The making of a horror novelist.
1. How good are you at writing blurbs? How much zing can you deliver with a hundred-word hook? The Query Letter is sponsoring a blurb contest, free to enter, and with a 500 dollar prize. I’m definitely entering. I need the practice because I’m polishing my Witch of the Manor House pitch for Pitmad on … Continue reading 3 Non Sequiturs
Smell, my 5th sense. It bleeds into other senses, awakening them and massaging my brain. On my walk this morning. A freshly hayed field. I swear, the aroma is an aphrodisiac. Some enterprising person should bottle it. The stink of a hot, happy dog playing in the summer grass. (Those who have dogs in their … Continue reading My 5th Sense
This past quarter was such a fabulicious three months for reading! (Mostly horror, but other stuff, too.) Can you believe I have X, Y, and Z authors? I’m aiming to keep each review whittled down to one sentence. Here we go… I’m Tired of Being Ordinary, Are You? by Wm. Allen. Allen’s blog is about … Continue reading One Sentence Reviews: My 2nd Quarter 2020 Reads
I thought I’d share some sentences I wrote but then deleted from various stories because the sentences were too full of purple prose or otherwise just not right. Foreboding weather: Dew licked the earth’s skin, and morning slithered forth. I tried my hand at present tense in a story set in springtime: Beyond the hayfields, … Continue reading Purple Prose and Other Orphaned Sentences
*When you're not a professional reviewer. Out of 62-plus million reviewers on Amazon, I’m ranked 5958th. That puts me in the top 0.000096 of all reviewers. For every review, I have more than double the amount of “helpful” votes. So I feel confident in writing this post.:-) An easy formula I use the same format … Continue reading How to Write a Helpful Book Review* (with 2 examples)
Why My Daughter is the Best Daughter Ever She lives in another state and gave me a virtual 5k race for Mother’s Day. Isn’t that a clever gift when we have to be socially distant? We started the race at the same time but in different cities, and we FaceTimed afterwards. The image above is … Continue reading Mother Loves Spiders
