Jeff Haws's Blog, page 3

Radio Didn’t Kill the Book Star

In case you didn’t see my social media teases leading up to Saturday afternoon, I was on an online radio/podcast show Saturday afternoon called “Tag Team 2*4*5,” in conjunction with the Rave Reviews Book Club. The numbers refer to two hosts, four authors, and five minutes each, just to solve that baffling mystery for you.

It’s the first time I’ve been interviewed on a broadcast medium about my authoring exploits, and it went reasonably well. I was the third author they interviewed, and it was...

The Best Books I Read in 2016

This is the first full year I’ve spent constantly reading a book in close to 20 years, and it was great. Truly awesome. If nothing else came from this whole “I’m gonna be a writer!” thing other than I started reading books again, it’d be worth it. I’ve loved getting to know these authors, and diving into all these new stories I never would have explored otherwise.

To get a glimpse at what I’ve read this year, you can take a look at my Goodreads year in review. For some quick stats: 27 full bo...

Suspense vs. Development

One aspect of writing that’s been more of a challenge for me with the next novel, as opposed to “Killing the Immortals,” has been striking a balance between keeping the suspense taut for the reader, while also giving the reader the details they need.

In “Killing the Immortals,” I (somehow) wrote the damn thing in six weeks, so I pretty much just blew through it. I had a clear vision of what I wanted the story to be, and it came to me rather easily … strangely enough. I wanted it to be a tight...

The Interview with Ellen

I want to quickly introduce you to Ellen Smith, author of a terrific and well-received book from earlier this year called Reluctant Cassandra — she describes it as Southern Fiction, which could interest a number of you — and the curator of a cool little blog at ellensmithwrites.com, where she does much of what I do here … talk about what motivates us to write, our challenges, share a little something from behind the scenes with those of you watching this whole crazy process from the outside.

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Why Momentum is Important in Writing

One of the biggest challenges I’ve had to overcome with this second novel I’m working on now has been maintaining the momentum I had with the first one, along with the three shorter stories I wrote earlier this year.

Writing between late December and January, I wrote the rough draft of “Killing the Immortals” in six weeks flat. It took me six months to get it ironed out to be ready for publication, but I banged out 85,000 relatively coherent words of that story in six weeks. That seems crazie...

Is Using Dialogue a Writing Crutch?

In a recent critique I received of “Killing the Immortals,” a couple of people mentioned that they thought there was too much dialogue, particularly in the early going. It’s an interesting criticism that I hadn’t heard before. The first 2-1/2 chapters are pretty dialogue heavy, while the second half of the third chapter is completely devoid of dialogue at all.

The line of criticism isn’t necessarily helpful on its face, simply because it’s very much a personal preference. That is to say, one...

Tomorrow’s News Today … is Out Today

Yes, the rumors are true. I’ve got a second book out on the Amazon stage. It’s been a different journey on this one than with the first. I knew a bit more about the publishing game this time around. I knew a bit more about my own writing, and how to get this whole thing to work. I’m still trying different things, and I’m along way from having any secret formula, but I’m hoping I’ll keep learning as I go.

This one’s called “Tomorrow’s News Today,” and it’shugely influenced by the hours upon h...

Speaking at A Novel Idea in Canton

For those of you who missed me at the Decatur Book Festival, you’ve got another chance to catch my book-readin’ self out in the wild very soon. Next week, I’ll be reading an excerpt from “Killing the Immortals” at the Snug Gastro Pub in Canton for the “A Novel Idea” event on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

The theme for the event is “scary stories,” and I’ll be joined by other local authors Lee Gimenez, Alex Hughes, Lynn Hesse, Frank Reddy, and Marsha Cornelius. I won’t be able to get up there until 7:3...

Cover Reveal and Other Updates

Welcome to the new jeffhaws.com! Hope you’re liking what you see so far. It’s a pretty big change from the old site, for those of you who enjoyed wandering around there. This layout should give you a much better visual experience than the previous one, and this site should also be more secure. Gone is the “Just Write Somehow” header (which I thought was more to the point when I was working toward getting a book out than it is now that I have one … and will soon have another), and the focus is...

What Should You Talk About at a Book Festival?

On Saturday, I'll be speaking about "Killing the Immortals" at the Decatur Book Festival. What exactly am I going to talk about? Read on to find out.

The post What Should You Talk About at a Book Festival? appeared first on Just Write Somehow.