S.K. Nicholls's Blog, page 89
July 17, 2013
Mood Setting for Reading
I have places that I love to read certain works. Some people can read anything anywhere and be taken to another world through their own imagination. I like to afford myself the luxury of setting the mood whenever possible.
For dystopian fiction or fantasy that is otherwordly, I like to go out on my back porch that overlooks The Jungle with the banana trees, travelers palms, pygmy palms and wisteria creeping invasively though the philodendron. The hanging spheres of stag-horn fern in globes of dripping greenery seem to set that mood. 
The angel’s trumpet with its intoxicating fragrance but deadly seed takes me to enchanted places. For some more wicked reading, I like to go out there during the lightening storms that we seem to have every summer day.
For a soft sweet romance nothing could be better that to curl up on the living room sofa and light candles in the dark. 
That’s why I love the readers with backlighting. Or I crawl between the sheets with my husband. 
I love classics , like Jane Eyre, at the mountain cabin, in front of the stone fireplace during a long soggy week of rain,
and for murder mysteries and thrillers I like to seal myself away to the comfort and safety of my bedroom and close the door.
I call them bookdrops. I hear from and speak to writers a lot, and writers are also readers. Do you enhance or set the mood, or do you depend on your imagination exclusively?
Filed under: Articles, Gardening Tagged: bookdrops, mood setting for reading, moods, reading
July 16, 2013
Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls <3
Reblogged from readful things blog:
Might I just apologise to the author of this book first. No, no it isn't the usual sheesh it took me a long arse time to get to this book and I am so sorry. Nope. I would like to apologise for underestimating her skills and my ability to enjoy anything with the word "historical" attached to it. Here's the deal, right?
I go out for a four hour meeting and come home to find these awesome words. Then I cried for another hour. This story was so very important to me and I am so grateful that it is coming across to the reader as intended. Ionia, I love you
Are Pseudonyms Outdated?
Photo: Reuters
The original purpose of pseudonyms was to allow women to write in a man’s world. In the 1700 and 1800s men were of a mind that women could only produce emotional memoirs successfully and men wrote the serious literary work. Like Charlotte Bronte writing as Currer Bell, a name that could have been male or female, but allowed her to publish more readily.
I don’t want this piece to come across as author bashing. I am curious on what your thoughts about pseudonyms today are. Do you think their use is outdated? Are the purposes different? Do they have to do more with confidentiality and protection?
I have a girlfriend who writes erotica under a pseudonym. I don’t blame her. People could easily stalk her in our high tech society. Serial Killers could single her out. (Okay, maybe I watch too much Criminal Minds.)
I wrote Red Clay and Roses using only my initials and last name. Originally I did that for anonymity. It was my first work and I didn’t want to embarrass myself if it turned out that it was crap. When others started reading it and telling me to publish it, I felt better about it, but still felt that going public like that would open a whole new world and I was not sure I, Susan Koone Nicholls, was ready for that and I wondered if my family was ready, being such a revealing factual based story. I think they are okay with it now, but I have not yet submitted to my hometown paper. That might change things.
I have a murder mystery in progress. I am very seriously considering writing under a pseudonym because I believe that genre is better accepted as a male dominated genre. Then I think about Faye Kellerman, Sue Grafton, Karin Slaughter, and other female mystery, thriller, crime novelists who have become quite successful in their own right without any use of male pseudonyms, just good writing. For marketing purposes it might be better to write under an already established platform as S. K. Nicholls. After all, not all of us can be J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith and unmask when reviews are great but sales are soggy. I think she did a great thing to write under a pseudonym anonymously in that she is already famous. Do you think she would have unmasked had her work received the same reviews as “The Casual Vacancy”?
Filed under: Book Reviews and Books, Writing, Publishing, & Marketing Tagged: anonymity, pseudonyms, Writing, Publishing, & Marketing
July 13, 2013
Writing for yourself First
Reblogged from Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors:
I was reading on a forum today where an author asked how he could get the joy of writing back. He was worn out and bored with everything he started. The thought of writing another word was akin to pulling his own teeth with a pair of pliers.
As I read through the comments it became very clear to me, despite all the great suggestions given on how to help him, that his true problem wasn't writer's block or burn out.
I couldn't agree more with the last sentence of this post. I want to share it with anyone who is "struggling" to write a piece.
