Tag: fiction writing

The Synchronistic Tale of an Author’s Journey into TV (Part 1)

Author DCS AKA Crystal Storm
Author DCS AKA Crystal Storm

Guest Post
by Crystal Storm

When I first sat down to write Synarchy, a television series based off the books was the farthest thing from my mind. To be honest I don’t think I ever really thought about it, not with any seriousness. Yet, here I am switch hitting between writing a book and writing for TV, two extremely different mediums that possibly only further proves I am completely schizophrenic.

But, first the story.

As most authors do in 2009 I had a part time job working at the Soniat House Hotel. It is an utterly charming boutique hotel hidden away on Chartres Street (pronounced Charters) in the French Quarter. It is a Small Luxury Hotel and during my tenure there I’ve met Rachel McAdams, Diane Lane, Val Kilmer and Jon Malkovich just to name a few. I can tell you that Rachel McAdams really does have a breathtaking smile, Diane Lane is a beautiful person, Val Kilmer is a little odd, and Jon Malkovich is an awesome individual. Continue reading “The Synchronistic Tale of an Author’s Journey into TV (Part 1)”

Attached to life at all four corners by Rosanne Dingli (Redux)

[Contributing author Rosanne Dingli is experiencing technical difficulties, possibly as a result of inadvertently downloading a virus while watching the popular though highly illegal Author Deathmatch web-TV show. This is an encore performance of her first post for Indies Unlimited. — ed.]

Fiction is a funny thing … that fiction authors take very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it can take over their lives, and depress, frighten, enthuse, or gladden them. Fiction has the power to mystify its creators; dash their hopes, fill them with wonder, and douse them with the kind of despondency that is hard to shake.

Fiction Stacks
Image by chelmsfordpubliclibrary via Flickr

For some it is storytelling; for others, a tool to incorporate who they are as people with what the world would like to hear from them. For a few it is a curse; for many, the only joy in their lives. Fiction, if it is in your life, can be the source of the whole gamut of emotions. It is a rare author who has no deep emotive life. There seems to be a prerequisite to be able to feel events, scenes and snatches from real life in a sensitive way, if one is to turn them into stories that will move readers. One must be capable of melancholia and ecstasy. Otherwise, how can one create them, to be felt by others? All stories are to do with life. Even the ones built on the most outlandish science, on fantasy, on improbability, need to be anchored in some way to human life as we know it. In fact, it is rather hard to move so far away from life to write something that is beyond the ken of even the most intrepid reader with the wildest imagination. Continue reading “Attached to life at all four corners by Rosanne Dingli (Redux)”

Meet the Author: JZ Murdock

Author JZ Murdock

Author JZ Murdock says he spent the first half of his life afraid of even trying to be a writer. “That was a lofty goal, I wasn’t worthy. Not until my first college English composition teacher told me to just stop worrying about the mechanics so much and all the author hero worship, and just write.”

He has done just that. His writing has encompassed non-fiction and fiction. He is now also shopping around some completed screenplays.  “I was a Technical Writer for years because as a kid I had read Isaac Asimov say that most of the first great Sci Fi writers were Tech Writers for the military. Funny how I ended up in the USAF for a while and then later worked as a Tech Writer after I got my degree.”

One of the great pleasures of writing for JZ is taking the reader on a ride or a journey that they have never taken before—giving them a new way to think about something. Continue reading “Meet the Author: JZ Murdock”

Practical Magic by DCS

Author DCS AKA Crystal Storm
Author DCS AKA Crystal Storm

As most of us writers do I’m always reading articles to improve my craft. There was one particular that has persistently stuck in the back of my mind when I think about this business called writing. Randall Silvis once wrote, “When was the last time you read something and thought, gee I didn’t know that about the human condition…for any reader with a few books under his belt and access to the nightly news, there is little in this world that can truly surprise us.”

While that statement may be true, as a writer with an over active imagination I feel that to take it to heart would be a sell out to my readers. How many times are we going to read the same ole story? When we pick up those books, aren’t we secretly hoping there will be something new inside those pages? Something a little different? Something that brings back that child like wonder and makes us rethink the world? Don’t we as writers owe it to our readers to raise the bar every time we put pen to paper? Stephanie Meyer sucked us in not with just a love story but with a slightly different twist on the age old vampire and werewolf’s tale. We stood in line for Harry Potter because we’d never been in a world quite like that before. When I sit down to write Synarchy I want to pull back the veil on the world you think you live in and show it to you through a new set of eyes. I want to squeeze your heart, and hurt your brain, and make you ponder the real possibility of practical magic. Continue reading “Practical Magic by DCS”