Month: April 2012

Hoarding for Writers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to The Learning Curve. As a new writer I expect to make mistakes. My job is to show you these mistakes so that you can avoid them yourself.

Hoarding for Writers

My wife says that I’m a packrat because I never throw anything out. There is a bit of truth to that statement. You never know when you might need that box of fuses, the old PC case with a power supply, or the broken lawn mower that could be used for parts. I have trouble throwing things away because I might need them someday. But that’s not true of everything. For example, I had no trouble at all throwing out one of the books that I’m working on, only to start over. Twice.

If we’re keeping score, this would be stupid thing #12 that I’ve done so far this year. Don’t ask what the other eleven are. You wouldn’t believe me anyway. Or maybe you would, and that would be rather depressing. Continue reading “Hoarding for Writers”

Sneak Peek: Nettie Parker’s Backyard by C.V. Smith

Nettie Parker's BackyardToday we have a Sneak Peek from C.V. Smith’s World War II Historical Fiction mystery for children, Nettie Parker’s Backyard:

Ask anyone who knows Nettie Parker, and they’ll say that she’s an amazing, mystical woman…what else would you call someone who receives supernatural signs sent just to them? And being able to live longer than anyone else? Now Nettie faces her toughest struggle yet: uncovering the mystery of her supernatural signs and the purpose of her unusually long life. Do the strange statues that suddenly appear in her backyard point to any clues? Halley, Nettie’s young friend, plays detective as she re-visits Nettie’s past, a journey that takes the reader from South Carolina to England and back again. Can Halley put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle?

Nettie Parker’s Backyard is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Nettie Parker’s Backyard by C.V. Smith”

Who Knew?

Author Carolyn Steele

Writing a decent book takes work apparently, I’m gobsmacked. No, really. I mean, you go off for a couple of years Having Adventures, you blog about it as you go, then you tack the blog posts together and call it a book…that should be enough, right?

Then, when you send the book to your favourite editor he writes back, “This is just a series of events.” Well, duh, that’s what I wrote, it’s what happened. He goes on to tell me stuff that should only apply to fiction writers, and moreover, the sort of fiction writers who haven’t read Lin’s Breaking the Rules series. “People like to read about conflict and resolution, you need some more structure and direction and a lot more internal motivation. This has to be about your psychological journey.” Continue reading “Who Knew?”

Pin the Phrase on the Author – Round 2 Answers

 

Everyone has gotten a chance to read articles by the IU staff, but how did you do at picking their writing out of a lineup?

We posted five lines from five books by five different authors on the Indies Unlimited staff and asked you to match the correct line with the correct author. If you haven’t had a chance to play, here is the link to the original article before you peek at the answers below the fold. You’re not peeking below the fold are you? I thought I felt a draft.

The authors are next to the lines from their own books.

Continue reading “Pin the Phrase on the Author – Round 2 Answers”