Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

People Are Talking…

People TalkingYes, they are. People are talking about Indies Unlimited. We like that. Thank you to all the folks who have posted about us on their blogs and web sites – from Southern Comfort to Grammatic Effects to a blogger in South America – El Visitante Maligno… We really appreciate all the kind words, the links back to IU, the shares, the tweets and re-tweets.  Thanks for the support.

If you’re new to us, and you’d like to get a better idea of what we’re about, please check out our Press Release which explains why Evil Mastermind Stephen Hise decided to build this death star of a blog.  The short of it is, we’re here to help.

Here at Indies Unlimited, we’ve been hard at work to help get the word out to Indie Authors and readers all across the globe. We’re now on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IndiesUnlimited and you can find us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/IndiesUnlimited.

Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy the ride.  [subscribe2]

Review: How about some non-fiction?

Reviewer Cathy Speight

Why do we read? For all sorts of reasons: to learn, for pleasure, for relaxation, for inspiration, or for stimulation. What do we read to furnish us with these delights? Fiction? – thrillers, sci-fi, romance, erotica, horror? To each, his/her own – we all have our own ‘fixes’. So where do non-fiction, true-life accounts figure in all this? Personally, reading for me is balm for the soul and fiction is what provides it. However, two books came my way, each written by a woman who had undergone an extraordinary, near-fatal, life-changing illness. I wouldn’t normally pick up a book written by the sufferer of a particular disease or illness unless I too was suffering from the same condition, but these two books were compelling reads.

The first of these books is Heartaches and Miracles by Greta Burroughs who relates her experiences of a blood disorder called ITP, an autoimmune disease. Greta writes children’s books, two of which have been published. The second is In a Flash – Miracles Here and Beyond by Kim Justus, who survived an aneurysm. Kim works in the Financial Services industry and writing and photography are amongst her many hobbies. Continue reading “Review: How about some non-fiction?”

A-Team to X-Men

David 'Wolverine" Antrobus

Like most of us, I write out of a compulsion that shares many of its qualities with mental illness. Not only voices, but entire imaginary lives being led inside the confines of my head. Horrible wracking self-doubt. Insomnia. Substance abuse. Inappropriate outbursts. Depression always waiting around the next corner, its collar turned up, lighting a cigarette… hunched and grinning.

For an activity that is predicated on communication, writing is pitifully lonely, sometimes.

You wrestle with an idea, you get some early words on the page, you can’t stop thinking about it for days, possibly weeks, until maybe it begins to take some kind of shape. You hone it, you tease it, you poke at it, you beat the living crap out of it. It beats you back. Hurts you. You live and breathe it. Then one day, it’s ready. The “market” is ready. All of a sudden, you are forced into the harsh daylight of commerce and consumerism, and you have to be able to handle that, too. Or your baby will be stillborn. Continue reading “A-Team to X-Men”

Ed’s Casual Friday: On Hero Worship

Super HeroesBy the title, you might think that this is going to be a post about heroic characters in books, particularly as I myself write mainly in the Epic (or at least, really long) Fantasy genre. But that is not what this is.

Instead, these are my ruminations on a question that’s been rolling around in my head over the last eleven months or so, in the time since I first uploaded a book to KDP and discovered I had become something called an “Indie.” The question presented itself after wandering around threads in various places with names like “How to avoid Indie books,” and in the wake of the unabashed joy some expressed on the Kindle Forums when all “spamming” writers were herded off to the “Meet Our Authors” enclosure (smallpox-laced blankets now available). The question, basically, goes something like this: Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: On Hero Worship”