The Perfect Christmas Stocking Fillers
Accent on Romance Christmas Giveaway Yes, there is still time before Santa’s Elves pack up shop. Enter a giveaway, download free or discounted books, and spend these holidays reading... which is, arguably, better than anything you might fit in a Christmas stocking...
Things We Say Today Which We Owe To Shakespeare
I found this on Facebook and just had to share (and yes, I know it's "bated breath," not "baited breath"). If you enjoy reading about Shakespeare, you may enjoy this post about he died a nobody and his works then got famous almost by accident or this list of...
J. Scott Coatsworth: Writing is Hard
Author J. Scott Coatsworth recently shared on his blog a post titled Writing is Hard, which struck a chord with me. I'm sharing here a lightly edited version of his original post (with his permission, of course) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂 Writing is...
Audiobooks: the Fastest-Growing Segment of Publishing
This is a post originally written for AzureFirePublishing. The Audiobook's Oral Past In ancient times, minstrels used to travel the known world to recite the epic adventures of Ulysses and his companions. In the Dark Ages, troubadours would sing the adventures of...
Hello, Gutenberg! How Can We Get Rid Of You?
WordPress 5.0 was released on Thursday, and many people (those who are self-hosting, for example) were in for a nasty surprise: their entire way of adding a new post will have changed dramatically. The new release replaces TinyMCE with Gutenberg; a completely new way...
Valiant Smile Now Available In Greek
It was my nameday yesterday and I had a lovely gift. You may remember how Patakis, a Greek publisher, has bought the rights to three of my children's books. The first one, Valiant Smile, is now available in bookstores and I was tickled pink to see it on the shelf. The...
RRBC RAVE WAVES BlogTalkRadio Interview
I was recently interviewed by Ron Yates on #RRBC Rave Waves and it was an amazing experience--the time just flew. Many thanks to the Rave Reviews Book Club for the honor, to my great host, Ron, and to everyone who helped with the interview! I hope you enjoy listening...
30 Sites that Pay Writers
I came across this post from the Maltese Tiger via Don Massenzio's blog. At first, I wanted to reblog the original post. However, there was no obvious way of doing so, and reblogging Don's post would make you jump through hoops. After some head-scratching, I decided...
The Value of Linguistic Fossils
The English language is a strange one, for sure, thanks to the Isles' long history of war and conquest. Each wave of conquerors left its mark on the language, from the Romans to the Vikings and Normans. Antiquated rules can cast long shadows, as seen even today by...
How People Really Decide To Buy Your Book
People judge a book by its cover. However, as every author knows, that's not the only thing that makes them buy a book. Tucker Max recently explained in The Writing Cooperative what else influences their decision in a post we should all bookmark. As he points out,...
A Writer’s Guide to Firearms: before the Modern Age (continued)
This is the last post in this series by my good author friend, William R. Bartlett's. It continues his discussion of all things firearms and deals with Flintlock weapons in particular. If you have missed the rest of this brilliant series on firearms, you can check it...
11 Tips For Writing Fantasy
My entire Pearseus series (five books) is sci-fi/fantasy, as are some of my short stories. So I was pretty excited when I came across a post on Reedsy with some great tips on writing fantasy. I'm summarizing here (and adding a few tips of my own), but be sure to check...