 Diana Pharaoh Francis
Two things converged for me this week to bring home the fact that I don’t know enough. First, I’m writing on something where in which in the first few pages I’ve run across a number of things I need to dig up: kinds of spiders in Tennessee, and what sorts of poisonous spiders do people keep as pets; who can obtain police complaint information and how and how long is that information kept: What do you call someone who is a deputy sheriff but not the elected sheriff (I figure deputy is the title, but do people in the town just call him Sheriff anyhow?). There were some other things I dug into also and more that I can see coming down the road soon.
Then the tornado hit in OK. As I’m watching coverage and trying not to think too hard about the devastation, I’m asking a lot [...]
Continue reading You have to research to write
 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 [...]
Continue reading Fangtabulous Settings!
 DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeToday, I continue the series of posts on worldbuilding that I began last week. First, though, I am very pleased to announce that Tor and I have agreed to terms on a contract for two more Thieftaker books. Thieves’ Quarry, the second book in the Thieftaker sequence, will be coming out next July. And now I can say with confidence that it will be followed by City of Shades in 2014 and Dead Man’s Reach in 2015. So, yay!
Okay, so back to worldbuilding. And let me begin where I left off last week, with what may well be the most important point I made about the process I go through to create the settings for my fantasies. None of the discreet tasks I mentioned last week (map making, creating relationships, coming up with myths and religions, and building magic systems) is actually discreet; rather, it all happens together, in [...]
Continue reading On Writing and Creativity: Worldbuilding Revisited, part II — How Much is Enough?
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeEthan Kaille is one of Colonial Boston’s leading thieftakers. He is also a conjurer, an ex-convict, and a veteran of the War of the Austrian Succession, in which he served as a sailor in the navy of His Majesty King George II. Though an intensely private man, he recently agreed, albeit reluctantly, to sit down and answer a few questions about his life, his career, and, of course, his rivalry with Sephira Pryce, Boston’s famed “Empress of the South End.”
*****Mister Kaille, thank you for joining us today. I wonder if you wouldn’t begin by telling us a bit about your work as a thieftaker.
There is little to tell, really. Boston is filled with reprobates and fools, and invariably men who fall into one category or the other take it upon themselves to improve their meagre lot in life by stealing from the city’s monied class. When they do, [...]
Continue reading An Interview with Ethan Kaille, Thieftaker and Conjurer
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeI’m home after a terrific weekend at ConCarolinas. It was wonderful as always to see Faith, Misty, Kalayna, and A.J., as well as our wonderful friends and former regular MW contributors, Edmund Schubert and Stuart Jaffe. It was also great to see so many of our devoted readers and commenters — the party Saturday night that was hosted by Mud and Laura was a highlight of the weekend. Many thanks!!
Today’s post kicks off what I expect will be two full months of Thieftaker promotion. We are now less than one month away from the July 3rd release date, and I am excited, nervous and everything in between.
Let me say right now that I know many of you are probably sick to death of hearing and reading about this book. I can hardly blame you. To be honest, I’m sick of it, too. I wish the book was out [...]
Continue reading THIEFTAKER Promo Kickoff and a Contest Giveaway!
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeToday I am pleased to introduce our special guest star, Cie Adams. Cie is a USA Today bestselling author who writes both individually as C.T. Adams and with her friend and longtime collaborator Cathy L. Clamp under the pen name Cat Adams. Her/their novels include: Road to Riches: The Great Railroad Race to Aspen (historical fiction); the (currently) eight volumes of the Tales of the Sazi series, the Thrall trilogy, and the ongoing Blood Singer series. She currently has two books in production: The Isis Collar (the fourth Blood Singer book) and The Eldritch Conspiracy. In addition she has contributed to a number of anthologies. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter, her blog, and at both her individual website (http://adams-jamesauthors.com) and her joint website with Cathy Clamp (http://www.catadams.net). Please welcome her to Magical words!
*****
I love writing novels. Non-fiction, not as much. But when I’m asked to write [...]
Continue reading Special Guest Star: Cie Adams!
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeHanukah starts in nine days; Christmas is two weeks away. And so I thought it might be worthwhile to offer a few gift ideas for those of your shopping for a writer (even if that writer happens to be you!) It’s been a couple of years since we had one of these lists on the site, and while there may be some overlap with past lists, this one will be a bit more inclusive.
Software: After Kalayna’s great post from Thursday, this seems like a good place to start. Scrivener, which is a terrific program for writers that helps with organization, research, character sketches, and the actual writing of your book, started as a mac program but is now available for Windows as well. Both versions can be purchased for under $50.00. Nisus Writer Pro, which is my favorite word processing program, is still only available for mac users, and [...]
Continue reading This Year’s Holiday Gift List For Writers
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