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Thank you for visiting the Nicholas C. Rossis author blog! Before becoming an author, I had no idea just how much work book marketing entails: it’s never been easier to publish your work, but it’s never been harder to get people to read it. So, my blog is mostly aimed at helping authors with their book marketing efforts and at sharing every trick of the trade I pick along the way.
You may also be interested in my web design services aimed at authors. I also post writing tips and free stories. For some fun reading, visit the Fun Historical Facts and the Entertainment sections. If you like what you see here, check out my books on Amazon. And if you leave a comment or contact me, I’ll keep you up-to-date with my news and send you exclusive short stories as a ‘thank-you’. Oh, and please feel free to reblog and share. I’ll be grateful to you if you do! For an easy way to do so, or for those who have trouble viewing this blog, I have set up a mirror blog on nicholasrossis.wordpress.com.
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The Problems with Publishing
Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch recently shared a must-read post about today's state of publishing, aptly titled Trainwreck, Fall Edition. As she explains, she tried in June to order a copy of a book she liked for her sister. However, she wouldn’t get the book until...
A Few Days Off
Apologies for the brief hiatus. My dad passed last week from a sudden heart attack. He was on his feet until the very last moment, and we're grateful for that. Still, the shock was great. He left no will, so my mom and I now have to go through a small forest of red...
Basing Your High-Fantasy Towns and Cities in the Real World
I wisely started the map and made the story fit. The above words, spoken by none other than J.R.R Tolkien, have been taken as sage advice by many an accomplished – or budding – fantasy writer who felt inspired to create their own world. While Tolkien, like many...
Bathing in the Middle Ages
Continuing with my last post's theme on bathing through history, this one deals specifically with bathing in the Middle Ages. While the Crusades are generally blamed for a number of things, they triggered significant advances in the West. Indeed, some scholars think...
A Brief History of Bathing
A reader of my fantasy sci-fi series, Pearseus, once joked that I have a strange fascination with showers. And it's true; I think of them as a great example of things we take for granted but are actually pretty new. In this day and age, we enjoy a lot of conveniences...
Parts Of A House With Names You Probably Didn’t Know
One of the hardest things for me is writing detailed descriptions of houses. Part of it is that I'm impatient by nature and I tend to gloss over long descriptions when reading. But part of it is also that it can be hard to write a nice description of a house without...
Girl Power and the She-cession
I once had a look at my visitors and was pleasantly surprised to discover that most of them are women. I say pleasantly because, as the father of an, ahem, energetic 4-year-old girl, I know all about girl power. Nothing pleases me more than seeing women succeed (okay,...
The Future of Barnes and Nobles
The Passive Guy recently shared a post by Jane Friedman on the future of Barnes & Noble; a topic you may remember from my earlier post, "How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble." Quite frankly, Jane's post made me sad. The latest chairman, James Daunt, is credited...
Ancient Travels
I came across an interesting question on Quora the other day: What was the approximate travel time between London and Rome in the 13th century? As Frank Melling, author of "A Sixpence in the Settee," points out, this is not a simple question to answer, as it depends...
Free Online Character Name Generators
I have an unusual relationship with character names, probably because I have such a poor memory (as Electra likes to point out). Quite frankly, I don't particularly like the process of coming up with names. As the saying goes, you don't know how many people you...
Unknown Medieval Weapons
Everyone's heard of swords and spears. But how about the Goedendag, the Ahlspiess, or the Hussite flail? If you write historical fiction, you may appreciate this opportunity to spice up your weapons, courtesy of Quora. The Goedendag Essentially, the Goedendag (Dutch...
How Fiction Can Inspire Business Writing
Business writing includes memos, reports, proposals, emails, and a variety of other business-related written materials. It usually gets pretty bad press among both readers and writers. It is seen as boring and tedious, making for dreary reading - and even worse...
Remembering 9/11
Every year, this is a post I wish I didn't have to write. Will the pain ever fade?
How to Make the Best Choice of Ghostwriting Services
Besides my freelance SEO copywriting, I have ghostwritten a book, which is awaiting publication (more on that soon!). Anyone interested in this line of work should send their potential clients to this article to ensure a good collaboration. Written from the point of...
100+ Internet Statistics And Facts
The team at Hostingclues has created an exhaustive snapshot of the state of the Internet today. It contains over a hundred facts and statistics to create an impressive Infographic. For anyone using the Internet, it makes for fascinating reading! Key numbers Some key...
Dormice and Other Ancient Delicacies
I have a confession: besides writing, I love cooking and I love food. Perhaps that explains why the parts I enjoy most in fantasy or historical fiction books concern the little things - things like food and drink. What kind of dinner do the protagonists enjoy, given...
What Does Fantasy Get Wrong about Medieval Warfare?
Largely thanks to Tolkien, the fantasy genre consists basically of how we imagine the Medieval times. Readers of this blog will know of my many articles on the Middle Ages and my keen interest in historical accuracy. In the interest of improving our (fantasy) writing,...
How to Kill a Word
I came across this great slideshow by Patrick McLean on Slideshare (many thanks to Laura for the tip!) As a big part of writing and, particularly, editing is removing redundant words, I thought you'd enjoy it as much as I did! [slideshare...
What Are Your Anxiety Dreams Telling You?
As you may recall, much of my writing inspiration comes from my dreams and I have often written about dreams in my blog. I recently came across an interesting article on Casper about so-called “quarantine dreams” or “coronavirus dreams.” These are anxiety-ridden...
Happy St. Fanourios’ Day
Today, Greece is celebrating St. Fanourios' Day. Because of a wordplay on the Saint's name, whose name roughly translates into "Finder," people pray to him when they need help with finding something. Now, when I say "finding," this can be interpreted either quite...
7 Ways to Boost Your Author Brand
The inspiration (and Infographic) for this post came from Resume Now, which has an article about branding yourself. While they are focusing on job applications, what they say is remarkably useful for those building an author brand, too. I am summarizing below, but I...
Infographic: Free Online Tools to Organize Your Writing
Online Schools Report has created a guide to help college students organize their studies. It includes a bunch of organizational apps, note-taking apps, brainstorming apps, and productivity apps to cover each aspect of studying. However, upon reading it, I realized...
The Best Way to Promote Your Books
What is the best way to promote your books? The answer comes from an interesting article on GrowSurf.com that explained the power of referral marketing. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), there are more than 2.4 billion brand-related...
Creepy Book Inspiration from the Middle East
This is a guest post by David Collins. David is a marketing specialist and essay writer from Manchester, UK. He loves to share his ideas and knowledge about marketing, writing, and blogging with his followers through his blog. Currently, he is working as a marketer at...
The Highs and Lows of Writing Books
This is a guest post by Arslan Hassan. Arslan is an electrical engineer with a passion for writing, designing, and anything tech-related. His educational background in the technical field has given him the edge to write on many topics. He occasionally writes blog...
Kali Panagia
Today, Greece celebrates the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. This is a big deal: it's the third-greatest celebration in Greece, right after Christmas and Easter. And I've heard plenty of people wish each other, "Kali Panagia" - loosely translated to "happy Virgin Mary...
News-Writing Tips
This is a guest post by Alison Guest. Alison works with Writing Help to offer professional essay editor services and custom writing services at highly competitive prices. News-writing tips The number of independent news outlets is rapidly growing. Their popularity is...
Flame-Bladed Swords
Fantasy often sports unusual weapons like the flame-bladed sword: But how historically accurate are they? Were these actually ever used in battle? And if so, why? Murphy Barrett has the answer in Quora! Why a Flamberge? A flame-bladed sword - aka flamberge - would...
Next Up: a Copywriting Book
You may remember Rayne Hall from my previous mentions of her and her work on my blog. Rayne is a trained publishing manager with thirty years in the publishing industry and over fifty books published. You have probably bought some book of her celebrated Writer's Craft...
Does Marketing Even Work?
If you're like me, you're probably wondering from time to time why you even bother marketing your books. I mean, there have been times when everything I'd try would seem to be in vain. When, at best, I broke even on my Ads. When people wouldn't read my work if I...
Free Historical Mexican Recipes
I love Mexican food and cook it regularly (including today, actually). So, I was thrilled when I heard on Atlas Obscura that The University of Texas at San Antonio was digitizing the largest collection of historic Mexican cookbooks in the United States. While the...
Video in Email Marketing
I have written in the past on the subject of using videos in your emails. I now came across a great infographic on the subject, courtesy of One Productions, a corporate video production company in Dublin. Apparently, the average office worker receives 121 emails every...
Perseverance Blasts Off
A $2.7 billion NASA rover, Perseverance, blasted off into clear skies over Florida’s Cape Canaveral yesterday (Thursday, July 30th) atop an Atlas V rocket, as The Washington Post and The Curious report. The launch marks the start of a nearly seven-month journey to...
3 Hard Science Fiction Ideas
Many of my readers enjoy science fiction as much as I do. Jacob Baumgardner recently shared an answer about which emerging technologies may have the greatest impact in the near future. He identified three: fusion power, rail/coilguns, and pre-coolers. I imagine that...
What Is the Oldest English Word?
Someone asked this on Quora and Oscar Tay gave a fascinating answer. The oldest recorded word In English is Gægogæ mægæ medu. The Undley Bracteate In 1982, a farmer in Undley Common, Suffolk, England, was walking across his field when he came across a fantastic bit of...
Medieval Rules for Travelers: Here’s My Wife
If you watch any fantasy movies or any fiction taking place in the Middle Ages, you will probably think that travelers camped outside in the open with nobody around for miles. As Joanna Arman explains in Quora, this is not the case. So, if you're a fantasy or...
Free Online Magazines
Two free online magazines are asking for submissions and looking for new subscribers. If you're not familiar with them, they're well worth checking out! Writer's Grapevine The first one is Writer's Grapevine, created by Patty Fletcher. As I told her when she sent me a...
Medieval Chess Troubles
Medieval monasteries had a serious problem. Instead of 100% focusing on their spiritual and earthly duties, many monks loved besting each other at chess. The Medieval version of “video games cause violence” was, “playing chess leads to blasphemy.” Things got so bad...
Some of My Favorite Writing Blogs
I haven't written one of these posts in ages, so I wanted to give you a few links to blogs and websites that have provided me with plenty of writing tips and inspiration. I apologize in advance if you have an excellent blog that's not mentioned below. Charles...
DesignCap Updated Review: Infographics, Maps, and More
Back in November 2019, I reviewed DesignCap, an online tool allowing you to create professional-looking visual material for social media and webpages. Six months later, I still use DesignCap occasionally, when I need to create stylish visuals quickly. This update...
How to Design Your Book Cover
Dave Chesson, aka Kindlepreneur, recently published what I think is the ultimate guide to designing your book cover. While I use Alex of 187Designz for all of my book covers, Dave has compiled a list of: The best book cover design software, both paid and free; Book...
Sci-Fi Tip: Futuristic Construction Technologies
My Ph.D. thesis, Design in the Digital Age: In Search of a Collaborative Paradigm, was all about finding novel ways to help designers interact with their clients. I had envisioned a tablet-based Virtual Reality environment with Augmented Reality elements for the...
7 Tips to Write a Killer Book Presentation
This is a guest post by Daniela McVicker. Daniela is a contributor to Essayguard. She has a master's degree in English Literature and is truly passionate about learning foreign languages and teaching. Daniela works with the students to help them reveal their writing...
Getting Married in the Middle Ages
Whether you're writing Medieval history fiction or fantasy, you will appreciate this Quora answer by Helena Schrader, who borrowed from an article she wrote for The Medieval Magazine. To this, I have added information by Brent Cooper, taken from medievaltimes.com....
Translating Puns
As anyone who's been following my blog for a while surely knows, I love puns and bad dad jokes (often the same thing). And I often use them in my work, especially in my children's books. Which becomes rather problematic when translating them into Greek. How can...
Back from Lefkada
I apologize for disappearing on you this past week. We spent a week on the island of Lefkada, in the Ionian Sea. Since I now have over 2K emails to wade through, I hope you'll forgive me if I'm uncharacteristically brief and just share a few photos of this lovely...
Every Swordsman Cheats
When writing fantasy, we often have to describe fight scenes. Swordfights, in particular, make for great descriptions. But we often forget one crucial aspect of fighting: when it comes to life or death, everyone cheats. Even the good guys, as Martin Lloyd points out...
Book Sales COVID-19 Increase
Since March 2020, PublishDrive has been generating digital book sales reports, compiling hard-to-find data from various outlets, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play Books, libraries, regional stores, and more. They have now published their stats for...
The Real Archery
I was reading an interesting answer on Quora about Mongol strategy when a battle description caught my eye: Seeing this, the archbishop spurred his on his horse and gave them chase. Eventually, they reached a marshland and they crossed it swiftly. The archbishop did...
Happy Father’s Day 2020
Of all the parts I've played in the theater of life, being a dad is the most meaningful to me. Which is why I so enjoyed learning about Tom's Bad Dad Jokes. As the Washington Post reports, Tom and Ann Schruben have started posting “Bad Dad Jokes” on a sign outside...
How Libraries Are Coping with the Pandemic
I recently published a post on how the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be affecting publishing. While that article focused on publishers, we now have some interesting data on how it has affected libraries, thanks to NPR (many thanks to my author friend, Elle Boca, for...
Who Could Build a Castle in the Middle Ages?
In my last post, I explained how a Medieval army could assault a castle. But who built the castle in the first place, and how expensive were they, anyway? Luckily, Helena Schrader and Quora have the answer. Before we move on, though, let's answer a different question:...
Medieval Castle Assaults
I came across some great answers by Jon Bourgetti, Patrick Ashby, Alexander Taylor, and Steve Blanchard on Quora on the subject of assaults on Medieval castles. Whether you write fantasy, historical fiction, or just love history as much as I do, I think you will enjoy...
Robocall Scams
I've been reading recently Grinders by C.S. Boyack (and making slow progress thanks to the wee one being always around - sorry, Craig!) Craig, who's obviously a time traveler visiting from the future, has holographic walking ads following you wherever you go in 2173....
Free Author Resources
In my last post, I wrote about some of Dave Chessson's, aka Kindlepreneur's, free author resources, including his Free Amazon Book Description Generator. Today, I have more free author resources that can prove invaluable to your author promos, courtesy of my author...
Free Amazon Book Description Generator
A few years ago, I had posted about Dave Chesson, aka Kindlepreneur, and KDP Rocket — a tool that generates the best keywords for your Amazon books. To understand the importance of keywords, check out Dave's post on Kindle Keywords, or this one on Fiction Keyword...
How to Properly Capitalize Your Titles
One of the trickiest things about freelance copywriting work is confirming to each blog's or publication's standards. For example, how to capitalize your titles. I'm sharing here what I've learned so far in the hopes that some of you may find it useful. The...
Internet Archive Faces Lawsuit Over Free E-Books
As Elizabeth A. Harris of the New York Times reported on Monday, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Wiley accused the nonprofit Internet Archive of piracy for making over 1 million books free online. A group of publishers sued Internet Archive on...
4 Dog Breeds That Were Popular in the Middle Ages
For many, the Stark family's direwolves brought a welcome layer of realism to the show, reminding readers and viewers of the close relationship between man and dog. The direwolves were, in fact, not really wolves at all, though they certainly look wolf-like. They are...
Free Content Creation Online Tools
Since I started working as a freelance SEO copywriter, I have been using various online collaborative tools. I am constantly amazed by how many such tools exist and how few of them I'd heard of prior to starting my new career. This guest post by Thomas Glare includes...
How to Stay Motivated When Working from Home
With the exception of 6 dreadful months, I've been working from home for over 25 years now. So I was blessed in that the COVID-19 lockdown didn't hit me as hard as most. Talking to friends who aren't used to working from home reminded me of how hard it can be for...
The Real Wild West
We all know of the Wild West. Or do we? There are so many misconceptions and myths surrounding it, and so many of these are repeated in cowboy fiction and Western movies alike. So, here are some common misconceptions about the cowboys, Native Americans, and the Wild...
Who Loves Tom Swift?
No, Tom Swift is not a person. A Tom Swifty is a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is attributed. The standard syntax is for the quoted sentence to be first, followed by the (humorous) description of the act of speaking....
Marketing your Book with Story Origin
This is a guest post by my author friend, Effrosyni Moschoudi. She is well versed in all things Indie and an expert in book promos. She kindly agreed to share with us her experience with Story Origin, a newsletter-swapping service that has helped her promote her work....
Common Fiction Writing Mistakes
I came across a nice thread on Quora (here and here) about common mistakes in fiction. I am sharing here the ones that I agreed with. I found particularly interesting to see which mistakes different people mentioned, as many of them contradicted each other. This makes...
How Robots will Change Construction
Back in January, I shared the history of Luddism and predicted that we're bound to see similar social turmoil as robots displace workers and factory lines get increasingly automated. But the future is already here, it seems: BigRentz recently shared a fascinating...
The Oldest Buildings in the US
I know that most of you share my passion for history, so I thought you'd enjoy this infographic with the oldest buildings in the US I found on BigRentz. They say that the difference between the US and Europe is that 100 miles is a long distance in Europe but 100 years...
Improving your Sleep Hygiene
Sleep seems to be a recurring theme in my blog, probably because the wee one doesn't let me get enough myself. I have already written about How Better Sleep Can Boost Your Writing, shared an Infographic on Bizarre Sleeping Habits of Famous People, and offered some...
Rich as a King
Despite what you may have heard from Robin Hood, King Richard I of England may have had the heart of a lion but brains? Hmm... A sloth* comes to mind rather than a rocket scientist. Richard the Lionheart was a brave soldier, a great crusader, and won many battles...
New Launch: Demon Tracker
Aurora J. Alexander is launching Demon Tracker, the third book in her Council of Twelve series. Demon Tracker Zepheira is the best Demon Tracker working for the Good side. With her unusual looks, her phenomenal sense of smell, and her bravery, she quickly draws ‘The...
A New Normal for Publishing?
How do people and firms respond to the pandemic lockdowns? One particularly interesting example comes from Books-A-Million. As The New Publishing Standard reports (shared by Passive Guy), America’s second-largest bookstore chain, Books-A-Million, is readying for...
COVID-19 Enhances Amazon’s Reliability and Credibility
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended our lives, forcing us to live digital lives rather than physical ones. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Amazon.com Inc. reported soaring quarterly sales because of a surge in online orders from homebound customers contending with the...
Lost in Translation
Atlas Obscura recently had published an interesting article on mistranslation—specifically, menu ones. Emily Monaco, a culinary translator, was explaining how challenging menus can be to translate, from the odd but understandable “ink fish” in place of squid to...
Is Ingram-Lightning the Future of Publishing?
The other day, I came across an eye-opening article through The Passive Guy. Veteran publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin was describing the ways that the Coronavirus is changing the publishing industry. Among his main takeaways is that supply chains have been so...
EDIT Premium Lifetime Offer
Back in November, I wrote a series of reviews for online graphics tools. EDIT was one of the best ones I could find. It offers a bunch of templates to choose from and helps you create design material for your social media and web pages. You can also use it to produce...
A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 11
After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. Here's the next chapter. Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on Wattpad. A Heaven for Toasters...
Around the World in 10 Bookmobiles
Today, the internet gives everyone access to whatever they want, so searching for a good book is extremely easy to do. In times where we did not have internet access, however, people had to look for other options to be able to access books and read. Book shops and...
Free Writing Course by Rayne Hall
You may recall how I recently followed a great workshop by Rayne Hall organized by OIRWA. Now, Rayne is offering a special free seminar aimed at self-isolating writers who wish to take advantage of the pandemic downtime to hone their writing skills. Course...
Fall of the Roman Republic
As a child learning history at school, I often wondered why the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire. Had the people had enough of voting? Was this forced upon them? If so, why didn't they revolt, especially given how awful emperors like Caracalla were? I mean,...
Blogging Statistics
My article on The Evolution of Blogging has turned out to be one of my most popular posts. So, I have some more information on the subject of blogs and blogging for you, courtesy of Logomaker. As I make most of my living writing blog posts as a freelance writer, this...
10 Types of Readers you Meet During a Lockdown
Angela Haupt of the Washington Post recently shared a fun list with the types of readers you meet during a lockdown. I belong to the very first group. With a restless 4-year-old always around and with both Electra and me working from home, getting a free moment to...
How to Use Colors in your Book Covers
A couple of years ago, I posted an infographic on How Color Can Boost Your Book Sales. Today, I am sharing some tips on color connotations courtesy of Dan Matthews of Avasam. They will help you create the perfect book cover. Yes, I know we're not supposed to judge a...
Happy Easter
Orthodox Easter is next Sunday but I thought it made more sense for me to post this today. Last year, I wrote about Greek Orthodox Easter and how Greeks celebrate it. With a country on lockdown, it's funny how few of these customs can be observed this year. We'll be...
A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 10
After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. Here's the next chapter. Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on Wattpad. A Heaven for Toasters...
Email Video Marketing
I have written in the past extensively about email marketing, video marketing, and even live video marketing. But email video marketing? Is that even a thing? Turns out that yes, it is. Basically, instead of writing up an email, you record a video and send it to your...
Writing Interactive Fiction
A couple of years ago I wrote about the Choose Your Own Adventure books. In the books—for those not familiar with them—you read until you come to a decision point, which prompts you to flip to another page, backward or forward. They invite you into an exciting,...
Whisker Smile Wins Prestigious IBBY Award
I had some great news a few days ago: my illustrator, Dimitris Fousekis, called me late at night, sounding really excited: our children's book, Whisker Smile (available only in Greek for now) had won the prestigious IBBY award! Whisker Smile is our second children's...
5 Dramatic Techniques to Transform Your Writing
ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors, recently published a post on dramatic techniques by Jules Horne, author of Dramatic Techniques for Creative Writers. With a background in scriptwriting, Jules is perfect for explaining how the dramatic techniques used in...
Happy April Fools’ Day 2020
It's April 1st today, also known as April Fools' Day. While past years I wrote about highbrow pranks like the 7 best literary hoaxes, this year is a strange affair. Lockdowns and quarantines feel like an endless prank the universe is playing on us. So, I thought I'd...
A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 9
After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. Here's the next chapter. Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on Wattpad. A Heaven for Toasters...
What Happened to Latin After the Fall of Rome?
Readers of this blog will be aware of my fascination with all things linguistic. So, I just had to share Susanna Viljanen's and Dan Toler's answers on Quora on what happened to Latin once Rome was no more. It may surprise many to realize that Latin is alive and well...
Working from Home Tools: Wondershare SignX
Part of my freelance writing is signing documents like non-disclosure agreements, contracts, etc. If you regularly work from home, or if the current pandemic has you working from home, then you, too, probably communicate online with customers and co-workers. If so,...
Atop the Super-Duper High Hill of the Mountain
Greece is in lockdown mode because of COVID-19. We're urged to avoid getting out of the house for anything that's not essential - basically, doctors and supermarkets. Even the churches have closed down, to avoid spreading the virus. This past week has been pretty...
Well-crafted “Mary Sue”/”Gary Stu” Characters
There is a fascinating discussion right now on Quora on Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters. People argue in favor and against the possibility of writing a well-crafted, enjoyable character like that. For anyone not familiar with the Mary Sue term (Gary Stu or Lary Stu are...
Infographic: Selling your Business with Ebooks
Did you know that a great way to promote a business is through an ebook? As regular readers of this blog know, I have been focusing on freelance writing this past couple of years. So, this is a tip that may be of particular interest to non-fiction writers and anyone...
Five myths about Jane Austen
Jane Austen, the writer of Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility (among others) is widely considered ignored in her lifetime--and a bit of a prude. As Devoney Looser explains in The Washington Post, these are just two of the persistent myths surrounding...
A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 8
After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. After neglecting it for a while, here's the next chapter. Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on...
OIRWA 2020 Workshops
Last week, I started attending Creating Great Villians, a great workshop on villains from OIRWA - the Outreach International Romance Writers Chapter of RWA®. Taught by Rayne Hall, one of my favorite writing aids authors, it is just one of four courses OIRWA offers...
How I Became a Freelance Writer
When I wrote in my last post about the Evolution of Blogging, I didn't expect so many people to contact me asking how I managed to become a more-or-less full-time freelance writer. A friend even said that she knows a lot of disabled writers who would be great at it...