Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 50

What, Why, How: Amanda Shofner

WHAT?

A lover of stories and words.

Oh, wait. Did you want more? Most of what I am can be summed with those six words. I love stories, therefore I read them and write them and watch them. I love words, therefore I use them and play with them and edit them and publish them.

*pets the words*

Okay. If you want it more plainly, it’s this: I’m an author, content strategist, blogger, and reader. I’m also a coffee drinker, occasional wine imbiber, watcher of true crime, and lover of adventures (esp...

Email From the Grave: Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk shares in his brief but friendly email to me (January 23, 2016): “Hello. I’m writing poetry also. Have little book on Amazon about crossing iron curtain, my personal story…”

First of all, he shouldn’t be so modest. He has more than one book. Not only that, Fire in the Steppe weighs in at 717 pages and With Fire and Sword is over 1000. That’s not very“little.”

Secondly, he says he is “writing poetry” — that’s amazing for someone who’s 170 years old.

Because who else could itbe but the N...

What, Why, How: Elizabeth Heiter

WHAT?

I write both psychological suspense (in my Profiler series with MIRA Books) and romantic suspense (in my Lawmen series with Harlequin Intrigue). My Profiler series features FBI Profiler Evelyn Baine, a dedicated agent who joined the Bureau because her best friend went missing when she was twelve – and Evelyn was supposed to have gone missing with her. The third book in the series,Seized, just released; in this book, Evelyn finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage situation and in t...

Take 30 Minutes to Fix Your Novel

After reading “Outline your Novel in Thirty Minutes” by Alicia Rasley in the Article of the Month blog, I realized my current outline was basically useless. No wonder my writing had been stalled! Applying this exercise to my work-in-progress created a new outline that is basic, but also concrete, coherent, specific, and ten times better.

Nine important questions cover key points that most writers know are essential to story building, but I found the way Rasleyorders these points helps form a...

What, Why, How: Karah Rachelle

WHAT?

I write contemporary New Adult and Young Adult fiction. My works always revolves around relationships. Last year I released the first season of my ongoing series Ellie Versus on my website. It’s a story about three friends in college, navigating new relationships and classes. During NaNoWriMo in November I wrote the first draft of my upcoming book Over Again, a story about a woman who, on New Year’s Eve, regrets how much her life has changed over the course of a year and is transporte...

Sleepover

Nothing makes the ordinary more funthan grandkids.

I fetched my seven-year-old granddaughter from school lastFriday for a sleepover. She was all smiles, toting her overnight bag. Pouring rainmadehighway driving a real messand aone hour drive home took 2-1/2 hours. No matter. We chatted, sang songs, told jokes, and looked for houses or cars of a particular color on the way, screaming “I saw it first!” Our new favorite song is Jim White’s “Turquoise House.”

I want to live in a turquoise house
w...

Where to Start Your Novel

Writing an opening to a short story or novel is one of the things that often stumps writers.

We sit in front of the keyboard, poised, with an idea for a bookspinning in our head, and find ourselves afraid to start. After all, we are aware we have one paragraph, or three at best, to capture the attention of the reader. My friend and mentor, Elizabeth Searle, gave me a great tip to get past this initial fear: Think of your current opening as nothing more than a placemark. This keeps you from o...

What, Why, How: Valerie Storey

WHAT?

Although I have written eight books and published various shorter pieces in a wide array of genres, my focus for the last three years has been on literary fiction and the visual arts. A few months ago I completed my current WIP, The Abyssal Plain, an experimental novel told from the points-of-view of several characters at their most haunting crossroads. The plot centers on “the butterfly effect,” how one random and tragic occurrence in March of 1929 changes the lives of generations to...

Is it awe or aw?

The world needsan illustrated grammar lesson concerningaw and awe.

Awe is often misused in writingto express a noise people make that sounds like this: aww.I’m not sure why people writeawe for this noise. I’m not surewhy itannoys me so much, either, but I have to actively suppressmyurge to correct educated people who should know better.

Aw is the word for a noiseyou make when you see something that’s freaking adorable, like a baby hedgehog or Betty White. Some people write “aww.” Because it’...

What, Why, How: Margot Kinberg

WHAT?

I write crime fiction. I think human beings are innately curious. We want to know what, why and how about everything. Mystery novels and crime fiction capture that part of human nature, and draw people in. At least, that’s always been one of the biggest appeals of the genre for me. Solving puzzles, figuring it all out, those things are part of what makes me tick; and I suspect that’s true of a lot of other people, too. Crime fiction invites readers to exercise what Agatha Christie’s Her...