Tag Archives: Writers

#GuestBloggers – How to #Edit #Fiction by Kathryn Wells

06 Sunday May 2018

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Knowing what to do after you’ve *finally* finished the first draft of your manuscript and have mopped up all the blood, sweat and tears that went into it can be a bit of a mystery if you’re new to the game. You know editing comes into it, and you may have heard about beta readers, but what comes first, and more importantly, how do you go get started?

To help with the cacophony of questions littering your head, I’ve made a general guide to help you get going. This is very much based off my own experience, and is not an exhaustive list:

  1. After you’ve written that last word on your manuscript, put the whole thing away somewhere and leave it for a good amount of time (I personally leave it for about three months, but others leave it for longer) and get on with other things. Start a new project; finish any others lurking around; if you’re thinking about publication, research which avenue might be best for you and what that entails; basically, anything to keep your mind stimulated but doesn’t involve that first draft. This is to make sure that when you do eventually go back to it, you can view it with fresh eyes – meaning that plot holes, weak characters or lack of world building will jump out at you and therefore be easier to fix.
  1. Don’t focus on spelling or wording on this initial edit. Look at the big picture instead. Are there any holes in your plot? Do your characters feel flat or serve no purpose? Does the story start in the right place, or are the first few chapters unnecessary? What scenes work, and what don’t? If you’re finding it hard to tell if certain points of the story are unnecessary, try removing them and see if it affects the overall plot. If the plot still flows, then those scenes (however beautifully written they are/despite how much you personally love them) have to go. Nothing ruins a good book more that scenes that jar the pacing by adding nothing.
  1. Once you’ve fixed the big issues with your manuscript, you can either put it away again, or continue on to the next stage. Again, I personally leave it for a bit because I know I get far too close to my work.
  1. Now it’s time to really focus on your characters and world building. Your characters need to feel like real people – give goals and dreams, flaws and bad habits, and don’t hole them up into stereotypes. If they’re from very different backgrounds/circumstances to you, make sure you do your research – not only to make them realistic, but to avoid being insensitive to readers. (If you’re worried about your representation of people from different walks of life to you, you can always hire a sensitivity reader at a later stage.) When working on world building, think about the social structure of each place, use all five senses to describe things and make sure you don’t fall into the pit of info dumping. Also, in dialogues scenes, look out for ‘white room syndrome’, when no description about where or when the scene takes place is included.
  1. Next, we get in to the more technical aspects of writing. Tense, point of view and grammar. (If you feel your manuscript is shaping up nicely, you can start looking at spelling, over-use of words and continuity, but I would leave that until last.) It doesn’t matter what point of view you use, or what tense, as long as you keep them consistent throughout the manuscript – unless you have a very good reason not to, like an intentional stylistic change to illustrate a certain point. If you struggle with grammar, there are a lot of helpful books and forums, as well as YouTube guides. (I have a book on grammar that’s actually written for kids, but the language and examples are so clear that it’s the one I go to most.)
  1. The stages of editing can get a bit murky here – some writers have to repeat steps until they’re happy and end up with a good number of drafts, others breeze right through and end up with relatively few. However, whether you’ve done a lot of back and forth on your work or not, this part is important. Read your work aloud. I’ll say it again: READ YOUR WORK ALOUD. From start to finish, until you’re sick of the sound of your own voice. This is so you can clearly see problems with sentence structure, missing words, typos, continuity, repetitive description and all that jazz (as readers we’re always pleased to spot others’ mistakes, but are far less pleased as writers if someone kindly points them out in our own work).
  1. Finally, when you are happy with your manuscript and can’t find anything else to work on, it’s time to send your work to beta readers. These can be other writers, friends, family or simply people you know love to read. What is important to note, however, is that it’s far more helpful to send your work to readers who readily consume books in that genre than ones who have never read/rarely read within your genre, as the feedback you receive will be more relevant. When you do receive feedback, look for trends in what people are saying. If eight people say a scene isn’t working, then it’s probably wise to take another look and see if it truly does need revising. If one beta reader hates a character but the others love them/make no comment, then perhaps that’s just their personal taste. Consider all feedback, but remember that it is still your work, so you have the final decision on what to change.

So there you have it. Where you take your work from there is completely up to you. Whether you opt for traditional publishing, self-publishing or somewhere in-between (be absolutely sure you don’t head down the path of vanity publishing – an old but good rule on how to tell a vanity publisher from a real one is that money should always flow to the author, not away) make sure you do your research.

Kathryn is a children’s and YA author, and currently has her fantasy trilogy, Half-Wizard Thordric, published with Creativia Publishing. Her YA speculative fiction novel, The Origin Stone, will be published in March 2019 by Nuff Said Publishing.

An avid reader, she also writes poetry, book reviews and short stories. She loves animals and is a slave to a parrot and budgie, and currently lives on the Isle of Wight with her husband, a curious and eccentric being who never fails to provide her with inspiration. You can find her on twitter @KaptainKat90, or go directly to her website www.kathrynwells.co.uk.

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~Kathryn Wells~

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#GuestBloggers – Grandpappy’s Cows – Mary Deal

05 Saturday May 2018

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Grandpappy’s Cows  by Mary Deal

Grammy and Grandpappy had fifteen youngins of their own, so I had a mess o’ cousins. Most of the boys looked the same, with straggly dirty blonde hair and mean squinty eyes. We girls was better. We looked different from one another by our hair color and sizes of our bosoms.

Grandpappy moved lots of us to a run-down trailer park near the railroad tracks. Him and Grammy lived in a doublewide next to the meadow ’cause they kept a milk cow. As neighbors moved out, more of our kin moved in. No matter the trailers was abandoned ’cause they was old, we was a family that stuck together. Pretty soon our kin took over every useable trailer in that danged weed-infested field. The poor folk thought we was rich.

Everyone who visited asked to go see the rest of them empty trailers. I sneaked and seen ’em already and they was empty, except for some mattresses the hobos left behind. When I asked why my uncles always brought their girlfriends around to inspect those old trailers when they went out on dates, Grandpappy said, “They just want to bless our new home.” Then he’d slap his knee and bellow till his eyes watered and he started to coughin’. He never let me go see with the other people and got downright nasty when I tried. “You stay put, li’l girlie,” he said. “There’s time enough to learn about life.”

My daddy was a jack-of-all-trades and him and Grandpappy joined some of them trailers so’s you could walk from one to another without goin’ outside. When friends come over for some honky-tonkin’, those old trailers would rock and once the rotted tires exploded on one of ’em.

Effie May was my closest cousin. She was older ’n me. The boys said she was built like a cow. Sometimes when they headed off to the trailers, they said they was gonna go milk the cows. Like it was a dirty joke or somethin’. Effie May hung out with the boys a lot. She said they was her kissin’ cousins.

One day, Effie May whispered to me, “They calm my yearnins, ya’ know?”

I didn’t know. I saw her and cousin Wilma Lou, who my momma told me to stay away from, go in and out of them abandoned trailers on the other side of the park with a bunch of boys time and again. Effie May was awful smart, said she knew how to be of service to folks. She always had money. But me? I didn’t want to be nobody’s servant. Me and my momma was close. I was blonde-headed like the rest of my kin, but my hair picked up some of my momma’s red. I liked her the most, better ’n Effie May, ’cause Momma explained things to me.

As we kids was growin’ up, I guess Grandpappy thought he still had to feed the whole brood. One day after Grammy gave away the old cow that dried up, he come home with another.

“I’m tired of sittin’ around all day shaking the cream to the top of that jar just to make butter,” Grammy said.

“Well, we cain’t afford the store-bought stuff yet either,” Grandpappy said.

Johnny Jeb was one cousin always up to no good. He used to squeeze the cow’s udder so we could drink when we got thirsty while we was playin’. He’d squirt us just to be mean. We was lucky Grandpappy never knowed what the soggy stains was on our clothes and why leaves stuck in our hair ’cause sometimes after getting pushed in, we swam in the creek with our clothes on and he couldn’t tell the difference.

“You grandkids are dirtier ’n my own ever was,” he would say. “And to think you live better off today.”

Some of my aunts and uncles took a broom to their kids for coming home dirty. My momma just smiled and poured water into the old tin tub, throwed me a bar of Grammy’s lye soap, and said, “You soak good now, Darlin’.”

Grandpappy couldn’t figure out why the cow didn’t give much milk. He was attached to Bossie, his latest cow, and instead of getting rid of her, he brung home another.

Johnny Jeb loved that. He taught cousin Bobby Zeke to squirt and they had milk fights in the meadow. When the rest of us got to laughin’, we all learned to squirt.

Grandpa got a third cow just so’s he could get enough milk together for all our families every day. Anyway, between the three, they kept the weeds down real good. But it stunk some and the boys was put to scrapin’ up the cow-pies and tossin’ ’em into an empty field. Us girls stayed away from them dung fights.

Later on, when I started thinkin’ about boys, I looked in the mirror to see what they was a-winkin’ at. My bosoms finally growed like Effie May’s. My kin said I wasn’t bad looking and my hair always shined like sunlight.

“Why’d you s’pose that is?” I asked my momma one day.

“Musta’ been all that fresh cream you got in your hair when you was a kid,” she said.

I never knew she knowed. I have a right smart image of my momma now that I know she let us kids enjoy the fun we had back then. I looked at her real hard ’cause I admired her more all of a sudden. Her brassy hair was so shiny.

My daddy said I matured real nice. He always paced around lookin’ at me like I was the chunk of gold that was gonna make him rich or somethin’. I wondered if him and Momma would let me go honky-tonkin’. Effie May said she could tell me how to take care of my yearnins.

 

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Find this hilarious story and others among myriad explanatory articles about writing, including examples, in Write It Right – Tips for Authors – The Big Book on Amazon. Here: https://tinyurl.com/y8m7fkkr

 

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Mary Deal is an Amazon best-selling and award-winning author of suspense/thrillers, a short story collection, writers’ references, and self-help. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Artist and Photographer, and former newspaper columnist and magazine editor. She is currently writing the third story in her Sara Mason Mystery Series. A long romance novel, which is a new genre for her is presently in process for publication.

She has traveled a great deal and has a lifetime of diverse experiences, all of which remain in memory as fodder for her fiction. A native of California’s Sacramento River Delta, where some of her stories are set, she has also lived in England, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and now resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is also an oil painter and photographer. Her art is used to create gorgeous personal and household products from her online galleries.

Find Her Online

Her Website: https://www.marydeal.com

Amazon Author Page: https://tinyurl.com/3z8pm31

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/o7keqf7

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/mdeal

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mary_Deal

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marydeal

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105175192934570097998

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MaryDeal

 

Her Art Galleries

 

Mary Deal Fine Art – https://www.marydealfineart.com

Island Image Gallery – https://www.islandimagegallery.com

Mary Deal Fine Art and Photography – https://www.facebook.com/MDealArt

LocalMe – https://www.redbubble.com/people/localme

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/1deal

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~Mary Deal~

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#GuestBloggers – Post-Grad Depression…Wait, that’s a Thing?

30 Monday Apr 2018

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Hi! I am really excited to be guest writing for Morgan’s blog! I am nowhere near as talented as she is but I thought I would share a piece that is already currently on my blog and something that I have been dealing with recently.

A little about me, my name is Amberlyn and my blog is called Lovely Dysfunction. I cover a little bit of everything over there. From hikes, to mental health, to makeup; I cover it all! I’m not the best writer but I feel like I get a little better with each post. I just moved from Georgia to Colorado for a new career in Marketing and that transition has definitely thrown me through a loop. The short essay below is about what I have been going through recently. If it resonates with you at all, please let me know. Thanks!

Post-Grad Depression…wait, that’s a thing?

A modernly renovated and beautifully decorated 2 bedroom apartment. It’s not the penthouse but spacious and affordable. It’s in the perfect location where I can walk to my favorite cafe and I’m only a block away from the subway stop. My job is so much fun, I am pretty damn good at it, and I get paid more than the average fresh graduate. I have loads of open-minded new friends and even an attractive and friendly stranger who I encountered at a bookstore one weekend that may be interested. I have started working out more and getting healthy. Life is beautiful and I am happy.

That is how I envisioned post-grad life for the entirety of my senior year. It’s probably one of the sole things that kept me motivated and marching toward that cap and gown. Don’t get me wrong, post-grad life is wonderful for many reasons but my vision was also terribly misleading.

At first, I was too busy to notice it. My parents were helping me unpack, I was meeting my coworkers, starting my initial work training, decorating my apartment, and so on. Then my Dad left and I felt a twinge of something, but I sucked it up and moved on. I am an adult now, right? My mom stayed a little longer. We are both control freaks so we butted heads quite a bit in that time period. To the point, that I found myself counting down the days until her departure. Then she left. I was fine for about a week. Drunk with new-found freedom that was literally like nothing I had ever experienced. I was self-sufficient, in a state hundreds of miles away from home, in my OWN apartment with an amazing job.

However, I had a ton of time by myself. I have my dog, who I am incredibly thankful for, but I had no one to talk to when I got home. This was especially damaging after a bad day. Yes, I could have called someone and I did some days but I slowly stopped this practice. It was easier to direct my energy to self-loathing and hiding in my bed than calling my mom. I was beating myself up over the smallest mistakes and overanalyzing every critique my manager gave me. I was miserable.

On top of this, all my closest friends were still in college, living happily in the comfortable bubble that I had left behind. They would send photos to me of them hanging out together and it would hurt because I knew I had no one like that in my new home…and because I missed them, obviously.

I went from being an extremely motivated individual to one who didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning to go to work. I went from being so excited to hike every inch of Colorado to deciding to stay in and watch YouTube videos.

I feel bad even writing about this because I am incredibly blessed. I was blessed with the opportunity to go to and graduate college, I am blessed with a well-paid job with what I consider to be a very caring company. I have an apartment that fits my needs, and I have a family and friends that keep in touch despite our distance. However, I still feel sad. Some days are better than others and some days are really, really bad. Leaving the bubble of school and the world you create there is difficult. I’m sure some struggle with it more than I do and I am sure some people don’t struggle at all. I thought it would be a breeze. I thought I had it all figured out.

There are several reasons I think post-grad depression is a thing:

  • Leaving your comfort zone

Most of us have been in school for 17 years (+-). School is what we are good at; it’s what we know how to do. Leaving that comfort zone filled with friends, a routine, and a purpose is hard. 

  • College is about personal development, the real world often isn’t

In school, we have a definite purpose. No matter how miserable that one professor is you know it’s temporary and you are doing it to ultimately make yourself a better human. After college, most of what you do is to better your employer. You may be inadvertently bettering yourself but that’s often not your main purpose in your day-to-day life unless you make time for it.

  • Dealing with adult things

Let me tell you, electing my benefits was one of the most stressful things I have done. I understand how incredibly blessed I am to be offered benefits but the amount of money that leaves my paycheck every other week should be criminal. In addition to benefits, I have had to deal with taxes, apartment hunting, driving a U-Haul 1600 miles, appliances breaking, emergency vet trips, credit bureau security breaches, and bills on bills on BILLS.

  • Life not aligned with passions

College was a pain in my butt at times but a lot of it was focused on learning about topics I enjoyed. In fact, college is really about what you want. While my job is in marketing, my major, I can admit it isn’t the type of marketing I ever really wanted to do. There are other positions in the company that align better with my passions but I’m not there yet. I am here. It’s hard waking up to do something every day that you may not necessarily love but I am smart enough to understand that not everyone gets their dream job straight out of the gate and I am willing to work hard to get there one day.

I still deal with this ‘depression’ every day. A lot of this post was written in past tense but it’s still very much an issue. This post wasn’t meant to discourage any current college students. I love being independent and not having to worry about finals or buying books. However, I do wish someone had warned me. I don’t know if there is really a way to prepare but take it as reassurance.

Post-grad life may not be everything you dreamed it to be, but life is about adjusting and overcoming and you will.

I will.

Thanks for reading!

Link to my blog: https://lovelydysfunction.wordpress.com

Link to my ‘About me’ page: https://lovelydysfunction.wordpress.com/about/

Link to this post: https://lovelydysfunction.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/post-grad-depression-wait-thats-a-thing/

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~Amberlyn ~

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#GuestBlogger – River Boners – Checking for Typos!

28 Saturday Apr 2018

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River Boners- The need to check for typos.

I sent a query letter for one of my short stories to a magazine. Of course, I included the names of my novels in my brief Bio. The New York editor actually called all the way to Hawaii (where I lived at the time) and thanked me for the best typo she’d ever seen!

A couple years ago, I began taking nutritional supplements that have done wonders for my health. Even my fingernails, which normally never grew but flaked instead, now extend a quarter inch past my fingertips. It’s a great sign that the nutritionals help in many ways.

However, my long fingernails now interfere with being able to use the keyboard at warp speed. I press a key with the fingertip, or the side of my fingertip, but the nail depresses the key next to it. As a result, I had to scrutinize my work for typos that never happened before. I’ve kept my nails shorter since then because of that one error in particular that I’ve probably made more than once.

Notice that on the keyboard, the letters e and r are next to each other. When I pressed the e, I also accidentally typed the r with my new fingernail.

The editor called to say that when typing the name of my novel, River Bones, I inadvertently created a typo and wrote River Boners.

So, how have your typos embarrassed you?

Mary Deal, a native of Walnut Grove in California’s Sacramento River Delta, now resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was Founder and past President of Kauai Writer’s Roundtable. She is also an artist, photographer and former editor of a print magazine and newspaper columnist.

She is the author of “Legacy of the Tropics,” an adventure trilogy taking place in both the Caribbean and Hawaii, “The Ka,” a paranormal Egyptian suspense, “River Bones – Sara Mason Mysteries Book One,” a thriller that takes place in her childhood hometown area, “Down to the Needle,” a thriller, taking place along the West coast,  and “The Howling Cliffs, Sara Mason Mysteries Book Two,” taking place in the Vietnam jungle and on Kauai in Hawaii. She has also published “Off Center in the Attic,” a collection of over-the-top short stories and flash fiction pieces. “Write It Right – Tips for Authors – The Big Book” is a mega-volume of writing instruction. “Hypno-Scripts – Life Changing Techniques Using Self-Hypnosis and Meditation” is another self-help nonfiction.

River Bones was a Honorable Mention in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards competition and a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Books Awards (NIEA). The Howling Cliffs won a Bronze in the Global eBook awards. Write It Right-Tips for Authors was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA). Hypno-Scripts was a Finalist in both the International Book Awards and the National Indie Excellence Book Awards (NIEA), as well as winning Silver in the Global eBook Awards. Down to the Needle won a Bronze in the Global eBook Awards. Her flash fiction short story, “The Last This I Do” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her first feature screenplay, Sea Storm, was a Finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival.

Find Her Online

Her Website: https://www.marydeal.com

Amazon Author Page: https://tinyurl.com/3z8pm31

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/o7keqf7

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/mdeal

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mary_Deal

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marydeal

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105175192934570097998

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MaryDeal

 

Her Art Galleries

 

Mary Deal Fine Art – https://www.marydealfineart.com

Island Image Gallery – https://www.islandimagegallery.com

Mary Deal Fine Art and Photography – https://www.facebook.com/MDealArt

LocalMe – https://www.redbubble.com/people/localme

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/1deal

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~Mary Deal ~

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#GuestBlogger – Lisa Lowell – One Writer’s Inspiration

28 Saturday Apr 2018

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One Writer’s Inspiration by Lisa Lowell

So often the first question, after people discover I’m a writer, is ‘Where do you get your ideas?’  I love this question because it allows me to stretch my muse beyond the limitations of an elevator pitch most people want when they ask ‘What’s your book about?’, a query I deplore.  So, where does the flow originate?

Perhaps I am an alien in this aspect, but my simple reply is The Universe.

Sometimes I’ve written scenes based on a pink elm leaf drifting in a rain puddle, a few repetitive notes on a piano, a long drive home at night in the rain and even a rediscovered screwdriver tangled up in the spaghetti of wiring behind my computer desk.  One song, Lindsey Sterling’s Crystalize, practically drove a relationship between two characters in my book Heart Stone.   Those few flashes of experience fit into some orphan scene on which I am meditating at the time, and the magic is done.

Then there are the characters.  I never base my characters on individuals I’ve met or know.  It’s unusual in the writing community perhaps, but I cannot even give you a specific person who has inspired any of them.  The characters are an amalgam of me, how I want to be or at the least how I perceive myself.  Owailion is the practicality and ruthless pragmatism I can’t seem to break in myself.  Somewhere inside I harbor Raimi’s pitiful self-esteem, thinking she will ruin everything she touches, and I have the withered computers and cell phones to witness that.  Vamilion’s wretched patience is what keeps me going to face rooms full of thirteen-year-olds every day and tending a Parkinson’s patient every night.  Perhaps I just wish I had Honiea’s gifts.  All my characters are, unfortunately, uniquely, a slice of me.

But how do you get your ideas, they wail.  Simply put, from God.  I know my writing is a gift and I do not use it I will be held accountable.  So, I write.  The ideas come in dreams, in twists in my own life, or in curious, ‘I wonder what would happen if…’ moments.  I just recently finished a sci-fi/dystopian novel sparked by a friend living in Denver.  She came here to Oregon a few years ago and never got to the ocean.  I wrote a book to take the ocean to her.  Poof, an entire book where the world is flooded and Denver is a coastal city.  The Wise Ones series started as a drawing by Andre’ Norton in her Gryphon books.  I drew the castle in the illustration and then wondered who would live in such a masonry confection.  I found her in Tiamat, the Sea Queen.  When I wrote that story of how a mousy little girl could become a queen worthy of that scenery, through her trials, I had the makings of an entire nine-book series.

It was serendipity at its best.  So, you see, I could never squeeze the universe into an elevator pitch.  Thank you for listening to a slightly longer version.

Bio – Lisa Lowell has been writing for most of her life, focusing mostly on historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, anywhere anything is possible.  She has three children and lives with her husband Pat in Oregon.  She teaches middle-school English because she has a masochistic streak that led her into being an author in the summer.

 

https://www.facebook.com/vikingauthor/

www.magicintheland.com

http://mybook.to/Talismans

http://mybook.to/LeyLines

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Dragon Image:  Imzuli in White by Paula Litchfield

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#ThankfulThursdayReblogs – Richard Ankers — Dragonscale Clippings

26 Thursday Apr 2018

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Welcome back to my Escape Pod Interview series. If you’re not familiar with this kind of post, please read the back story at Escape Pod Emulation! So, let’s open the Escape Pod door and find who’s managed to escape today… Hello there! It’s Richard Ankers! What 5 items have you brought with you? The first […]

via EPod Interview with Richard Ankers — Dragonscale Clippings

Definitely Thankful for this guy! A Great Writer…and a marvelous Friend.  If you’ve not experienced his particular brand of prose or fantasy/steampunk/sci-fi writing, you will LOVE visiting his blog.  Even if you have 😉   Pop by and tell him I sentcha 🙂

#GuestBlogger #Author Mary Deal Shares some #WritingTips!

22 Sunday Apr 2018

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Explanatory articles covering myriad intrinsic details such as these related to writing are included in my self-help volume, Write It Right – Tips For Authors – The Big Book. The Amazon URL: https://tinyurl.com/yanfjdeh

The Letter S

Drop the letter s. If you believe that one letter couldn’t possibly cause you to receive a rejection, I encourage you to think again, especially if the same mistake recurs throughout your manuscript.

Incorrect usage comes from the lax attitude about our English language. Most people speak in jargon or a brogue that comes from a certain locale. I call it family hand-me-down language.  Truth is, no matter from where you hail, your written grammar must be correct for the broader reading audience.

I’m speaking of the letter s. Check out these sentences:

She ran towards the garage.

The ball rolled backwards.

Look upwards.

These sentences are all incorrect. That is, the use of the letter s is incorrect.

The letter s denotes something plural. In the first sentence, moving toward something means you can only go in one direction. Toward.

If the ball rolled backward, it can only go in one direction. Backward.

To look upward, you can only look in one direction. Upward.

Not surprising, an example of an exception is:

She leaned sideways.

The rule here is that when leaning, you can lean sideways in more than one direction, therefore the use of the letter s.

You’ll find many other words that are incorrectly used with s endings. When you find these, make note of them, maybe a running list. You’ll have the list to refer back to when you question your own writing.

This is but one of the finite idiosyncrasies of producing better grammar when writing stories and books that you hope to sell. Study your own language and speech.

Watch how the s is used or omitted in books that you love to read.

Get into the habit of listening to the speech patterns of others. Think critically of what you hear, but never criticize of a person who speaks that way. Instead, mentally analyze what you have heard. Learn the right from the wrong of speech and your writing will reflect your knowledge.

Those S and ES Endings

These endings have always troubled me until I finally decided to get it right. Compare the versions and pick out the correct usages in this name ending with the letter s.

The Joneses came for dinner.

The Jones’s came for dinner.

The Jones came for dinner.

 

John Joneses car stalled.

John Jones car stalled.

John Jones’s car stalled.

 

That Jones’s girl.

That Joneses girl.

That Jones girl.

 

The correct sentences are:

 

The Joneses came for dinner.

John Jones’s car stalled.

That Jones girl.

Some tips:

When a name ends with an s, and when speaking of the family as a group, add es, as in Joneses.

When speaking about something John Jones owned, it is his property and, therefore, an apostrophe and s shows ownership, as in Jones’s.

When speaking about a person in the singular, use only the name Jones.

However, when speaking about a group of girls all named Jones, you would write that sentence: The Jones girls. Notice that the name stays the same but the s is added to the word girl, stating more than one exists with that name.

MY BIO

Mary Deal is an award-winning author of suspense/thrillers, a short story collection, writers’ references, and self-help. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Artist and Photographer, and former newspaper columnist and magazine editor. She is currently writing the third story in her Sara Mason Mystery Series, and a romance novel is now being published, which is a new genre for her. Other books coming soon will include her first poetry book and a second collection of more of her short stories.

She has traveled a great deal and has a lifetime of diverse experiences, all of which remain in memory as fodder for her fiction. A native of California’s Sacramento River Delta, where some of her stories are set, she has also lived in England, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and now resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is also an oil painter and photographer. Her art is used to create gorgeous personal and household products from her online galleries.

Find Her Online

Her Website: https://www.marydeal.com

Amazon Author Page: https://tinyurl.com/3z8pm31

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/o7keqf7

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/mdeal

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mary_Deal

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marydeal

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105175192934570097998

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MaryDeal

Her Art Galleries

Mary Deal Fine Art: https://www.marydealfineart.com

Island Image Gallery: https://www.islandimagegallery.com

Mary Deal Fine Art and Photography: https://www.facebook.com/MDealArt

LocalMe: https://www.redbubble.com/people/localme

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1deal

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~Mary Deal~

If you’d like to be a Guest Blogger on Booknvolume

Penniless Hearts – #GuestBlogger Eve Gaal

21 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by in Guest Bloggers on BnV

≈ 4 Comments

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April 18-2018- Thanks Cynthia for having me on your blog.

The unique thing about Penniless Hearts is that it’s hard to categorize my book’s genre as a typical romance, adventure or mystery. I’ve been told it’s humorous. Though funny in parts, it’s not slapstick funny all the way through. Some reviews call it screw-ball comedy. Some call it a beach read. I think of it as a fictional tapestry of good versus evil. Short vignettes interspersed with mild doses of pain, coming together with an emotional climax. I honestly planned the plot holes because I wanted the reader to infer my meaning, without bogging them down with too many boring details. No one ever told me the book was dull. Of course, I think it’s unique, but will you? Our publisher knows how to keep our group interesting and diverse. I’ve read several books by Creativia authors and find them fascinating. So many interesting characters!

Twists

Like everything truly enjoyable, there must be a twist. Like chocolate-twisted brioche, the more twists the better. Penniless Hearts is filled with short, seemingly unconnected chapters. Nowadays some readers have OCD or fashionably diminutive attention spans. Not you, of course. There’s also the rampant problem called limited time. Both conditions are spreading like wildfire.

One of my favorite humor writers says:

The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring- Carl Hiaasen

Even reading the book reviews can be entertaining—well they are to me anyway. The main theme is about a journey. Penny, my main character is going to Hawaii. That’s when trouble begins. In our modern, interconnected, wireless world, if you don’t charge your cell phone and lose your ATM card, strange things can keep you separated from those you love. Do you enjoy adventures that take you on a vacation somewhere?

Love

But Penny’s not sure about love. In fact, in the beginning of the book she’s pretty much relegated love to her fantasies. And like many cynical, would be lovers, true love is a make-believe creation that rides around on a white stallion and looks impossible to find.

Fortunately, in my personal life, I met a Prince from my imagination in the early nineties. No white stallion–just a beat up old, red truck and some pre-teen kids. We were married in Hawaii and it was dreamy enough to call us back to the islands for our first anniversary where the luster of our honeymoon looked different. Those cracks in the veneer of hospitality gave me a glimpse into what would someday help with the setting of Penniless Hearts. And though our love blossomed, and my daily newspaper position kept me busy, there were dramatic issues involving our stepchildren. Horrific issues. That kept me awake at night, while also providing fodder for my novel.

A Real Heroine

Finally, I left the paper and moved from Murrieta to the desert town of La Quinta, where I had time to write. Maybe I could inspire others to find true love? I had four reasons to write Penniless Hearts: First, I wanted my siblings to find spouses and thought that perhaps a sister’s words could prove there is hope at the end of the dating tunnel. Second, I wanted to indirectly thank the graphic artists who had worked hard to please me in the newspaper business. I also wanted to bring awareness to the endangered sea turtles of Hawaii. Lastly, I needed a main female character who could overcome, overachieve and triumph when facing the unthinkable. A true heroine.

Bestselling author Marilyn Collier said this about my character Penny:

“This is a wild escape fiction for someone that wants to laugh, root for or want to shake the heroine.”

Research

Those two trips to the islands, the internet, used books, old maps and travel articles rounded out my research. After watching hours of videotaped volcanic eruptions and online helicopter flights, all I needed was the tranquility of the desert to write Penniless Hearts. The added benefit is that after watching all those videos I can fly a helicopter and dodge flowing lava at a moments notice. Yeah sure, I’m kidding.

If you read Penniless Hearts and enjoy it, please write me a note or post a review to tell me all about it.

Bestselling author Norma Beishir wrote:

“Penniless Hearts is one of the best novels I’ve read in a very long time.”

New & Fresh

We have returned to the area we lived in before we moved to the arid desert. I live in a semi-rural place called Wildomar. It’s interesting to find out historic Wildomar has been around for a very long time. While I live in a commuter-styled, suburban home, there are bucolic ranch homes with horses nearby. Unlike the desert where we had to drive five miles for a loaf of bread, we can walk less than a mile for everything. We can even drive a short distance to a dairy for fresh milk! Plus, the climate is perfect.

Anyway, I have almost finished writing the romantic sequel to Penniless Hearts. It’s called Penniless Souls and I’m still polishing it up. It’s a tad darker, and though I can’t say the subject is light and lively, Penny gets caught up in all sorts of adventure and heartache, but this time in Vegas, instead of Hawaii. The only thing keeping her sane, is the thought that life is a game of chance. But is it?

Watch for Penniless Souls soon.

~Eve Gaal~

I really enjoyed visiting. Thanks again for this opportunity. Please stop by my blog if you have a chance at http://evegaal.blogspot.com

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If you’d like to be a Guest Blogger on Booknvolume

#GuestBlog on #BnV

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Guest Bloggers on BnV

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Hello fellow writers 🙂
 
I am looking for a few Guest Bloggers for my blog for the next few weeks as I undertake moving, learning a new job, and settling into a new life 🙂 
First and most importantly to me is that Booknvolume is a PG-13 Blog, so any posts, poems, photographs, etc., must pass that guideline, Please.  You are free to choose whatever topic you find appealing and you may share anything from poetry to flash fiction, short stories, artwork, photography, recipes, Inspirational Quotes, Spirituality, Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Character Sketches….in other words, I’m not going to restrict you as long as you follow the PG-13 Golden Rule.  🙂

Secondly, You will write the post, provide any links, photos w/ appropriate credit, your brief bio and author page, and I will schedule it for sometime within the next 2-3 weeks. I will give you the link for the post once it’s scheduled, which you will be able to access and share when it goes ‘live’. 

Thank you in advance for your support and assistance during this marvelous change in my life 🙂 ❤

And Thank You  for your interest in adding YOUR Voice to Booknvolume.   I look forward to sharing your talent with my readers and Very Much Appreciate your willingness to Help a fellow writer in need.

~Blessings~

~Morgan~

In The Lime Light – #Interview with Neha of #ForgottenMeadows #PoetryBlog

18 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews

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Today I have the pleasure of sharing fellow Poet Neha from Forgotten Meadows blog.
Neha is a dreamer, a published writer, and a business professional. She enjoys blogging and welcomes feedback from her readers. She hopes her writing makes you think and admire the little things life has to offer and reminds us that we always have time to imagine, to dream, and to follow your passion in life.

 

Please Introduce us to your Blog.  What is it all about?   What sorts of posts do you lean towards?  My blog forgottenmeadows.wordpress.com is a personal poetry and photography blog. I lean towards posts that are positive and spread the message of hope with my readers.

What Inspires and stirs your creativity?  I am a dreamer who loves to imagine, so it’s partly my imagination that stirs my creativity and of course, there is mother nature, my greatest source of inspiration.

Conversely, what do you find difficult to write about?  Loss and grief is difficult to write about, but it’s in writing that I find solace during these times.

What Message, if any, do you hope to Share through your blog/posts?  As mentioned earlier, I like to share the message of hope, I also hope to share the message to follow one’s dreams, the message of love towards one another, towards oneself, and towards earth and the message of peace.

What Inspires you to write your poetry?  This response is the same as what inspired my creativity. 😊

From what Point of View do you prefer to write? Is there a reason?  It depends on the individual piece, I have written poetry in all three.

Please share two or three of your favourite poems and tell us a little about them:  I am a bit of both, most of my poetry just comes to me intuitively but there are times where I painstakingly plot it out to fit a certain form, especially when I am trying an unfamiliar or new poetic style. Below are three of my poems that the reader might enjoy.

Let me find hope is about finding hope in the darkest days, Travel Dreams is about travel and exploring your curious heart, and Don’t give Up on You is about not giving up on oneself.

Let Me Find Hope: https://forgottenmeadows.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/let-me-find-hope/

Travel Dreams: https://forgottenmeadows.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/travel-dreams/?wref=tp 

Don’t Give Up on You: https://forgottenmeadows.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/dont-give-up-on-you/

 

If you had to describe yourself to someone who has never met you, what might you say?  I am an optimist and a dreamer, trying to pursue my passion for creative writing.

If you could meet one person from the past, who might it be and why?  I would like to meet Rumi or Plato and just have a conversation with them. I would like to feel enriched with the thoughts from their beautiful minds.

When you are NOT writing, what is your favourite pastime?  Spending time with my loved ones, trying new recipes and reading! 😀

Do you have a Mantra?  I have two: Everything will be alright and never stop dreaming!

You can find Neha here:

On twitter: https://twitter.com/follownehamba  
and on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forgottenmeadows/

She also has another blog: Quotes and Lyrics for the soul . Do check it out and read some inspirational quotes and lyrics. You can also follow Quotes and Lyrics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulquotesandlyrics/

She and her husband love trying new food and share their experiences on their food page – ‘Mile High Eats’.  https://www.facebook.com/milehigheats/

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Thank you so much Neha for Sharing your time and talents with BooknVolume. I love your poetry and it was a delight getting to know more about you.  Blessings~

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~Morgan~

Proclamation – #50-Word Sentences – #MicroFiction

04 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Flash Fiction and Shorts

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The endless soliloquy of sound and verbose motion surged within her thoughts like a spinning maelstrom; neither malevolent nor benevolent, yet raging with persistent energy in a dizzying cacophony of words and lush grammar that reached into her subconscious and, even amid the delicate threads of her dreams, proclaimed interminably.

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful photograph found on Pinterest.  Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the original photographer. Thank You~

#FridayFeyDay – Friendly Fairy Tales Blog #Spotlight

17 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews, Friday FeyDay / Fantasy

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Friendly Fairy Tales Blog

Please permit me the privilege of presenting the pleasing and positively pleasant Brenda Davis Harsham of Friendly Fairy Tales Blog found here: http://friendlyfairytales.com . Its the fairy magic that brings out the alliterations in me, but its Brenda that brings the smiles! Her glorious gardens for gazing, her prolific pleasing prose, the fanciful friendly fairies fluttering freely, and the sprinkling of softly spoken sagacity that brings me back to her beauteous blog again and again (and again and again!). When Brenda agreed to share her smiles and some secrets in this weeks In The Lime Light, I knew I would Love hearing what she had to share and I was in no way disappointed by her answers. Read on and enjoy her vim and verm, her wit and wisdom for yourselves 😉

About Your Blog:

Tell us about your Blog.
Friendly Fairy Tales is a place of magic where stories are born from the broth of words, stirred by imagination, stripped down to the bones. Poetry, photography and fairy tales celebrate nature and all the possibilities it sparks in our minds.

What Inspires you and Sparks your Imagination?
Nature, literature, song and people give me constant inspiration. Translating that inspiration into stories is the work of a lifetime.

Your blog boasts Poetry as well as Photography, do you have a favourite?
I’m not sure if you mean do I prefer poetry above photography or the converse OR if you mean do I have a favorite poem or photograph. I prefer the magic that happens when poetry springs from a photograph, bringing with it the memories of that moment in my life. I can’t pick a favorite poem or photograph. That would be like picking a favorite child, and I would never try to do that. They are all memories and songs of my heart.

Do you have any upcoming events or projects, books, promotions, giveaways?
I am sadly lacking any of those. What a slacker I am!! I am entertaining my children to the summer of their dreams (I hope), and burnishing story ideas whenever I have the chance. And I can’t help taking new pictures and writing new poems, because that is like breathing to me.

Brenda H

About YOU:

I was a sad little girl for so many reasons, but I had an epiphany in my early twenties that the secret of being happy was to declare that it was so. And so I have endeavored to do that, with more assurance and authority ever since, and dang if it hasn’t worked!

Brenda’s Bio:
A lifetime of nature observation collided with my love of fairy tales, giving birth to my blog. I do extensive research and use true stories about animal behavior in my writing. I’ve been published, and my writing has won hundreds of awards. I’m hard at work on a multitude of children’s book manuscripts. I hope to have one traditionally published soon. In addition, I’m a wife, a mom of three imaginative kids and a survivor.

Describe yourself in Five Words.
Phoenix reborn reclaiming happiness deliberately.

Tell us about something from your childhood that sparked the creativity bug inside you.
I’ve always had my own inner world, with a wise voice that helped me keep my balance in a rocky world. That inner voice taught me that telling myself stories was more fun than replaying disappointments and mistakes in a hyper critical way. Being a perfectionist is no picnic. Get off that train if you suffer from the same impossible expectations that I did. Unless you’re writing, in which case, edit, edit, edit. LOL

If you could go anywhere, do anything, regardless of expense, describe your Perfect Day.
I would have a tea party with my kids and all our friends in the Musee d’Orsay, right in full view of the Van Gogh collection, and not a drop of food would cling to my frock and not a bit of damage would happen to the art. We would then go paint plein air in Monet’s garden. Then we would take a helicopter to Provence, where we would lie on lounge chairs in a field of lavender, the fragrance surrounding us as we gaze at the milky way, in all its glory. Not a single bug would impinge on our moments of perfection. Then we would all teleport home to sleep in our own beds. (Oh I want to go along with you! Sounds Absolutely Magical!)

If you could invite Five People (from the past or present) to a dinner party, who would you invite and why?
Oh, my, such scope for the imagination. I’m quite overwhelmed. Frida Kahlo, Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Ogden Nash, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain. Oh, I can’t choose, I can’t!

What makes Life Worth Living?
Art, Family, Love, imagination, Faith, joy, Dreams, Nature. I want it all!

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SEE I told you it would be an Entirely Enjoyable Experience 🙂

Thank You Brenda for Sharing your insights with us. Im so Glad you agreed to be In The Lime Light!

~Morgan~

2017 Writing Goals

05 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by in About Me (since you Insist)

≈ 23 Comments

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Power of Words

It isn’t terribly surprising that at the onset of a New Year we might take some measure of time to review, re-assess and reorient ourselves and our direction.  Neither is it shocking to set out a few goalposts for the upcoming year, although admittedly those ambitions are not always realized.  In truth I am not one for making resolutions, because I tend to believe it’s far too easy to walk away from things we resolve to do simply because it’s the beginning of the year.

Setting Goals on the other hand has always been useful and attainable for me. Granted, it’s a fine distinction. It may all be a matter of the mind(set); nevertheless, what you find yourself Believing you are entirely capable of Achieving.  I typically tend to set goals in Threes.  ‘Now please don’t ask why, no one quite knows the reason’ (bonus points if you can tell me what book that quote is from!), but I find three manageable and once I accomplish all three, I’m always free to set three more!  I’ve also found it very helpful to be specific when setting out objectives, because, after all, one can say ‘Oh I want to go the beach’, but that leaves a great deal of unknown territory to cover later on.  What Beach? Where? And most importantly, Why?  If I iron out the details straightaway, there are fewer stumbling blocks to impede progress, or at least, it seems that way.

So without further blathering (because we all know how well I do that), here are the goals I’ve set out for myself, which you are free to track and I shall (hopefully!) remember to provide updates on as the year rolls along.

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Goal One – Priority Status – Complete Dark Fey: Breaking Into The Light

Completing the finale of the Dark Fey Trilogy is first and foremost in my thoughts.  It has been in progress the entire year, though it is already longer than either of its predecessors and, with multiple story lines running at once, it has proven to be far more challenging as well.  I am looking forward to the culmination of my message through this final installment of the Epic YA Fantasy

whispers-in-verse-bookcoverpreview

Goal Two – Poetry Book Project (Whispers In Verse)

Having mountains of poetry from BnV, it seems inevitable that it should end up in a book (or seven).  I’ve already decided on the categories: Poems of Peace, Quiet, Tranquility; Poems of Love and Longing; Poems of Inspiration and Belief; Poems of Nature; and Dark Poetry (yes I actually a some of that too!)  I’ve even designed the cover, as you can see, and created the description for the first of the series “Whispers in Verse”.

the-letter

Goal Three – Historical Fiction Project (The Letter)

Life for Adoralysse had always been harrowing, scarred by loss and cruelty.  Love and Trust were words she knew nothing of; only pain and sorrow filled her days until one snowy night when she was strong enough to escape her captivity.

Life for Lord Braden Lowerey of Chadlington Park had always been comfortable. Replete with more luxuries than he could ever want or need, his world was well-ordered, governable, and ruled by his benevolent nature.  Although he trusted no one and felt not a shred of romantic love for any, philanthropy was easy for him.  It provided a means of utilizing his millions while it kept him safely disconnected.  Until he discovered an unconscious beauty lying in the snow at the entrance to his expansive estate.

In that moment, his compassion leads him to make unanticipated decisions that draw him under the scrutiny of his peers and puts his reputation in jeopardy.  Her past is shrouded in mystery and her future a shadow of mistrust and fear; yet her welfare becomes his only concern and her happiness his sole desire.

But how will two hearts that know neither Trust nor Love open to either?

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What do you think? Sounds exciting to me, if nothing else.  Now, Go ahead…set a few goals for yourself. You might be pleasantly surprised come Dec 31st in all you have achieved!

~Blessings of Creativity and a Wealth of Words to all of you!

 

~Morgan~

Invitation for Guest Bloggers on BnV

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in About Me (since you Insist)

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Life is a Beautiful, Beguiling thing.  It lies quiet, waiting for us to open ourselves to our calling; then it fills our world.  Often, it fills to overflowing, which is a Blessing to Ever be Thankful for; yet in the world of writing it also often creates a conundrum. That being, I love to write, but now I have so many other things going on, I don’t have time to write and I really need to write!

Oh Dear….what to do, what to do?  Well, in my mind the solution is to Invite YOU to Share your gift(s) of writing and creativity through Booknvolume.  Simple, right? (Well, potentially.)

So here it is, my very first Official Invitation to YOU my fellow authors, writers, bloggers, photographers (Yes you too!) and artists, to Share your Talent through the pages of BnV via Guest Blogging.  Interested?  Intrigued? (even morbidly curious?) Then do please read on, Oh Intrepid One, and we shall lay some preliminary ground work.

First and most importantly to me is that Booknvolume is a PG-13 Blog, so any posts, poems, photographs, etc., must pass that guideline, Please.  You are free to choose whatever topic you find appealing and you may share anything from poetry to flash fiction, short stories, artwork, photography, recipes, Inspirational Quotes, Spirituality, Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Character Sketches….in other words, I’m not going to restrict you as long as you follow the PG-13 Golden Rule.  🙂

Secondly, Guest Writer dates will mainly be weekends and holidays (until I’ve caught up with writing ..Dark Fey, Breaking Into The Light dontcha know!).

Thirdly, dates will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis.  If you are interested, please contact me via the form below and we can iron out the relative details.

Finally, (though it really probably doesn’t need to be said), Guest Writers/Bloggers are on a voluntary basis.  No compensation other than my Gratitude and the Appreciation of my/our followers will be provided.

Still here?  Still fascinated?  Great (Mr Spock), here’s the contact form:
(IF you have a pop-up blocker running, the form may not appear)

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Thank You so much for all your support and for your interest in adding YOUR Voice to Booknvolume.   I look forward to sharing your talent with my readers and Very Much Appreciate your willingness to Help a fellow writer in need.

~Blessings~

~Morgan~

In The Lime Light – Roari Benjamin – #AuthorSpotlight

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews

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Is it Saturday already? OH How time flies, but no matter, because Saturdays mean Lime Lights and that is fine with me 🙂 Time to shine the spotlight on another well-deserving Writer/Creater/Poet/Author who I recently met via Twitter (great place, Really, you ought to visit sometime if you don’t usually). But who you can also visit at her blog: http://roaribenjamin.blogspot.com So, go ahead, grab a steaming cup of something soothing, sit back, relax and allow me to present Roari Benjamin, writer of sci-fi and fantasy laced with romance and adventure. She lives in Southern California’s High Desert with the love of her life, their son and daughter, three cats, two dogs, and a turtle. Roari LOVES being in the water, in spite of the fact that she lives in a desert. Continue reading →