Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 149
February 4, 2020
Understanding Voice in 3 Easy Steps
Develop your voice. Find an editor who loves your voice. We want writers with an approachable voice. Whether you are reading Writer’s Digest, blogs or tweets, you are going to find discussions and mentions of voice. It can be confusing if you don’t know what voice is. Voice is how you sound. Understanding that is Step […]
February 3, 2020
RIP Mary Higgins Clark
I’ve been more-or-less off several days celebrating my birthday with my family. I was sad to come back Monday and read about the death of Mary Higgins Clark. I may not have been an early writer, but I was an early reader. I transitioned from young adult novels to adult novels in seventh grade. Mom […]
February 2, 2020
Three Things I Learned about Writing
Recently, I watched this TED Talk with Tom Nash. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Nash, speaker and self-professed pirate (see the video and it will make sense), he lost both arms and legs and was heavily scarred by a life-threatening illness. His life since then has been all about overcoming adversity. So […]
January 30, 2020
Four Things Your Opening Scene Has to Do
Last week, I read an excellent post by Jane Friedman, 5 Common Story Openings to Avoid. As a new writer, I attempted two of them and I’ve seen at least two more when reading contest entries. Her list of bad beginnings includes opening with the character getting out of bed, with the character sitting and […]
January 29, 2020
2 Reasons Readers Will Love Your Active Protagonist
Lately as I’ve added to the word count on my cozy, I’ve discovered that I am less and less happy with my main character. She just seems so pedestrian. She has to investigate the murder – that’s the point of the whole book after all. But all she’s doing is wandering around talking to people. […]
January 28, 2020
Three Reasons Not to Tweet about Your Manuscript
Recently agent Janet Reid posted about whether or not you should tweet about your manuscript? A reader wanted to know if this was a good way to create agent/editor interest in their work. In short, Reid told her NO. It is not a good idea. Here is why? Not where agents go to find manuscripts. As […]
January 27, 2020
ALA Awards Announced
Monday morning, while I was in yoga, the American Library Association announced the 2020 youth media award winners. Look out – this is quite a list but oh so many great books! I am going to give you the names of the winners. For the honors books, see the complete ALA listing. Newbery winner: New […]
January 26, 2020
Author Copies: American Crime!
I have a friend who loves true crime stories. In fact, she loves them so much that she is writing a podcast all about various crimes. When I took the assignment to write about the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, I didn’t think of it as writing about crime. I grew up hearing about the […]
January 23, 2020
Where to Start Your Story
Last week, I felt like I was wallowing around in my mystery. My character has no clue how to investigate a murder. She’s just stumbling along, gathering information. Because of this, it feels like the middle just goes on and on and, dare I say it again, on. Maybe that’s why this piece of advice […]
January 22, 2020
Proposed Missouri Law May Mean Book Banning
I’m not going to lie. I was jazzed when I saw a headline about Missouri in the Library Journal roundup. Then I saw what it was about. “MO Bill Proposes Parental Review Board for ‘Age-Inappropriate’ Material, Legal Penalties for Noncompliance.” Sigh. Really? When the General Assembly convened, Ben Baker, a Republic representative from Neosho, Missouri […]
