What’s a writer’s biggest challenge? Apart, that is, from writing great books? Bringing those books, and the name of the author, to the public’s attention. It’s a never-ending job. We not only have to keep writing, keep putting out new (and better) work, but we have to get our names out there so people will notice. Yes, that means social media; that means online forums, that means book fairs and book signings and radio and TV interviews. But there could be a local outlet that’s right under your nose: blogging for your local newspaper. Continue reading “Blogging for Your Local Newspaper”
Month: February 2015
Book Brief: The Carnarvon Creeper
The Carnarvon Creeper
by Martin Murphy
Genres: Horror
Word Count: 30,749
For decades, during each December, people have been disappearing from towns across the west coast of Australia. The number of missing is mounting, the bodies never recovered, presumed lost amid the vast, unforgiving landscape. A grieving traveller will be dragged into the mystery in the remote outback before he comes face-to-face with a nightmare beyond his worst imaginings…
The Carnarvon Creeper is available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. Continue reading “Book Brief: The Carnarvon Creeper”
Creating a Worthy Adversary
Guest Post
by Laurie Stevens
One of the questions I get asked in regards to creating characters is “how do you deal with the mindset of a villain?”
Certainly nobody enjoys going to a dark mental place where, we have to assume, a lot of nasty characters reside. Still, if you want to remain true to putting a human face on a villainous character, you have to give him or her a lot of thought.
My wonderful writing mentor Ronald Jacobs always advised me that the best adversaries in a plot are worthy adversaries. In order to make an adversary worthy, there should be a spark of humanity there, a reason why he does what he does. This way, the reader can relate somewhat with the antagonist and interest is created. The more human the villain is, the more impact he has.
Then I had the opportunity to talk with a famed forensic psychiatrist who stunned me with his answer to a question I asked him. Continue reading “Creating a Worthy Adversary”
2014 IUEA Winners
Voting for the Indies Unlimited Excellence Awards has concluded. We’d like to thank everyone for vigorous participation. The votes constitute an important part of the process, but do not exclusively determine the winner. To balance the votes and prevent the awards from becoming an outright “popularity contest,” we used the Alexa rankings of the finalists in the final calculation. Alexa is is the leading web traffic ranking service, and we regard it as an impartial standard.
The total votes received by each finalist by the close of the polls was divided by each candidate’s Alexa ranking. The rankings used were those recorded for each site on the morning of February 1, 2015.
This methodology was chosen for several reasons. First, while it gives significant weight to the Alexa ranking, it does not allow a site (even with an excellent rating) to win without getting votes. Second, of the various methodologies we tested on dummy data, this was the only one that did not produce ties. It also removes any potential elements of favoritism.
Both the winners and the finalists exemplify the very spirit of the indie community. We are pleased to present the recipients of the 2014 Indies Unlimited Excellence Awards.