USA Today Bestselling Author
Well, yesterday I did something I don’t get as much time to do lately as I’d like. I sat and finished reading a book. Unfortunately, this book was an older romance (published in the early ’90’s). I ordered it and the sequel from Paperbackswap.com because the sequel had been talked about on an Amazon.com discussion … Read More
Dialogue (or dialog) tags tend to trip some writers. Add to the mix that the US tag standard differs from the UK, and it can add to the confusion. CORRECT: “I don’t like spinach,” she said. CORRECT: She said, “I don’t like spinach.” INCORRECT: “I don’t like spinach.” she said. INCORRECT: “I don’t like spinach.” … Read More
Anchors away for our next topic! Um, no, not really. “Aweigh” is correct, however. This hint goes well with the word salad post from last week. See, the English language is a hair-rippingly funny beast. The bastardized, red-headed step-child of many different languages, it causes quite a bit of confusion. And that’s just for those … Read More
Continuing the writing how-to series, another frequent issue that crops up, especially in romance/erotica novels — guys speaking unnaturally. “You little minx.” Now, honestly. When have you EVER heard a modern guy call a woman a “little minx?” I’m not talking a period/historical (although in those I think it’s overused too). Or a hellcat, spitfire, … Read More
Continuing the writer how-to series, our next quickie topic: word salad. That’s probably not the best term, because there is a condition called word salad, but for the purposes of this tip it’s the phrase I’ll use. Here’s how you prevent this condition (and yes, I am screaming): DO NOT RELY ON YOUR SPELLCHECK FEATURE! … Read More
(Before I kick off the first in my writing how-to series, I wanted to put out a shameless self-promotion plug for my new book, “Good Will Ghost Hunting: Hell’s Bells,” book 2 in the series. It’s available starting today from Lyrical Press. Woot!) (Edit 11/3/2018: It’s available through Siren-BookStrand. Click here for the Good Will … Read More
I’ve got a new free story posted in the Free Reads & Excerpts section of my LesliRichardson.com website, titled, “Of Shuffleboard and B-Negative.” It’s a twist on the traditional vampire tale. Also, today I’m guest-blogging at Lyrical Press: http://lyricalpress.blogspot.com The topic: Characters. Come. First. If you’re a writer, you won’t want to miss it. If … Read More
Well, we survived the storm. Luckily it wasn’t much of an impact on our area. Still have the boards up, but we’ll get those down in the next couple of days. A chance comment and reply to a friend on an email list today prompted me to think about this and toss the question out … Read More
(This is my weekly contribution to the Amira Press Says blog at: http://amirapresssays.blogspot.com/ If you haven’t stopped by there lately, please go check it out! We have a lot of talented authors at Amira Press!) *** The powers that be are allowing us to free-range blog this week, so I decided to tackle the subject … Read More
Most fiction writers will probably agree on one thing if nothing else: writing the synopsis sucks. Period. In fact, it’s a current discussion in The Romance Room email list. In that same vein, I found some helpful links on writing a synopsis (obviously this is more geared to fiction writing than non-fiction). http://www.writing-world.com/publish/synopsis.shtml http://www.kathycarmichael.com/synopsis.clearwater.fiction.html http://www.writing-life.com/fiction/synopsis.html … Read More