L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 52

The Galactic Peace Committee Preview

Not sure aboutThe Galactic Peace Committee? Here’s a preview to whet your appetite. You’ll find fun, humour, and some interesting aliens. Get The Galactic PeaceCommitteefromAmazon here.

In one universe, humanity reached for the stars and conquered them. Over countless centuries, humanity forged an empire that came to span the entire galaxy. Humanity brought peace and prosperity to thousands of different races, uniting all of them under the wisdom and benevolence of human rule.

In another uni...

Genres and Vocabulary

A large vocabulary is a nice thing for a writer to have. Just like a builderneeds lots of different tools to build a house, a writer needs access to lots of different words to write a good story. Arguably the easiest way to improve the size of your vocabulary is to read. The more words you read, the more likely you are to encounter ones that you aren’t familiar with. Reading also allows you to see words being used in the correct context, which should make it easier for you to use them correct...

The Galactic Peace Committee Is Now Available On Amazon!

Are you ready to head into space? The Galactic Peace Committee is now available on Amazon!Keeping galactic conflict to a minimum is easier said than done when there are aliens that will gladlystart an interstellar war involving planet-cracking weaponry and plasma bombardment over the drop of a hat. Luckily, the brave diplomats of the Committee have everything under control…

You can get The Galactic Peace Committee from Amazon here, and here is the blurb:

In one universe, humanity conquers the...

Ninja Rats: Q & A

I get a lot of questions about the ninja rats that appear inThe Unconventional Heroes Series, so I thought I would answer some of the most common ones. The answers to these questions can all be found in the three stories that have already been published, but this post should make it easier for people who want something they can quickly refer to.

Question: How big are the ninja rats?

Although the ninja rats vary in size, they aresimilar in size to normal rats. This is important because it allo...

Pen or Keyboard?

I’ve been asked on several occasions if I prefer to write drafts by hand or if I prefer to simply type things up on my computer.

I can understand why people ask. There are quite a few authors who prefer to write things out by hand before typing them up once they’re happy with what they’ve written. There is also something intensely personal about writing things by hand. It’s why handwritten apology notes are considered so much more sincere than emails or text messages.

The truth is that I type...

Why Timmy?

One question that occurs to a lot of people is: why did I name the main character ofThe Unconventional Heroes Seriessomething as mundane as Timmy. Okay, technically, his name is Timothy, but his friends (and most of the other characters) refer to him as Timmy.

Timmy is not a particularly menacing name. In fact, you could argue that it’s one of the least menacing names out there. But does he need to have a menacing name?The Unconventional Heroes Series is supposed to be humorous.I’ve found tha...

Back To Work

The past week or so has been a bit rough for me from a writing perspective. Last Monday, I came down with the flu. I was actually feeling quite good right up until Monday afternoon, but the flu came on like a sack of bricks being swung around by an angry ogre. Within maybe an hour, I was basically down and out. I was coughing, sneezing, and hacking, my whole body ached, I felt queasy, and everything tasted like cardboard.

I only really started to shake the flu off on Thursday, and it took unt...

Behind the Scenes: Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (Part 1)

A lot of people have asked about my writing process, so what I’d like to do in this series of posts is to talk a bit about how I went about writingTwo Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire. As you can imagine, there may be spoilers involved, so I suggest that you read the story before reading any of these posts. I would hate to spoil any of the surprises.

Let me start by going through the drafting process. When I write a story, I usually go through several drafts. The most important draft is...

The Dog

The dog had lived a long life.

He had belonged to an old man, and he had spent his days curled up on the old man’s lap while a fire crackled in the fireplace. The old man had been very kind, and there had been plenty of food. The dog’s fondest memories were of the old man talking about the life he’d lived and the things he’d done. The old man had been a soldier once, but all his fellows were long dead.

The old man had passed away while the dog was still only a puppy, and none of the old man’s...

Don’t Hate The Dictionary

Whenever I encounter a word that I’m not familiar with, my first instinct is to derive its meaning through the context in which it is used. This approach is perfectly serviceable from the perspective of a reader since, by and large, the gist of a word’s meaning can indeed be determined through context. However, from the perspective of a writer who might be interested in using that word in the future, this approach is often less than satisfactory.

Words possess a certain nuance, and merely gue...