Nicholas Bruner's Blog, page 11
March 29, 2022
Ranking the Twilight Zone
I’m engaged in a project with my twelve-year old daughter to watch every single Twilight Zone episode and rank them. We watch and run them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories:...
March 17, 2022
What I’m Reading: Book Marketing Is Dead
Book Marketing is Dead is a free downloadable book by indie author and guru Derek Murphy (available here). The thesis of his book is that the old way of book marketing–hiring publicists, sending out press releases, going to book signings or on book tours,...
March 13, 2022
Top Five Songs to Inspire Horror Writers
In earlier posts, I suggested Five Songs to Inspire Writers and Five Songs to Inspire Fantasy Writers, but sometimes, you’re trying to scare the pants off your readers. Or, to paraphrase Steven King, if you can’t scare your readers, you can always gross them...
March 9, 2022
What I’m Reading: Setting the East Ablaze
Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia is a thoroughly-research book from 1984 by Peter Hopkirk. It covers the efforts of Communist Russia from 1918 to the beginning of World War II to spread its gospel of communism, by persuasion...
March 4, 2022
Top Five Songs to Inspire Fantasy Writers
In an earlier post, I suggested Five Songs to Inspire Writers, but as a fantasy writer, you might need more something a bit different. That’s why I’ve assembled here the top five songs to inspire scenes of mist-shrouded landscapes, noble quests, and mind-bending magic....
Ranking the Twilight Zone
I’m engaged in a noble project with my twelve-year old daughter: watching every single Twilight Zone episode and ranking them. We watch and run them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories:...
February 27, 2022
Six Reasons Every Writer Should Join a Writers’ Group
Are you looking for that secret element to improve your writing? Do you wish you knew where you could get some personalized advice on writing, editing, or publishing from someone who knows your situation? Do you just need help getting motivated? There’s one answer...
February 21, 2022
Top Five Songs to Inspire Writers
I’m not one of those writers who wants music on or a lot of background noise while I’m reading. In fact, I prefer writing early in the morning before anybody else is up, precisely because of the quiet. Nevertheless, there are some songs that...
February 12, 2022
Read My Latest Book!
What do you do when everyone around you is keeping dark secrets and only you know the truth? Finding Big Joe dead is just the start of J.T.’s nightmare. Inside a pouch J.T. found in Big Joe’s house are photos of the town’s leading...
February 6, 2022
What I’m Reading: Bodies Full of Burning
Hey, it’s a Writers of Chantilly book, sort of! Bodies Full of Burning is a horror anthology, and one of the stories is by WoC writer D. A. Jobe. And I really probably wouldn’t have picked this up if not for that, as the theme of the anthology is menopause.
Actually, menopause turns out to be a pretty good theme for horror, which may or may not surprise people, particularly women of a certain age. Hot flashes, weird lusts and desires, the desire for revenge against men who don’t understand, t...
