The following is a guest post by Donna Urbikas, author of My Sister’s Mother: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Stalin’s Siberia. A couple of years ago I took myself on a cross-country tour of writers’ conferences where I could pitch my newly finished manuscript, My Sister’s Mother: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Stalin’s Siberia. Reception was great except that I am not famous, so who would care? Fortunately, the…
Category: Guest Post

Soft Target by John Beyer
The following is a guest post by John Beyer, author of Soft Target. The idea for the novel Soft Target came to me as I sat listening to terrorist experts during a conference in 2012. Colonel David Grossman was the main speaker and discussed the idea of Wolves attacking Sheep and the only ones to protect the Sheep were the Sheep Dogs. He asked the crowd of nearly 1,000 attendees who amongst…

A Book Related Topic (Kind Of)
The following is a guest post by Theodore Ficklestein, author of I Killed the Man Who Wrote this Book. I realize that most if not all of you have no idea who I am, so although I am supposed to be using this post for book related topic, I will use this platform to inform you of my recent writing activity. I guess this is kind of considered a book related…

Bad Guys Should Break Our Hearts
The following is a guest post by Channing Whitaker, author of Until the Sun Rises. Imagine the villain of your favorite story and ask yourself, what might have gone a little differently in their lives which could have led them to be the hero instead? This is something I ponder on whenever I create antagonists. I love a villain who might otherwise be downright likable if not for a few circumstances, and…

Goodbye Bombay by Gry Finsnes
The following is a guest post by Gry Finsnes, author of Goodbye Bombay. I lived in India myself for four years from 1979 until 1983, in Bombay which is now called Mumbai. I had two children when I came and three when I went back to Europe with my husband, feeling both relieved and sad to leave the country. It had made such an impression on me that it was impossible…

Engineers and Creative Writing
The following is a guest post by J.J. White, author of Deviant Acts. It seems incredulous engineers could be competent as creative writers, considering they deal primarily with technical issues in the workplace, but the literary world would disagree. Many great and not so great engineers have gone on to successful careers as authors of short stories and novels. Fyodor Dostoevsky spent many years toiling over schematics and conversion tables before…

Redemption
The following is a guest post by Radine Trees Nehring, author of A Portrait to Die For. Thinking back over many years of writing, I have just now come to the realization that–behind all my non-fiction and fiction–there’s a one-word theme: Redemption. That is not what I have been telling people for years. I’ve said–and believed–that my writing has always been inspired by my love for the Arkansas Ozarks, its nature, landscape,…

My paranormal experience
The following is a guest post by Lanayre Liggera, author of Intrusion. It was summer, and I was eight years old. In the bottom of the Dutch Reformed Church, my mother was teaching summer Bible school; we were on the Beatitudes, to be exact. It was a typical summer day, the smell of blooming flowers and trees, and the lazy summer light reaching through the windows even though they were set…

Creating Memorable Characters
The following is a guest post by Jamie Cortland, author of Dying to Dance. Have we talked about creating characters? I hope so because if you’re ready to begin the book of your dreams, that’s exactly where we should begin. But, you say you’ve already thought of a great plot, the background, and even the background music if it becomes a movie. Great. But that’s not where to begin, no matter…

To Publish or to Self-Publish?
The following is a guest post by Allison Janda, author of The Numbers Game, a Jack Crawford Mystery. How did you make the decision to self-publish? This is a question that I’m asked a lot. Seeing as how I’ve self-published seven books now, I sure as heck feel as if I know a few things about the topic. I thought I’d share them with you, here. Here’s the bottom line. I…