R.A. Black's Blog, page 7
January 22, 2015
Don’t Be This Guy
I don’t claim to be any kind of expert on agents and querying. But there are some basic things that will prevent your manuscript being rejected unnecessarily. So, unless you enjoy rejections, here are some dos and don’ts. Do make sure the agent reps your genre. Don’t forget to put things like word count, age […]
January 21, 2015
The Worst Kidnapping in the Galaxy – Short Story
This …was not going to plan. I stared at the body in front of me, dribbling dark red blood onto my cream Antarian leather upholstery. That was going to stain, no doubt about it. I took a deep breath. Stains were really not the most important thing here. No, the important thing was that I […]
January 20, 2015
Dead Oak – a short story
I had to face up to it: I was lost. The forest stretched all around me, an identical mosaic of green and brown, as though I was seeing the same photograph on every side. There was no path, no sign of civilisation at all. I might have been the last man alive or the first […]
January 19, 2015
Finished!
So today, I finally finished my current project, Happily Ever After. If you want to know what it’s about, you can read the synopsis here, and read some (unedited) extracts here and here. The manuscript is just over 107,000 words and took eight months to write the first draft. It originally started as an idea […]
January 18, 2015
A great article on why readers matter to writers:
http://www.niniehammon.com/9e-...
A great article on why readers matter to writers:
http://www.niniehammon.com/9e-blog-for-writers/what-every-writer-must-tell-every-fan/1795
Blogs | Suspense Author Ninie Hammon
www.niniehammon.com
Ninie Hammon, author or The Last Safe Place, The Memory Closet, Five Days in May, Black Sunshine, Sudan, Home Grown and God Said Yes.
http://www.niniehammon.com/9e-blog-for-writers/what-every-writer-must-tell-every-fan/1795
Blogs | Suspense Author Ninie Hammon
www.niniehammon.com
Ninie Hammon, author or The Last Safe Place, The Memory Closet, Five Days in May, Black Sunshine, Sudan, Home Grown and God Said Yes.
January 17, 2015
Blog post on getting to know your characters:
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.c...
Blog post on getting to know your characters:
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/getting-to-know-your-characters/
Getting to Know your Characters
wordsofrablack.wordpress.com
How do you get to know your characters' every facet? I know lots of writers who construct intricate character sheets with every possible piece of information about the major characters. These can a...
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/getting-to-know-your-characters/
Getting to Know your Characters
wordsofrablack.wordpress.com
How do you get to know your characters' every facet? I know lots of writers who construct intricate character sheets with every possible piece of information about the major characters. These can a...
Getting to Know your Characters
How do you get to know your characters’ every facet? I know lots of writers who construct intricate character sheets with every possible piece of information about the major characters. These can be a useful crib sheet, but a person is not their star sign or favourite colour. They don’t help you get to the […]
January 16, 2015
Looking for beta readers:
I'm a whisker away from finishing the first draft of...
Looking for beta readers:
I'm a whisker away from finishing the first draft of my current project, Happily Ever After, and I'm looking for people willing to rip it apart for me. At this point, I'm mostly looking for what doesn't work and what needs changing in terms of plot, pacing, characters etc. I'd like people who can look at it with in a set period, probably no more than a month per section, to keep on top of things and get responses back in a similar time frame. I understand if that's something most people can't manage.
If you are interested, drop me a message with an email address and I'll send you the first half. The book is a low fantasy novel which starts where most fantasy epics finishes and follows a woman named Lavie's struggle to get her life back together after the war is over. Synopsis:
They say that endings are just new beginnings and that could not be more true for Lavie Streaver. A noblewoman turned knight, she and her childhood friend, Harry, have fought long and hard to survive, raise an army and set the rightful heir, Prince Brendan, back on the throne. Enough blood, sweat and tears have been shed to drown the kingdom thrice over, but the war is finally over.
If the fates had been fair, their story would have ended there and they would have earned their happily ever after. But Lavie is struggling to settle down in a life without an enemy to fight. Harry finds his dreams of the future aren't matching with the reality of it. And Brendan discovers that heroes don't make good kings.
As the cracks begin to appear in the kingdom, and their friendship, Lavie finds herself turning to an unlikely source of help - the man they worked so hard to defeat.
I'm a whisker away from finishing the first draft of my current project, Happily Ever After, and I'm looking for people willing to rip it apart for me. At this point, I'm mostly looking for what doesn't work and what needs changing in terms of plot, pacing, characters etc. I'd like people who can look at it with in a set period, probably no more than a month per section, to keep on top of things and get responses back in a similar time frame. I understand if that's something most people can't manage.
If you are interested, drop me a message with an email address and I'll send you the first half. The book is a low fantasy novel which starts where most fantasy epics finishes and follows a woman named Lavie's struggle to get her life back together after the war is over. Synopsis:
They say that endings are just new beginnings and that could not be more true for Lavie Streaver. A noblewoman turned knight, she and her childhood friend, Harry, have fought long and hard to survive, raise an army and set the rightful heir, Prince Brendan, back on the throne. Enough blood, sweat and tears have been shed to drown the kingdom thrice over, but the war is finally over.
If the fates had been fair, their story would have ended there and they would have earned their happily ever after. But Lavie is struggling to settle down in a life without an enemy to fight. Harry finds his dreams of the future aren't matching with the reality of it. And Brendan discovers that heroes don't make good kings.
As the cracks begin to appear in the kingdom, and their friendship, Lavie finds herself turning to an unlikely source of help - the man they worked so hard to defeat.
January 15, 2015
January 14, 2015
A blog post about twitter as a writer:
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.com/......
A blog post about twitter as a writer:
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/twitter-the-unexpected-tool-for-writing/
Twitter, the Unexpected Tool for Writing
wordsofrablack.wordpress.com
I had a personal Twitter account, (still do, I guess), but I never really got it. Things flew past too quickly, I couldn't follow conversations and lots of it made no sense to me. When I was gettin...
https://wordsofrablack.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/twitter-the-unexpected-tool-for-writing/
Twitter, the Unexpected Tool for Writing
wordsofrablack.wordpress.com
I had a personal Twitter account, (still do, I guess), but I never really got it. Things flew past too quickly, I couldn't follow conversations and lots of it made no sense to me. When I was gettin...
