Lee Allen Howard's Blog, page 12
June 26, 2013
Coming Soon: HYSTERIA by Stephanie M. Wytovich
Asylums once used to confine those deemed mentally unfit to linger, forgotten behind trees or urban development, beautiful yet desolate in their decay. Within them festers something far more unnerving than unlit corners or unexplained noises: the case files left to moulder out of sight, out of conscience.
Stephanie M. Wytovich forces your hands upon these crumbling, warped binders and exposes your mind to every taboo misfortune experienced by the outcast, exiled, misbegotten monsters and victi...
June 25, 2013
Guest Post from Author Lee Allen Howard: Using Your Day Job in Your Writing
I'm very happy to post this guest blog from the fabulous Lee Allen Howard!
Using Your Day Job in Your Writing
Very few fiction writers earn enough from their creative efforts to support themselves. I don’t—yet. So we have day jobs (or night jobs). Anthony Trollope, one of the most prolific English novelists of the Victorian era worked as a clerk at the General Post Office.
This article first appeared on Sally Bosco's site.
June 24, 2013
Coming Soon: GREENSHIFT by Heidi Ruby Miller
GREENSHIFT is a tale set within the world of AMBASADORA.
Mari’s rare eye color makes her a pariah within Upper Caste society, which is why she prefers plants to people… except David, the former Armadan captain who shuttles scientists around on a refurbished pleasure cruiser.
But someone else is interested in Mari and her distinctive look—an obsessed psychopath who tortures and mur...
June 17, 2013
Fleshing Out Your Villains
This article was first posted at Mary DeSantis’ Out of the Lockbox.
As readers, we’ve come to expect the fully developed protagonist. After all, if the main character is a pasteboard creature, who wants to read the story? So writers spend a lot of time developing their protagonists, and, perhaps, their “helper” characters.
But one thing I’ve learned to do is to give my antagonist equal treatment. Early in my writing career, I created antagonists—what I called “villains”—for the sole purpose of...
June 14, 2013
My Path to Publication
This post first appeared on the site of horror writer Joseph A. Pinto.
As a creative exercise in second grade, Teacher had her pupils write a story. “Be as creative as you can be, children.” I penned—penciled, rather—my debut horror fiction on a ruled school tablet. Teacher, ostensibly pleased with her prodigy’s genius (more likely concerned with a tow-headed eight-year-old’s mental health), passed my work to the elementary school principal. (“Children, ‘principal’ ends with P-A-L—the principa...
June 12, 2013
Using Beta Readers to Evaluate Your Fiction
This post first appeared on Mike Mehalek’s blog, Writing Is Tricky.
So, you’ve written a novel and done your revisions and polished it as best you can. Is it ready to send to an agent or publisher—or to publish yourself? Hard to tell.
Instead of crossing your fingers and exposing your manuscript to the risk of immediate rejection, why not first let someone read your book and provide feedback? If they spot any problems with story, plot, characters, or writing, you’ll have a chance to improve you...
June 11, 2013
The Ghost of Backstory in DEATH PERCEPTION
This post appeared originally on the blog of Jason Jack Miller, author of The Devil and Preston Black, Hellbender, and The Revelations of Preston Black. Check out his site.
The Ghost of Backstory in DEATH PERCEPTION
Backstory is everything that happened to the protagonist before the story begins. In The Anatomy of Story, John Truby calls this the “ghost.” The ghost is usually some negative event from the past that still haunts the protagonist in the present. This past trauma is the source of th...
June 10, 2013
Malina Roos Reviews DEATH PERCEPTION
Malina Roos, book reviewer for Hellnotes, reviews DEATH PERCEPTION. (I copied this from her Facebook post.)
Lee Allen Howard is quickly becoming a huge favourite of mine. He crafts his characters so well and gives them depth, flaws and realism that you expect from a much more seasoned writer.
DEATH PERCEPTION is a well-thought-out story about Kennet, a troubled yet gentle young man who lives in a nursing home with his elderly mother. He has a job in a crematorium working for a profit-driven, mo...
June 8, 2013
Guest Post by Lee Allen Howard : Writing Characters with Psychic Abilities
Don’t you love paranormal protagonists, like Koontz’s Odd Thomas? I do. Any fictional character with paranormal powers—abilities that most readers consider supernatural—moves your story into one of the speculative genres. This could be sci-fi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, or magic realism. Actually, you can blend the paranormal with any genre, as I do in DEATH PERCEPTION, which is a supernatural crime cake iced with horror and sprinkled with dark humor.
June 7, 2013
Guest Blog Post -- Adding the Supernatural to Crime by Lee Allen Howard
Reblogged from A Writer's Life:
Hi, folks! Today I have a special treat for you -- a guest blog post by friend and fellow SHU alum Lee Allen Howard. Lee's on a book tour to let folks know about his latest supernatural crime novel, DEATH PERCEPTION, and I'm pleased to have him make a stop here.
Death Perception: Adding the Supernatural to Crime
I love horror; I write horror.
This post first appeared on Mary SanGiovanni's official website, May 17, 2013.
