Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 8

Who's Story Is It?

 by Sparkle Abbey

At our most recent Sisters in Crime meeting the discussion topic was "Point of View." An easy technique for some writers, a more difficult one for others. 

Whether using first-person point of view as we do in our books, or third person which is very common in fiction writing, the choice of point of view is an important choice that a writer makes when beginning to tell a story. It will impact every other choice you make along the way. 

First person point of view is narrated by a ch...

Writing and Selling Fiction in the Metaverse

 By Kathryn Lane

In the near future, when a reader purchases a book, that reader can also receive additional 3-D experiences depicting the author’s world, how the author researched, created, and wrote that particular book.

Interacting with the metaverse.

As readers, we will be able to interact through virtual reality (VR) with our favorite authors. Though I don’t write in his genre, I can imagine a VR encounter with JRR Tolkien where I’d walk beside him in the scenes while he described his imaginat...

Expectations vs. Reality by Dru Ann Love

When you pick up the first book in a series, you are introduced to the main protagonist, her friends, the small town that she lives in and the other residents that will come in and out of her daily life. Note: could also be a male protagonist as well.

We love the characters and the small-town atmosphere, and we love that she is probably besting the local police force in solving the crime. And now the murderer has been caught in this delightfully charming town that I want to move to.

Until book...

How to Cook Dinner and Start a Book--T. K. Thorne

 

Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        new places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.

 

 

My husband recently had shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff.  He is the chef in the house; I, the consumer. In fact, I’m not normally even allowed in the kitchen (a survival thing, so I don’t burn down the house or poison him). But he would be out of action for a while, so I . . . panicked.

My anxiety cente...

The Letter to My Granddaughters by Juliana Aragon Fatula

Dearest Granddaughters,

I'm a mother, an aunt, a great aunt, and a great-great-aunt, but I'm not a Grandmother. Not yet. Maybe never. But my sisters have shared their grandchildren with me and my nieces have shared their grandchildren with me; therefore I am a tia abuelita. This letter is to these granddaughters of other women who are included in my circle of love. The generations of women leading us into the new world.  I want to share with you not only my love but my knowledge and what I've lea...

The Story Behind the Story – Part 3

By Lois Winston

The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries take place in Westfield, NJ, the town where I lived for twenty-three years until my recent relocation to Tennessee. Westfield is famous for being the home of cartoonist Charles Addams of The Addams Family fame, as well as the infamous John List, who murdered his entire family in 1971, then disappeared. The hunt for List made international headlines, but it took eighteen years and an episode of America’s Most Wanted before he was finally app...

A Founding Mother

 https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betsy-ross

by Paula Gail Benson

On this President’s Day, as we remember George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and their contributions to the United States, I’ve been reading about Betsy Ross. I knew she had been asked by George Washington to sew the first U.S. flag, but I was not aware of her personal history.

Elizabeth Griscom was born in New Jersey, the eighth of seventeen children in a Quaker family. They moved to Philadelphia when...

Write What You Know

By Barbrara J. Eikmeier

Hi! I'm a newcomer on the blog. Let me introduce myself: Most people call me Barb but I always use my full name when I'm writing. I live in Kansas where my full time job is a quilting designer, teacher and author. I travel all around the country (and via Zoom) giving quilting programs for quilt guilds. I go to California regularly where I co-own a retail quilt shop with my sister in law. I've written how-to instructional books and many magazine articles about quilters and ...

Putting the Character in Character

Happy Valentines all. So excited today's my day to blog because it gives me an opportunity to interrupt this session to tell you about the last day of my sale. I'm traditionally published and my publisher places my books on sale, not me.  So, before I get to my blog, allow me to a quick bit of promotion to tell you about this significant discount.

Now, back to The Stiletto Gang's regularly scheduled blog  and a bit of background on Black Pearl;)

By Donnell Ann Bell

One of the hardest things for me...

Happy Valentine's Day by Saralyn Richard Today is Vale...

 

Happy Valentine's Day

by Saralyn Richard

 

Today is Valentine’s Day, and I hope you are spending the holiday enjoying the people, places, and things you love most. As for me, I can't help thinking of my most cherished Valentine's Day gifts over the years--you guessed it--books.

Unlike the more traditional Valentine's Day gifts, books don't die in five days. They don't increase the numbers when you step on the scale. They don't break or go out of style.

Instead, they provide hours of entertain...