I wanted a good read

[S.A.]

So I wrote a good book.

Well, what I think of as a good book, anyway - one you lose yourself in, that challenges you, sets you thinking. One where you care about what happens to the characters, where their actions make you smile, or make you cry. Or turn the page with your heart in your mouth to know what happens next.

Several readers seem to agree with me.

I tried to give it up several times, but writing is an addiction. I kept creating these characters, and they kept telling me their stories. If I didn't write them down, I never found out what happened next.

So I started publishing them and looking for readers who share my taste for intelligent, exciting speculative fiction for adults. If you're one of them, take a look at my website http://www.shehaios.co.uk

Shaihen Heritage: Book 1 Cloak of Magic available now
Shaihen Heritage: Book 2 Staff of Power published January 2009.


Sue

[Minnie]

Sue, I agree with most of your reasons for writing but have to add that ego plays a big part in my desire to write.

I have the nerve to think I may be able to crack that big nut called life and hoping I can changed someone's view of it for the better.

I don't write romance because I think it sugarcoats real life.

I listen to my characters -- my alter ego -- and they say this is what life is all about. That's where my political activist alter ego kicks in, no matter what the genre. No matter what the characters, be they heros, rogues, or vampires.

No, I can't write a book that will change the world, no one can. But maybe, just maybe, my books will get some folks thinking.
Please visit my website at http://www.millerscribs.com and read about my work.

Thank you.

[S.A.]

Minnie,

I agree. And you can't write a book that will change the world, but you can write a book that will change your world.

When you listen to your characters, they take you places you would never have gone without them. In a good book, other people's characters do the same. I will take a look at your website when I get a chance (always manically busy!).

Ego? Hey c'm on, us girls have got millenia of catching up to do before we compete with the male egos that have shaped Western society....

Sue
PS No, I'm very fond of men. As my daughter's t-shirt says, boys are great - every girl should have one....

[Thorina]

Ego does play a role in creative life, and why an author or an artist decides to put something personal out into the world. Otherwise wouldn't we just create something for ourselves and our friends? It's addresses the age old question about the purpose of art. I wrote my graphic novel memoir The Heartbreak Diet, which deals with the subject--humorously mostly-- of getting left for another woman, partly to regain my own self-esteem and partly to help other women going through a similar experience. I have gotten enough positive mail that indicates women (and men!) can relate to the book, that I feel like I've achieved both goals.

http://www.amazon.com/Heartbreak-Diet...

[Minnie]

Oh, yes, ego plays a big role in our writing. How dare us think that someone gives a damn about what we have to say. It's a gamble as with your memoir, The Heartbreak Diet.

My novel is about an issue that folks would like to sweep under the rug, but from a male's perspective. It's about the alternative lifestyle. Although someone said it is not a lifestyle that it's as normal as being ambidextrous. Okay, I said, I'll accept that too. I wanted to show the mind of a bisexual man and the minds and reactions of 2 women caught in the love drama.

"The Seduction of Mr. Bradley" is modern-day in theory. Drop by my website and read about it at http://www.millerscribs.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Jim]

Who say's you can't write a book that will change the world? Every book does, it adds to the existential discussion.

I think my books are good ideas and good reads but after writing them, in which I've probably read the book 10 or more times, when I'm done I really can't sit and be an audience to it.