Fiona Ingram's Blog, page 61

Writer Beware Blogs!: Guest Blog Post: How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase

How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase

This is a great post by guest writer Abigail Goben. Writer Beware Blogs!: Guest Blog Post: How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase Most (if not all) authors would love to see their book/s in libraries all over the country, and some have possibly wondered how do libraries choose their books. The above link opens your eyes to the workings within the library process that gets your book a nay or a yea.

Some suggestions to aid the author are, getting good book r...

Love At First Bite?: Author Sindee Lynn

On the list of what's hot right now in publishing is, of course, vampires! Suave, sensuous, sleek, and absolutely gorgeous, these twenty-first century vampires are a long way from ugly ole' Drac along the lines of Nosferatu. My second Virtual Book Tour author is Sindee Lynn, a writer with a grip on the passionate side of vampires. Her first book is called (no, not Love At First Bite) Prince's Donor. I was intrigued by the title, which doesn't really hint too much about fangs, jugulars and...

Facts Can be Fun!

I am privileged right now to serve as both a guest and a host on the Virtual Book Tour and my recent guest post on Authors Promoting Authors was about how to make non-fiction details fun and relevant in children's fiction. The tendency of many writers who need to incorporate facts into fiction for kids is to overload the page with details that - while interesting - may not be all that relevant to the story, or may bog the young readers down in 'stuff' that gets in the way of the story. Please...

Fat Vampires, Sexy Werewolves and the Future of Teen Reading

Just when you thought it was safe to read something else? Along comes Fat Vampires, Sexy Werewolves and the Future of Teen Reading: "The continuing prevalence of pale,sexy vampires (and the rise of related ..."
One can endlessly debate the pros and cons of teen fad books but let's remember the most important thing - kids are READING! And that's what counts. They'll discover Bram Stoker and Anne Rice soon enough. What I'd like to know is when is someone going to write a YA/teen fad version of F...

How to Become a Bestseller in Europe: Write in English, German, French and

How to Become a Bestseller in Europe: Write in English, German, French and…Swedish?

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Author Interview: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As part of the Virtual Book Tour, I'll be hosting some very interesting and varied authors over the next few months. First up is a children's writer with a fabulous background.

I'd like to introduce James C. Wallace II, creator of Magician of Oz trilogy. Originally a native of West Virginia, James currently lives in Terre Haute, Indiana with his wife Amanda. They have been married more than 26 years, with a herd of 5 children and 12 grandchildren. His background covers nearly 26 years in child...

What Poetry Reviews Are For (and Up Against)

What Poetry Reviews Are For (and Up Against): " Poetry reviewing is a controversial topic. Few publications revie..."

Fiction Factories: The Good, The Bad, and The Indifferent Side of Publishing

A recent post by Jim Thomsen, Six Things We Can Learn From James Patterson , got me thinking about fiction factories (a relatively new phrase in publishing) and what, if any, is their value both to the reader and the writer. I have used James Patterson as an example because he is, quite simply, the biggest, and thus the best example.


A recent Times article outlines some facts about James Patterson's writing (being the most successful of this phenomenon) which sees him churning out books by the ...

The (Almost Forgotten) Art of Poetry

When was the last time you read a poem? Be honest. School? University? Reading out aloud at a wedding or funeral? Hardest question: when was the last time you read or bought a book of poems? The only reason I am thinking about poetry for the first time in a long time is because I recently reviewed a book of poems and was suddenly thrust into someone else's mind. Poetry is not like reading a book. One can think they plumb the depths of a writer's mind, but read a poem and your perspective chan...

Why I Read Clive Cussler

This sounds like a really strange title for a blog post: Why I Read Clive Cussler. Well, maybe you're wondering why I do read his books, now that I've said (almost guiltily) that I do. That remark and this blog post were inspired by an interesting article in the Guardian (UK) by Cormac McCarthy, about bad books and bad writing. He questions whether some of the supposedly 'good' writers were all that good in the end. I guess many people who went to college and university have (like me) read ju...