by Guest Author | Jan 13, 2021 | All Posts, Guest Authors, Writing Tips
Writing can be a lonely business. Obviously, it’s a task you have to do on your own, but is it really ALL by yourself? If you want to succeed and retain your sanity, there are several groups of people you need in your corner to make up your writing community:...
by Stoney deGeyter | Jan 9, 2021 | All Posts, Fiction
Read Chapter 1: Denial Guilt My eyes flutter open. I’m surrounded by blackness. Raindrops pelt my face like some sort of sick water torture. Laying in mud, I’m unwilling to move despite its attempt to engulf me from behind. The horn, the headlight, the sizzling and...
by Guest Author | Jan 6, 2021 | All Posts, Guest Authors, Writing Tips
There has been a true backlash of sorts in the past few decades against what are considered fantasy tropes. This counter-archetype revolution seems to have spawned the popularity of the “grim-dark” subgenre in fantasy fiction. It became quite vogue to write against...
by Stoney deGeyter | Jan 2, 2021 | All Posts, Fiction
Denial A cloud of acidic steam fills my mouth with the taste of antifreeze. A beam of light fails to penetrate the night that surrounds me. The single headlight, absent its counterpart, reflects off the raindrops and filters back through the shattered windshield....
by Guest Author | Dec 30, 2020 | All Posts, Guest Authors, Writing Tips
Like many authors, my writing started with a story that I just couldn’t get out of my mind unless I put it to paper. Walking my dog through a local park on a foggy evening, I began to wonder what might be hiding in the misty haze that blanketed the night. I...
by Guest Author | Dec 23, 2020 | All Posts, Guest Authors, Writing Tips
After you’ve written your first (or second or third) draft, it’s time to go through your manuscript and cut out any unneeded words cluttering it up. Wordiness muddles your message, slows momentum, and drags an anchor through the forward movement of your story. Any of...
by Stoney deGeyter | Dec 19, 2020 | All Posts, Writing Tips
After I completed the second draft of my first book, I knew it needed work. I wrote a story set in locations I had never been to. Or if I had, I had never really paid attention. If you know me even a little, you know I can be somewhat of a perfectionist. In my novel,...
by Guest Author | Dec 16, 2020 | All Posts, Guest Authors, Writing Tips
There’s no shortage of professional book marketing advice out there. But despite volumes of recommendations about author websites, social media, newsletters, and public relations, one author dilemma rarely gets addressed, and it’s the most simple and basic of them...
by Stoney deGeyter | Dec 12, 2020 | All Posts, True Stories
Editor’s Note: I stole this post from the introduction of my unfinished biography. A biography I started and abandoned when I was in my early twenties, approximately 25 years ago. I’m posting this here for two reasons: 1) I never let any good writing go to...
by Guest Author | Dec 9, 2020 | All Posts, Fiction, Guest Authors
I’ve tried to catch Santa out for three years, and still I’ve had no success! Even with my best whisperer and hunter, Curly Whiskers, we’ve failed. I know what you’re thinking – why would a cat be trying to catch Santa Claus? The thing is, the tuna in the...
