndStories posted a delightful retrospective of her childhood writing projects. Her unflinching but affectionate review hits all the classic points in a writer’s early evolution, from those first forays into fiction starring ourselves and our friends, to the imitative works inspired by a favorite story, to the more deliberate … Continue reading From “Drought Town” to “Blue Karma”: 25 Years of Cli-Fi

Self-Publishing With IngramSpark: An Indie Author’s First Impressions

After four years of purely digital publishing, I’m taking the plunge into print. Hundreds of blog posts compare the two dominant print-on-demand (POD) services, Amazon’s KDP Print and IngramSpark (IS), so I won’t attempt to recreate any arguments here. Suffice to say that I chose IS because of its greater exposure. Libraries and bookstores, unlikely to … Continue reading Self-Publishing With IngramSpark: An Indie Author’s First Impressions

“Blue Karma” Now Available in Print and Digital Everywhere

My 2015 YA novel Blue Karma is finally in print! Paperbacks and ebooks are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers. The digital edition also now enjoys expanded distribution on sites like iBooks and Kobo. Getting this title in print was an adventure (details upcoming on the blog), but I’m excited to finally share … Continue reading “Blue Karma” Now Available in Print and Digital Everywhere

Thoreau In The Snow: A Writer’s Interlude at Walden Pond

Ice gleamed along the barrier islands thousands of feet below, and I grimaced at my leather dress boots, jammed under the airplane seat. Dispatched on a business trip to the western suburbs of Boston, I’d taken the precaution of wearing my New York Yankees underwear as protection against enemy baseball juju, but hadn’t prepared for … Continue reading Thoreau In The Snow: A Writer’s Interlude at Walden Pond

Book Review: “Rise of the Rocket Girls” by Nathalia Holt

Rise of the Rocket Girls promised an intersection of two of my favorite non-fiction genres: science, and the too-often-overlooked impact of women in history. I expected a book comparable to Radium Girls, which portrays its subjects as memorable personalities in a suspenseful narrative; or Code Girls, the captivating account of female cryptologic analysts during WWII. … Continue reading Book Review: “Rise of the Rocket Girls” by Nathalia Holt

Shipping and Handling, Pt III: How to Write Sex Scenes (By Writing Fight Scenes)

“You know why your books don’t sell?” asked my Laddie, scrolling idly through the Kindle sale page. Suggestive covers whizzed by on the computer screen. “No sex scenes.” I wrinkled my nose. “The protagonists in my last series were fifteen.” “Teenagers have sex.” “Not when they’re preoccupied with survival.” While adolescent sexual experiences may be … Continue reading Shipping and Handling, Pt III: How to Write Sex Scenes (By Writing Fight Scenes)

Vexed in the City: Escape to the Morgan Library

What’s worse than getting the flu–miserable aches, pounding head, bone-splintering chills, a fever you stubbornly endure until it flirts with 104 and you can almost hear your brain fluid begin to bubble? Having to go on a business trip the day after your fever breaks. Irritated at being forced to break my three-year streak of not … Continue reading Vexed in the City: Escape to the Morgan Library