Author: M. Edward McNally

Epic fantasy author M. Edward McNally is a North Carolinian of Irish/Mexican extraction. He has a Masters in English Lit from ISU and Russian/East European History from ASU. He grew up mostly in the Midwest along I-35 northbound (KS, IA, MN), and now resides in the scrub brush surrounding Phoenix AZ, where the scorpions and javelinas play. Learn more about Ed at his blog, and his Amazon author page.

Ed’s Casual Friday: Everyone is a (one) Star.

Bad ReviewAs I’m sure many of my fellow writers have noticed at the various and sundry virtual watering holes around which we are wont to gather, one of the more common posts (right after “Buy my book!”) goes something like “I just got an awful review!” usually expressed with varying degrees of “How could this have possibly happened?”

How could it not have happened? My advice on such occasions is always to pick one of your favorite books of all time, something you think of as an absolute, perfect gem. Then go to any review site and page through the one-star reviews, of which there will likely be hundreds. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Everyone is a (one) Star.”

“Ed’s Casual Friday!” he said.

Holy Hand Grenades, you mean my second “Casual Friday” post is slated for Friday the 13th? Geeze, that seems like the kind of thing I should have cleverly incorporated into a topic…if I had looked at a calendar before I actually wrote the post. So let us pretend I did. In honor of Friday the 13th, my thoughts on something really scary: Dialogue Tags! (cue thunderstorm noises)

DialogueFirst off, I should say that what follows is of course my opinion. I’m not trying to tell anybody else how to write, and yes, our individual literary foibles may indeed be part of what gives each of us our own “style.” However, believe me when I say that there are certain things that are going to look like mistakes to a large number of readers, even if a writer is doing them on purpose. James Joyce made up grammatical and narrative rules as he went along, and some people think he’s a genius for doing so. He’s also rarely read nowadays outside of Lit grad courses. Just saying. Continue reading ““Ed’s Casual Friday!” he said.”

Ed’s Casual Friday, no. 1

M. Edward McNally

Hi, everybody. This is to be my little neck of the woods here at Indies Unlimited, and I’m going to call the place “Casual Friday,” as I feel that will allow me to blather about the largest number of topics possible, sometimes until I’m halfway through a post. As a writer, I’m a “pantser,” see, so that’s pretty much “how I roll.” If anybody has anything they’d ever like me to opine upon, just say so, as I’ll probably be out of ideas by the end of this post. Like I say, “casual.”

So here’s how me and my muse spent the holidays. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday, no. 1”

Hi, I’m Ed, and I have touched a Pulitzer

Author M. Edward McNally

Hello, all.  I’m M. Edward McNally, but typically go by “Ed” online as I am an extremely lazy typist, which is an admirable quality as a writer.  I’m the newbie on the IU staff, which means I get fed last in the mess hall.

Let’s see, a little about me.  Well, I guess I can write a sort of “writer’s bio,” which will pretty much be my regular bio, but with less police involvement.  Somewhat less.

I moved around a lot growing up, North Carolina to Chicago to California to Chicago (again) to Kansas to Iowa to Minnesota, and I always read quite a bit, as books were good friends I could take with me. Around third grade, in Kansas, a teacher sent a poem I’d written in class to the Kansas City Star, and the paper ran it. I believe it was about a garter snake.  Anyway, seeing my name in print was it for me, and a realization that there were actually people somewhere behind all those books I loved. I was hooked on the idea of being a writer early on, at least for a while. Continue reading “Hi, I’m Ed, and I have touched a Pulitzer”