Michell Plested's Blog, page 6

You Are the Author of Your Life

I do my best story-thinking when I’m out for a walk. It is also the time when I’m prone to wax philosophic. The other day my brain latched onto the saying, “You are the author of your life,” and I really started to think about that. Of course, I approached it from the perspective of story-telling, but it gave me real pause because I had never really looked at my life that way before. We all want to be the heroes of our own stories, but what do we really do about it? For example, I regularly write about a character who, when he sees something wrong, goes out and does his best to fix it. I know I’ve said […]

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Editing Brain

I’ve talked about the difference between writing and editing before, but I think it bears repeating. There is a real difference that is significant enough that I don’t typically try to write when I’m editing. With writing – for me, at least – writing is more stream of conscience. I open myself up to any possibility for a story. My mind is constantly running different story scenarios. Editing, on the other hand, is more about picking at the details and making sure they all work together in the best way possible. When I’m editing, I’m not focused on story scenarios and the next scene as much as I’m making sure everything I’ve already written works together. No stream of conscience […]

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I am at the 2019 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo

I am sharing a booth (5209 in the Big 4 building) with fellow author, Simon Rose at the 2019 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. If you have ever wanted a personally autographed copy of one of my books, some of my almost infamous Scout/Zombie badges or simply to say ‘Hey!’, now is the time. I have several smoking deals on all of the above (saying ‘Hey’ is free – how awesome is that?). Come on down. I’m there today (Thursday April 25) thru Sunday April 28.

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Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero Audiobook Now Available!

Evil Alter Ego Press has been working on getting Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero in audiobook form for several months. Today, all that work has paid off! Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero is now available as an audiobook. You can get your own copy here. To make it even more interesting, Audible is offering it free-of-charge if you sign up for a 30-day trial. How can you possibly lose? A free trial of an already amazing book (and Kevin Earlywine, the narrator, does a fantastic job, btw).

Odds & Ends – April 9th, 2019

It occurred to me (finally) that I don’t necessarily have to have a specific article topic to post something. Sometimes it’s nice to simply give a random update on the various things going on in my life. Therein lie my odds and ends. That being the case, here goes. My second newsletter just went out April 1st. Spoiler alert – I give some information that I don’t share in any other way – at least, I share it early. I also might have a newsletter-subscriber-only perk in the works (just saying). If you would like to be included in that amazing group of subscribers (not saying you’re not amazing – just not an amazing subscriber unless, of course, you are), […]

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Write What You Know?

One of the first pieces of writing advice I ever read was, “Write what you know.” I used to think I knew what that meant. I mean, if I read Science Fiction and Fantasy, then I clearly know those genres and should write in them, shouldn’t I? So, the first novel I ever finished was a Fantasy novel. It turned out pretty good (in fact, it will be coming out in August this year), but it was a real slog to write. Was I missing something? The second novel was much better, partially because I knew I could write a book at that point. But it was also a story I had thought about for years, roughly based on comic […]

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Mik Murdoch 4 in Final Edits

It’s always a relief to get to the final stages of edits for a book. That is especially true of sequels; readers are always waiting impatiently for the next one. The fourth installment in the Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero series is in final edits and I couldn’t be happier. Mik Murdoch – Non-spoily Spoilers Book four marks a bit of a crossroads for our hero. He has hit that point in his personal growth that he is comfortable in he role as town protector. Unfortunately, puberty is fast approaching along with the complications of feelings he isn’t quite prepared for. Throw an old friend (and a new one) into the mix and complications become the rule of the day. While […]

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Site Change

I wanted to let you all know about a change I had to make to the website. I have, to date, received just shy of 200,000 spam messages on the site. This is because I have never required people to sign-up to comment. It has become too much to keep all the spam out so I have made the change to require a sign-up for comments. I hope you can understand why this is necessary.

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Is Theme Important in Writing?

Theme – What I Used to Think There was a time (early on in my writing) when I thought paying attention to theme was dumb. The story is the story. What is the point to adding unnecessary baggage? I would poo-poo people who talked about how important it was to identify the theme early in your stories. Again, if you had good characters and a good plot or plots, the rest would take care of itself, wouldn’t it? That was then, this is now As you might have already gathered, my opinion has changed regarding theme. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve become more mature in my writing or simply more aware, but I now believe theme is important. […]

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Signing February 9th

I will be doing a signing at Indigo Signal Hill (Calgary) on February 9th at 10 AM. If you have been looking for my latest book or simply want to come talk about writing, that’s where you will find me. I hope to see you there.

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