A great book to read

Discovered a new book to read: The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy, which talks about Simone de Beauvoir, a leading French female intellectual and a woman ahead of her time. She wrote the internationally bestselling book on the suppression of women, called "Second Sex." Give it a read!

It's Library Week!
Go to your local library, peruse books in your favorite genre, talk to your friendly neighborhood librarians, take your kids, and get re-acquainted with how the library works and what it does for the community. Not to mention all the writing resources on hand, oh my!

REad my writing article!

Read one of my articles on "5 Tips to be a Better Writer" published on the Online Book Club website!
Here is the link: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=39377
Enjoy!

I just discovered a great website that can be helpful to writers!
It's www.writingmaps.com.
Great illustrated maps that can be use to brainstorm and create stories, writer's classes, and zines! My favorite is the Writing in Cafes Map.

Fairy tales are a veritable mine of story ideas, be it Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or the Puss in Boots. Stories can be even rewritten, so that Cinderella gets a positively feminist spin, where she does something unexpected to help herself without having to marry the prince, or Sleeping Beauty's fair savior who kisses her awake turns out to actually be a princess like in Neil Gaiman's story. Play with story ideas and spin them

so they reflect the more current times.

My book talk and book signing is coming up!
Hear my talk about freelance writing at the Emily Fowler Library, April 24, at 6:30 pm.
Here is the flier and hope to see you there!

A great book quote to brighten up your day!

My pet peeve: lots of writers, sadly, mix the spellings of their, there, and they're.
Here is a good example of a correct usage:

They're having their coffee over there.

They're (contraction of they are)
Their (possessive)
There (location)

 

Want to write better? Read my article "Five tips on becoming a better writer" by yours truly on the OBC web site:
https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=39377

Book recommendation- "Herd on the Street" by Ken Wells.
These are animal stories as published over the years at the Wall Street Journal. Most are humorous and are perfect for animal lovers! I am reading a copy now, and it's a book that I can definitely recommend.

Writing Prompt- Airports

Don't know where or what to write? Go to the nearest airport and sit down with you notebook and pen. You do not have to be going anywhere at all, just watch people. Notice their accents and what they are wearing. Do they have pets with them, children? Where do you think they are going? To visit a distant relative or to a funeral? Compile story structures around your favorite people you see, and when you leave the airport, you'll have a plenty of writing material.

Book signing to come soon!

Watch this space for a talk about freelancing and a book signing for my new book of horror stories, Siren's Tears. This would be a good thing for those who want to write for magazines and do not know how to start, as I will be giving the basics in about an hour's time. All are welcome to purchase a signed copy of my new book, if you like horror! It will be in Denton at the Emily Fowler Library at 6:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

Tip of the Week- Where to get writing ideas

Where to get writing ideas? Absolutely everywhere! Hey, there is no such thing as writer's block, is there? Get your ideas from:

- reading daily newspaper
- talking to your neighbor on the plane or in the train
- TV news
- at meetings with your groups
- while browsing the Internet
- fashion mags- they show what is trendy now!
- while overhearing people's conversations in the grocery store
- blogs, blogs, blogs
- pictures and art- these often inspire great ideas
- your dreams- a big one! Keep a journal by your bed for this purpose!

And many more. So, start writing!

Cool new writing site

I just stumbled upon this new, informative writing site recently:
www.blacklilackitty.com. Don't let the name fool you, it's not about cats! They have services for writers, yearly book fairs, and many other services that a writer can use. Check them out!
Caroline

Writing tip of the week- Drawing to unblock

Sometimes, when I have a writer's block or feel overwhelmed by the writing task ahead of me, I draw. It gets the creative juices flowing again, and it effectively unblocks whatever part of you needs to write. This can be done many different ways, but what I do is simple, and it works for most folks: pick a random word from the dictionary and in five minutes, draw the meaning of it on a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and you don't have to be a great artists, just pick up a marker or a pencil and draw the meaning down. It is a good way to get unstuck, so you can write again.

Here is what came out of my latest exercise when I chose the word "dream" from my dictionary. Good luck and good writing!
Caroline

Tip of the Week: Make time to write

Fellow writers and aspiring writers!
You say you don't have time to write? Not true! Here are some convenient times of your (busy) day to squeeze in your writing, supposing you hold a 9-5 job:

- get up and hour early and write a couple of pages
- lunch hour is a perfect time to scribble down a few words
- while waiting to pick up your kid from school, write some key points down for your novel
- at home, instead of checking your email or Facebook, work on your story for 30 minutes instead
- after your kids are in bed, do a writing exercise for 20 minutes
- keep a journal by your bed to write down cool ideas if one strikes in the middle of the night

See there? No reason not to write every day!
Best,
Caroline

Tip of the week

Go to your local bookstore and take your book/manuscript with you. Next, see where on the book shelf would your book be located! Imagine in your mind where the book will sit, next to which author (alphabetically) and in what genre you need to be placed. Would you be in Supernatural Romance? In Adventure SF? These decisions will often make or brake a deal with the agent, because they need to know where in the bookstore your book will be placed and whether or not it can be sold there.

About YA titles

For those of you who are currently working on a YA title- that market is big right now. Supernatural rules- vampires, werevolves, zombies, and any combination of the three. My book is a historical fiction with supernatural elements in it, and that makes it a good candidate for the YA (young adult) market. I was also told at the conference that most of the YA readers are young girls- believe it or not, boys will read middle grade literature and then skip YA titles and jump straight on to adult titles, while girls read throughout. So, young girls are the main target audience for YA, so a female protagonist helps. Some good things to keep in mind when submitting!