E.B. Dawson's Blog, page 18

“Into the Void” is Coming!

I know what you’re thinking…wasn’t it supposed to be done months ago? Yes, I suppose it was. But I am going to share a couple of facts of life with you: I am not a full time author and have to work to support myself, plus try to have a life outside of my laptop […]

How You Can Use the Reader’s Imagination to Your Own Advantage

I’ve had a revelation. And I want to share it with you. A couple of years ago when I finally got myself an actual copy of my favorite science fiction book (up until that point I shared my sister’s), I was particularly gratified by the author’s new introduction. At the end he boldly gives the […]

The Importance of Reading

Learning to read was hard. But probably from second grade through high school I was a voracious reader. From “Little House on the Prairie” to “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “A Wrinkle In Time,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Ender’s Game”…my imagination was challenged and stretched. I also read biographies and autobiographies. Then college hit. I […]

New Short Story: “Third World Gleaner”

Hey guys!   Happy Tuesday and hurray for April, am I right? I just wanted to let you know I typed up a new short story. Check out the excerpt below:   I first saw the woman from Earth on Harvest Day, or as we non-Imperial citizens like to call it, “Gleaning Day.” She was […]

Does Your Boat Leak? or Thoughts on Readers’ Trust

Many years ago, as a young reader and writer, I had the rather misguided idea that the storyteller’s goal was shock the reader in any way possible. Sometimes I even pictured the emotional reaction of my “readers” with malevolent satisfaction. “Ha! They’ll never see this coming!” It was almost like my imagined readers were my enemy […]

Endings: The Cliffhanger vs. the Payoff Part 2

Okay! Where did we leave off? I promised to examine some different endings with you. The Return of the King Ender’s Game Serenity The Secret Life of Walter Mitty/ Midnight in Paris Just for the heck of it we’re going to start with number four. Now these are two movies (which I love). But they […]

Endings: the Cliffhanger vs. the Payoff Part 1

I am excited about this one. In fact, I may even split it into two posts because I think it is worth talking about! How to end your novel… I have to confess that I didn’t have much of an issue with endings in my early days of writing, but that was a problem in […]

The “Rewrite” Debate

I recently stumbled upon this post and it got me thinking… Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #3…Rewriting If you haven’t read it, the author claims that nothing good comes out of “rewriting.” He is not talking about editing, proofreading, or adding minor changes. He is talking about when an author goes back […]

Why I Don’t Love “Downton Abbey”

I’ve heard about it for years, of course. My sister even showed me an episode a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t hooked. But recently, at the insistence of my sister-in-law, I decided to give it a chance and I took the plunge into season 1. I am on season 3 now and although […]

Good News!

A friend of mine (who is a graphic design wizard) has offered to create book covers for me! She will add them to her portfolio and I will gain a little more professionalism and marketing oomph! It’s a win win and I am so excited. She will be starting with “The Creation of Jack,” then […]