Richard Van Anderson's Blog, page 7

PubSmart: the next great writing conference?

  Well, if you are an aspiring writer on the verge of publishing I think it is, and here’s why.   My writing career to date: Internet courses, followed by night classes in a room full of real people, followed by an MFA program. Along the way I’ve participated in many workshops and attended numerous writing […]

If Wolverine Had a Little Sister Her Name Would be Savage Girl

  They say we don’t choose the books we read, that the books we read choose us. If that’s the case, Jean Zimmerman’s Savage Girl grabbed me by the throat, shook me violently, and screamed READ ME! Why would a book do that, you ask?   The first third of the novel takes place in Virginia City […]

Writing on the Nose: what it is and why not to do it.

  What is writing on the nose?   Writing on the nose is a screenwriting term that refers to dialogue or action in which the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings are fully expressed by what the character is saying or doing. There is no nuance, mystery, ambiguity or surprise (as there is in real life). […]

New Book Bubbles

  Since I first introduced you to Bublish and the concept of book bubbles, I’ve added a number of new bubbles for my short story The Final Push. If you haven’t read my original post on Bublish (which I’m sure no one of the planet has, and Google analytics can prove it), here’s a recap:    Bublish […]

The Me, Myself, and I Interview – Part 4

    In part three of this interview, I described a spectacular (and quite morbid) ER thoracotomy, one of the more dramatic surgical cases I performed in my career. In part four, I present a case of a young pregnant woman who was referred to the surgical service with sudden onset of headaches, palpitations, and sweating whenever her […]

The Me, Myself and I Interview – Part 4

    In part three of this interview, I described a spectacular (and quite morbid) ER thoracotomy, one of the more dramatic surgical cases I performed in my career. In part four, I present a case of a young pregnant woman who was referred to the surgical service with sudden onset of headaches, palpitations, and sweating whenever her […]

Spare Parts, and Broken Hearts

  A damaged cop (ho-hum). Clones bred for replacement body parts (wait a minute). Flying malls that function as cities (what?). These are the main elements of Michael Marshall Smith’s dystopian noir thriller Spares.    Rapt-addicted ex-cop, Jack Randall, has dropped off the grid following a great personal tragedy. He takes a job as caretaker of one of the farms that houses clones bred by rich […]

Wading Into the Social Media Quagmire

  As I said in the inaugural post on book marketing, if you are an aspiring author the first thing you need to do (even before you’ve completed your book) is develop a marketing platform, and that means you need a website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter account, at a minimum. And even though I wrote that only 9 months ago, it seems […]

Sleep Your Troubles Away

  A gothic horror story set in an old psychiatric hospital on the windswept coast of England. Psychological experimentation circa mid-1950’s. A medical mystery that stumps one of the great psychiatrists of the day, as well as his young protégé. If any of this lights up the literary centers of your brain, you will want […]

The Four D’s: Part 5 – Depth of Story

  If you’re an aspiring writer you know all about plot and subplot. Plot gives us the spine of the story, and subplots add depth, but where do plot and subplot take root? In theme. What is theme? Theme is what a story has to say about the timeless truths and facets of the human […]