K.N. Salustro's Blog, page 30
June 3, 2015
My WordPress blog got a makeover.
Pretty much as the title says. I wasn’t thrilled with the other theme and decided to look for something that was both more functional and more aesthetically pleasing. At least in my opinion.
So, I’ve got a lovely new theme now. I’ll have to draft up a new header image to replace the default photo at the top, but I am liking this a lot better. The content section isn’t an endless scroll of words, thearchive calendar is easier to read and dates with posts are now shown in red as opposed to thos...
June 2, 2015
A Particularly Pretentious Dragon (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Write Every Day)
I made a bit of a mid-year resolution to try to write every day. This is something I should have been doing as it is. I wanted to pick the habit up not just due to needing practice, but also because I wanted to challenge myself to try out new ideas, keep producing content, and just make sure that writing stays fun for me. I posted once about that weird mental block I sometimes hit when I let too much time slip in between creative projects, and writing something every day should, in theory, he...
May 28, 2015
Sticky Days
I’m stuck today.
Stuck somewhere between the light of the sun and the shade thrown by the trees. I don’t know any other way to describe it. My mind and my eye keep wandering there, to that in-between place, and I can’t pull a thought back out.
I briefly toyed with the idea of writing about pain and joy as creative motivators by my heart is not in it. Instead, my heart is focusing on the chirping of a bird and the color of the light, the angle of the shadows and the idea of how the kiss of the...
May 21, 2015
Writing Advice: On “Write What You Know”
“Write what you know” is one of those pieces of advice that means well, but often leads to some anxiety for newer writers. Writers are generally expected, encouraged, and self-motivated to imagine experiences and worlds outside of their own lives, and populate those thingswith characters that are different from the writers themselves.
That’s great. That’s wonderful. That’s what makes fiction writers tick.
And yet, you’re told that you should “write what you know.”
– Bill Watterson, “Calvin an...
May 18, 2015
New Book Review for “Chasing Shadows”
Erica over on Fantasy Book Lane was kind enough to read and review my sci-fi novel. Check her review out here!
Still working on Book II, but in the meantime,Chasing Shadows is available on Amazon (ebook & hardcopy), Smashwords (ebook), and CreateSpace (hardcopy).
May 4, 2015
Staring Down Blank Pages
Ive never had much trouble filling up blank pages. For some reason, a giant patch of white sitting in front of me, either on a computer screen or in a notebook, isnt all that intimidating to me. Im not saying that to brag, because I know a lot of people have trouble getting their words out, no matter how passionate they are about writing, be it creative or otherwise. Thats something that a lot of people struggle with, and thats okay. Everyone has their own methods and their own pace, includin...
March 23, 2015
Writing Advice: Take It One Book at a Time
About four years ago, I heard a piece of writing advice that has stayed with me ever since. I first wrote about this back when I was haunting HubPages, but I think this is still valid advice, and wanted to share it here as well. It has nothing to do with style, or grammar, or plot, or character development. It has everything to do with the writing process as a whole, though.
Theadvice was this: don’t read more than one book at a time if you’re trying to write a story.
As a writer, I love r...
March 5, 2015
Habit RPG
A little��over a week ago, someone over on Imgur posted about a site called Habit RPG. I checked it out, and I have to say, I think it’s one of the greatest motivators I’ve seen. At least as far as apps go.
Habit RPG is probably one of those things that most appeals to a specific kind of crowd, namely the one that tends to enjoy RPGs and similar things��on their own, but if you are looking for a new way to quantify your goals and motivate yourself to get daily tasks done, check off items on yo...
February 11, 2015
And That’s a Draft + Short Story Contest
Book 2 of the Star Hunters Trilogy is finally written. Or at least the first draft is. With some basic formatting that will eventually be changed once I get to the point where I need to deal with the headaches that are Amazon’s and Smashwords’ formatting guidelines, the first draft clocks in at 218 pages and ~ 76K words. That’s just a first draft, though, and it’s already out for feedback. I need to let it rest for a bit as is, then go back and see what I need to revise, add, subtract, mangle...
January 29, 2015
Caveat Venditor—Five Mistakes KILLING Self-Published Authors
Excellent advice for self-publishers!
Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:
All right, it���s about to be a brand new year and many of you are wanting to finally see your books published. ROCK ON! But, I am the friend who will tell you if there is toilet paper hanging out of your pants. Writing isn���t all glitter and unicorns and I want to warn you of the most common stumbling blocks, because I really DO want you to succeed.
When I began writing I was SO SURE agents would be fight...
