When the stars shine

Mario here:


What I'm reading: L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais.










The blog is busting with good news.

This Wednesday, critique buddy, Aaron Michael Ritchey, will present a workshop, Hook Me! Making Your First Sentence, First Paragraph, First Page, First Chapter Irresistible! with the Zenith Writers, Southglenn Public Library, Centennial, CO.




And this weekend, you'll find the Biting-Edge corporate staff (Jeanne and myself)--along with backup, Warren Hammond--in Colorado Springs for GalaxyFest 2013. The fun and shenanigans take place in the Antlers Hilton.



We writers dream of hitting the big time: repeatedly making the major bestseller lists, author tours that include international travel, legions of adoring fans, the requisite movie deal. And it does happen. I'm fortunate to know one such lucky person. (Let me define that luck as mountains of talent, brains, and hard work.) I'm talking about Richelle Mead. Years ago, her publisher sent a manuscript of Succubus Blues for a blurb. I put my critique goggles on and prepared myself to slog through the story. But things worked out differently and by the end of the first page I was hooked. What a story. What a writer. A few months later, Richelle was passing through Denver on a road trip/impromptu book tour. Jeanne and I set up a signing for Richelle at the Denver Book Mall and maybe four people showed up. I took Richelle to the downtown Barnes & Noble to sign stock, and it was a bit humiliating to learn they didn't have her book on the shelves. Fast forward a few short years. Richelle continues with the Georgina Kincaid Succubus series, also writes the Dark Swan series, and the Age of X, and hit gold with her YA Vampire Academy series, which consistently pegs the number one bestseller spot on the New York Times and USA Today. In no small turn of irony, Barnes & Noble now offers stacks of her books. But what I most admire about Richelle is that she's the only author who has had books banned she hasn't even written yet! Take that Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood! And now, the Vampire Academy movie inches closer to reality.