L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 53

True Love

Thanks to the wonders of romantic fiction, I have finally arrived at a complete understanding of true love. To save all of you the effort of trawling through countless romance novels, allow me to summarise some of my main findings.

True love can cause violent seizures. Given people’s tendency to tremble, shiver, or quake uncontrollably upon laying eyes on their beloved, I can only conclude that the majority of people go into seizures when they meet their soul mate. The next time you see some...

Keep Throwing Punches

As someone who has done martial arts and who also enjoys boxing, there’s something I’ve learned over the years. Sometimes, you just have to keep throwing punches. Nobody is invincible. If you can hit someone hard enough for long enough, they absolutely will go down. Writing is the same way.

There are going to be times when things look hopeless. You’re going to feel like no one is reading anything you write and that you aren’t improving at all. That’s okay. I like to think of those moments as...

I Saved A Rabbit Today

Throughout the year, it’s not unusual for rabbits tocome into my backyard. I keep the backyard as tidy as I can, but there’s plenty of grass and other plants for them to eat. I don’t much mind, and we sometimes feed them if we have any spare fruit or vegetables. They’re cute and cuddly, and the whole neighbourhood seems to enjoy having them around.

Today, my sister was watering one of her plants outside when she shouted that there was a cat in the backyard attacking one of the baby rabbits. N...

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...