 Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverSo, I was reading the book WITHOUT CONSCIENCE while I was traveling to the London Book Fair last month because, as many of you may know, I have a strange fascination for psychopathy. (Not for the reasons you might think — wait, what do you think? The mind boggles.) But because the closest evidence I can find for the existence of the soul is that some people are so clearly born without one.
What on earth does any of this have to do with writing, you may ask. Well, strangely, I found myself flagging a couple of sections for this very blog: “How Not to Write Like a Psychopath.” One section in particular that caught my attention was when the author, Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. was quoting a psychopath asked to describe fear: “I notice that the teller shakes or becomes tongue-tied. One barfed over the money. She must [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverI’m late for posting my Magical Words contribution again, but I have a very excellent excuse! I was busy posting my Happy Book Birthday Blog over on my own page with shout-outs to our own Faith Hunter, as well as Rachel Caine, Tammy Kaehler, Karen Whiddon and my pal Cecily White. You go, gals!
And before you ask, yes, I promise, I rep guys too, including David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson, Steven Harper/Steven Piziks, David Mack, Keith R.A. DeCandido, DD Barant, RS Belcher and others.
I’m feeling remarkably mellow today, so no rants for me this time. Instead, I want to talk about the power of positive thinking, maybe because we’ve just been through Easter and Passover, times of renewal and reflection. If I believe very strongly in anything, it’s the idea that you reap what you sow, whether you call it karma or poetic justice or Aloysius. From a professional [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverIt has been an absolutely insane few weeks, thus Faith Hunter had to remind me it was my day to post on Magical Words. So sorry for the delay!
Always when I’m caught flatfooted, the easiest thing to do is just rant and rave about what’s on my mind. Today it’s that agents are people too. Oh, I know that a lot of you imagine us something like I used to picture the folks who came up with the SAT questions, as bridge trolls trying to keep people from passing, ready to trip the unwary and eat their hearts out. (Or maybe that’s just me?) But the truth is agents are first and foremost book people. Are we just like you? Well, if you’re a Type A workaholic with a constant schedule running through your head and the inability to relax, then the answer is yes. (Note: even with a [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverIf you’ve heard any shouting from the rooftops lately, it might have been me. I’m not admitting to anything, you understand, but I do have a new book out today (Fangtabulous, the fourth book in my Vamped series). I, uh, might have been a little vocal in my excitement. For a visual demonstration, I refer you to Daffy Duck.
Anyhoo, I’m going to go on with my guest blog here at Magical Words and pretend I’m not thinking “Why are you sitting around reading this when you can be reading Fangtabulous RIGHT NOW! You don’t even have to leave your seat if you prefer to download straight to your e-reader.” But, er hum, I’m very carefully not saying any of that out loud. Decision is totally up to you, of course.
So, what do I want to talk about today? Settings. I don’t know about you, but I see my [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverMerry Christmas to all those who celebrate it! Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed whatever kind of time renews you for the coming year—time with family or time alone, good food, good friends, good drink or a quiet cabin in the woods. Snow or sun, puzzles or palazzos, skiing or scrapbooking. Personally, it all sounds good to me.
This is what I want to talk about today, actually…renewing yourself. Many writers have families and day jobs, which means that they’re filling in what little time they might have for themselves with plotting, writing, revising, promoting and all the other good stuff that goes along with publication. The day job alone can lead to burn out, so you can imagine when it’s coupled with a lack of down time. This is why it’s incredibly important for authors (or anyone) to be good to themselves. I was raised on Catholic [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverLast week I gave a talk to the creative writing club at my son’s school, where I offered up three of my main mantras. Two we’ve already talked about here: “get it down, then get it right” and “butt in chair.” The third is “give up on perfect.” Weird, right, coming from a literary agent, who many imagine as I did the people who develop questions for the SATs and other standardized tests (as trolls gleefully rubbing their hands in anticipation of catching you in a mistake). But here’s the thing—there is no such thing as perfect.
That’s right. Have you ever in your life read a book without at least two typos in it? Ever? Or met an author who thinks of his/her first book with the same confidence as the one just written? No. That’s because a) there’s no such thing as perfect and b) the only way [...]
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Lucienne Diver
read all posts by Lucienne DiverMy post is late today because I just spent a fruitless hour doing one of those fun flow charts to direct you to my work, considering that my publisher Flux currently has the first in my Vamped series, called (quite creatively, I thought) VAMPED, available for FREE on Kindle and Nook. I want to shout it from the rooftop, but I hear that’s not a very effective form of marketing and that my neighbors have requested that I stop. Unfortunately, while the chart shows up all nice and pretty on my computer here at home, I can’t seem to get the picture to load. So, here I am with a shameless self-promotion post without even bringing the clever pic to entertain you while I call out like a carnival shill, “Buy my books!” (Oh please!)
Pretty flow chart aside, I do want to talk about a little something for everyone. [...]
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