February 2012 Blog Posts (117)

I'm sponsoring a giveaway for "Legends of the Lake" on Goodreads...come check it out. http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/20455-legends-of-the-lake

Are there any Scrivener users aboard authors.com?  With the Windows release of the product, I was pleased to finally get a chance to try it out while revising short stories for my L.A. Limo Tales collection. Must say that I've barely scratched the surface of its capabilities but I'm very pleased with its ability to produce clean e-book files in all the major formats.  It looks to be an excellent writer's tool and it's…

To celebrate the release of my latest historical, Dark Deceit, I posted up a new excerpt on my blog. Have a peek! ;-)

Cathie Dunn Writes

See you there...

Cathie

Cathie Dunn

Historical Fiction & Romantic Suspense

www.cathiedunn.com…

I have a love:hate relationship and it is with technology. Don't get me wrong I agree with technology, especially for medical advances to cure people of disease or serious illness. And of course technology is great for writers to get their influence, message or stoires out there into the big wild universe.

But on the flip side I hate the fact that we rely on technology so much, example you're out shopping in the supermarket and you need to ask your partner what else you need in the…

The COLOURED SANDS sign post marked the beach where amazing multicoloured sand dunes towered over a pristine beach.  I knew with my next breath that I had the title for my first book of the Outback series, COLOURED SANDS.  

I had to find a way to work the title into the story line. This is how I did it:

1901: The selector's wife Mary is caring for Emily 8, who trundled down a creek bed for two days to find help after the shock massacre of her family. Emily is participating in…

http://stuartrclowes.blogspot.com/

I have never written a book in my life. The poems I do write are mediocre at most. I am not some big shot with a major in English that just came out of college, heck, I'm not even old enough to go to college yet. I'm not a genius that has amazing stories with suspenseful plots, with twists and turns. Although, I want to become that, that's why I'm here, to get great ideas and present them to people who actually know what the difference is between a good book and a bad one. So they can help…

Finally finished writing chapters 19 and 20 of my first full length novel. These chapters I found especially difficult as they are written as a flashback and are pivotal to the storyline.

I confused myself on numerous occasions and had to keep referring back to early notes on the plot, now I believe I can move the story forward and have the book in first draft form by the end of Feb earlier March. With a few to self publishing by June.

OK, the title of this post is perhaps a little silly and I am stating the obvious. There cannot be a writer out there who does not love books, but I am open to comments if you can prove me wrong. Anyway, my point is that I love books. I have always loved books. As a child, my mother taught me to read, and would take me to our local library every Saturday morning. I would step into that small one storey building full of excitement and happiness, and spend a few hours searching the shelves in…

I didn't think this morning, I'd end up on this wonderful website. Although I do have a bit of confusion. I'm not seeing any where to add personal links. Perhaps we aren't allowed to add them. So, if you happened to stumble on this post, could you help a new member out by letting me know if we are allowed to add our links to our sites? I really don't want to go against the Terms of…

I need some advice, and I decided that people who actually get paid to write were the best ones to ask. We homeschool, and although my son likes to write, he's never taken any kind of writing class. Several friends with older kids (middle school) have their kids currently enrolled in a writing class that's good, and that the kids enjoy, but the teacher will be moving on to other projects at the end of the school year and will no longer be able to teach this class. It has been suggested that…

Period dramas in Australia -   Not a castle anywhere, but we do have Country Mansions. 

 We do not have grand old castles in Australian history, absolutely not possible with only two hundred years of settlement behind us; but we do…

Good evening to those most likely very few readers out there of my first online blog!

Let me start by introducing myself: My given name is Collette Heather Martin (although I dabble in the art of Burlesque of which my stage name is Lette Von Lush)

I suppose now I should talk about how I have loved reading and writing ever since I was young, when truthfully, I hated reading when I was a child. No matter how hard I tried (which, looking back, was most likely not…

I’ve been a member of several writers’ critique groups over the years and I’ve come to realize a major factor in each group’s downfall has been the lack of writers. This may seem quite logical, but it’s true for any group. Knitters, martial artists, foreign language studies, puzzlers…if you are a part of a group and aren’t involved in the activity, the group suffers. A few more lackadaisical people and the group collapses, becomes less fun, or has less worth for those who are…

Concise writing is clear writing. By definition, concise writing communicates in as few words as necessary. Everything in a sentence other than the subject, verb, and object is description. Descriptions cause most of the “fluff” in sentences, but, fortunately, some simple strategies will help you write concise descriptions.

Simplifying…