Kate Kelly's Blog, page 15

Seven Tips for Writing great Dialogue

Sooner or later you characters are going to have a conversation – preferably sooner because dialogue breaks up a page of text, making it easier on the reader, as well as being an essential device for moving the plot forward. But it’s all too easy for dialogue to come across as stilted and contrived. So here are a few tips to help you make your dialogue shine.

1. Dialogue Tags

Many new authors are afraid of using ‘said’ or ‘asked’ and replace them with words such as ‘retorted’, ‘sniggered’, ‘gro...

Self Publishing: Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them - Part 2 (Guest post by Celia Moore)

Having self-published my debut novel Fox Halt Farm, I thought I’d share a few more of the mistakes I made. I talked last week about my cover (here is the post if you would like to start at the beginning).

I hope this might save other indie authors time, money and worry.

3. The interior design is crucial too

I watch when people pick up my book. All pause on the cover and I always expect them to turn it over to read the back – just like I would but some don’t, some people flick the pages – some re...

Guest post by Oliver Tooley, owner of Blue Poppy Publishing.

Oliver Tooley is the sole proprietor of Blue Poppy Publishing, a very small name in publishing, boasting a loose collective of self-publishing authors, and offering as much or as little help as an author wants or needs to produce a professional product. www.bluepoppypublishing.co.uk 

Blue Poppy began in 2016 when I was all ready to publish my first novel “Children of the Wise Oak”.

I was inspired by Liz Shakespeare’s “Letterbox Books” imprint and logo.

I liked the idea of having a name tha...

Guest: Richard Dee: Steampunk is closer than you think.

Hello everyone, I’m Richard Dee and I’m a Steampunk author. My world of Norlandia features in two novels, The Rocks of Aserol and A New Life in Ventis,


a short story collection, Tales from Norlandia,


and various other projects. As I’ve created a Steampunk world, I feel able to comment on how the technology has been developed from what we have, or had, in our world.

Only one thing really separates the world of today and the world of Steampunk. And I don’t mean the costumes, although they are pret...

Self Publishing: Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them – Part 1 (Guest Post by Celia Moore).

Please welcome Celia Moore to this blog. Celia has kindly offered to share with us some of the potential pitfalls that self-published authors may encounter. Worth reading by anyone considering this route to publication. Here are the first two. 

Over to you Celia.

Having self-published my debut novel Fox Halt Farm today, I thought I’d share a few mistakes I made. Perhaps I can save other indie authors some time, money and worry.

1. My cover was unprofessional – it shouted self-published book...

Navigating the Slush pile: Ten Tips for Agent Hunting.

Having recently signed with a new agent, this time by going through the slush pile, I thought I would share are few tips. I hope these might be useful for anyone currently navigating the slush pile and help with some of the etiquette for dealing with agents.

1. Make sure your manuscript is ready
This should really go without saying. The MS should be complete and ideally have been read by a couple of trusted beta readers, who you can really rely on to give honest feedback. (I’m talking about fic...

Review: Destination Mars by Andrew May

Mars fascinates me. I have always loved reading science fiction about the planet and have eagerly followed the various expeditions to explore this world. So I was especially pleased when I received a copy of Destination Mars by Andrew May to review.

Destination Mars is a fascinating history of Mankind’s obsession with the red planet. It describes our attempts to explore Mars and discusses the possibility of colonising this world in an easy and accessible way. Andrew May goes into just enough t...

Short Story in Sci Phi Journal

My short story, Desiccation, which originally appeared in Jupiter SF, has just been published over at Sci Phi Journal. It’s a free read so do head over and take a look. I hope you enjoy it.

Review: Planet of the Red Dust by N Tolman Rudolph

Planet of the Red Dust is a story of hope and survival on an alien world. The novel opens with Jared, sold survivor of the crashed Wayfarer, burying his dead colleagues on a planet which, by all indications, is devoid of life. So it comes a something of a shock when two humans appear nearby.

We quickly realise we are in the realm of the Lost Civilization genre (a genre I particularly love), but this is a civilisation lost in space. The surprisingly human nature of the denizens of this world is...

Submission Planning 2: Direct to Publishers.

As I have already mentioned, my preferred route to publication is through a Literary Agent, and this is the route I am currently actively pursuing. But I know that the agented route isn’t for everyone and so I’m going to talk about another option – submitting directly to publishers.

There are a few disadvantages to going this route.

• Many larger publishers only take agented submissions

• You’ll have to negotiate your own contract.

• There will be nobody to fight your corner if things go wrong.

In...