Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller
Most readers have a good idea that historical fiction requires heaps and heaps of research. It's obvious that you have to find out what happened when and similar details, but what other sorts of things do authors uncover, and do those things ever spark new ideas? Cultural norms, seemingly … [Read more...]
This week is the final episode in our three-part series on classic retellings, continuing stories, and mashups with Sandy Barela from Celebrate Lit Publishing. Before we get to the brainstorming session (the last part of a nearly two-hour recording that I broke up), I gave a short, mini-gush about … [Read more...]
"Is Chautona ever going to go to college?" My cousin and I are the same age. While she was at Fresno State getting her degree, I was home raising babies. Three of them at the time she asked my mom that question. Mom said, "No... she's just learning what she wants to when she wants to." Said … [Read more...]
I was that kid—the one who loved fairy tales and imagined herself as the heroine, the sidekick (okay, I didn't do much Disney as a kid so I had to make those up), and occasionally as the villain (when the protagonist was just too meh to be interesting). Still, there were a few that I just couldn't … [Read more...]
So, we were supposed to be going over the final story mashups and retellings with Sandy Barela, but then something happened today that changed all that. For the past four weeks, I've been putting my bestselling series, Past Forward, free. This serial novel comprises six volumes and over half a … [Read more...]
It's five a.m. I'm exhausted and really just need sleep. Since I'm at a hotel and have to leave in a few hours, I shouldn't be awake at all, but I've just finished a book, and I've got things on my mind. Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra … [Read more...]
You've got a TBR pile the size of Mt. Everest or at least Mt. Whitney (for those of us in the continental US). It's threatening to turn you into that Facebook cartoon about how the guy dies crushed by all the books on his nightstand. But, some sicko who does not understand the value of losing … [Read more...]
