Every writer knows this drill. You put words to paper (or screen), read them over and think, “Hey, that’s not half bad. In fact, I am a genius.” Okay, maybe not those exact words. I started my first novel with no clear idea of where I wanted it to go. By the time I took…
Author: DremaDeoraich
Intermission
How often have you come back from a week vacation and felt as though you needed a few days off to recuperate before heading back to work? That’s where I am right now. But it’s all good. I got to spend time with family exploring new territory in an island nation I’d never visited (Bermuda)….
Back Burner
Recently, I finished a speculative fiction short I’ve shown to no one yet (except hubby). I haven’t even looked at it myself in almost two weeks. I wrote, finished and set it aside. On purpose. I’d heard of this tactic before, but never tried it. Then several short stories were rejected months after I’d submitted…
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King Pocket Books © 1999, 2002 ISBN 9780743455961 Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages, $11.19 The “King” of horror fiction got his start just like most other writers: trial and error and a lot of persistence. Growing up in Maine, surviving high school, thriving in college, then working a day job, raising a family,…
The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman
Pan Publishing © 2014 ISBN 1101988649 Mass Market Paperback, 354 pages, $36.99 hardcover Imagine a reality where librarians live forever (or near enough), a truly magical place that intersects with other worlds and other timelines through hidden doors and a secret language. This is the world of The Library, an enormous secret world where agents…
Like Minds and Other Sounding Boards
Earlier this year I signed up for fiction classes at my local writer’s center (The Muse Center – the-muse.org). Two were one-time workshops: one to focus on finding and querying an agent, and one to discuss the importance of the first 1000 words in a manuscript. Both were excellent, and gave me a lot to…
Idea Storm
For some reason, lately my head is full of ideas for stories. No, seriously. It’s always been full of ideas for a single story, one that had many parts and threads. Now, the ideas are independent of that tale, branching out into a number of different directions and genres. Two new novels are simmering amongst…
Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer
Tor Books, © May 2016 ISBN 9780765378002 Hardcover, 432 pages, $11.42 Several hundred years in the future, Earth—and human civilization—is completely unrecognizable. Religion has been outlawed. Gender pronouns are eradicated, as is a binary gender system. Select criminals are no longer imprisoned. Instead, they are put to work as Servicers in whatever capacity best benefits…
The Queen of Blood: Book One of the Queens of Renthia
by Sarah Beth Durst HarperCollins Publishers, L.L.C. © 2016 ISBN 978-0-06-241334-5 Print length 368 pages, $19.99 Renthia’s spirits want to create, according to their nature. Earth spirits wish to make things grow. Wood spirits build. Water spirits flow, and so on. But more than anything else, they long to destroy. Not just each other. Not…
It’s Been How Long?
Wow … I just realized it’s been a whole month since I posted – Sorry y’all! It’s been a crazy few weeks and the time just got away from me. (Read “Finding Time to Write,” also posted today.) Truth is, in the last month, I finished a tiny revision on my novel and sent it…