Kaye Dacus's Blog, page 51
July 28, 2015
Writing Advice from the Bookshelf: The Importance of Repetition
Excerpt from The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman: Sometimes the audience needs repetition. There is a lot of information for a reader to absorb in any given work—names, facts, dates, places, settings—and it is quite likely the audience will forget some things as they progress. Thus, if there is a significant fact in your work—especially […]
July 27, 2015
Writing Advice from the Bookshelf: How Do You Become a Writer?
Excerpt from The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction by Barnaby Conrad and the staff of the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference: If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You […]
July 21, 2015
A Funny Thing Happened While I Was Reading MANSFIELD PARK . . .
A week or so ago, I posted the following on my Facebook page: So while listening to my Annual Austen reading selection for this year, Mansfield Park, yesterday, I started pondering some questions: What if things went differently for Fanny once she left MP for Portsmouth after her refusal of Henry Crawford’s proposal? What if […]
July 16, 2015
Amazon Is Turning 20; or, My Life in my Amazon Order History
For those of us who did most of our “growing up” prior to the internet age, it’s often times hard to remember (a) how in the heck we managed to live before it and (b) just how long it really has been around. That’s why, when I started receiving notifications of specials “just for Prime […]
July 6, 2015
What Are You Reading? (July 2015)
Happy First Monday of July, everyone. It’s Reading Report time! . Tell us what you’ve finished over the last month, what you’re currently reading, and what’s on your To Be Read stack/list. And if you’ve reviewed the books you’ve read somewhere, please include links! To format your text, click here for an HTML cheat-sheet. If […]
June 11, 2015
Is It Okay for Authors to Respond to Positive Reviews?
This is a continuation of yesterday’s discussion about authors responding (sometimes in spectacularly horrible ways) to reviews/reviewers. As I’ve replied to your comments, and as I’ve taken part in discussions on other blogs about this situation, I’ve had a chance to think through additional scenarios and ideas generated by this that I hadn’t quite gotten […]
June 10, 2015
Why Authors Should NEVER Respond to Reviewers
Once again, there’s been an “author behaving badly” issue that’s gone viral. A self-published author took exception with a one-star review of his self-proclaimed “magnum opus” (a 100-page YA fantasy novel, from what I can tell)—and why he chose this particular one-star reviewer to take issue with, I’m not sure (maybe it was her use […]
June 9, 2015
Reading Challenge Updates?
According to Goodreads, at halfway through the year, I’m 57% finished with my 2015 Reading Challenge of 53 books—or 7 books ahead of schedule. Now that I’m working from home and won’t have as long of a “get ready” and commute time in the mornings, this will probably slow down, as I won’t be getting […]
June 6, 2015
Why You Shouldn’t Ask Authors for Free Copies of Their Books
It’s unfortunate that I get asked this so often that I actually have a “canned” response now. Even though I haven’t had a new book come out since 2013, several times a month, I am contacted by people either through the Contact form on this blog or through my Facebook Page asking for a copy […]
May 31, 2015
What Are You Reading? (June 2015)
Happy First Monday of June, everyone. It’s Reading Report time! . Tell us what you’ve finished over the last month, what you’re currently reading, and what’s on your To Be Read stack/list. And if you’ve reviewed the books you’ve read somewhere, please include links! To format your text, click here for an HTML cheat-sheet. If […]
