Excerpt of Whirlaway, by Poe Ballantine
As an illustration of what I was up against at Napa State Hospital, what they used to call an asylum for the criminally insane, my fellow inmate Arn Boothby, an angry three-hundred-pound paranoid schizophrenic who regularly “cheeked” his meds, tried to kill another inmate one day in the client […] Click here to view full […]
Natalia Sylvester: The TNB Self-Interview
Your book is dedicated To Ceci . Who’s that? She’s my mom. So why not say, To Mom ? My sister and I have always called my parents by their first names. It’s always been the most natural thing for us—I think I tried calling them Mom and Dad […] Click here to view full […]
Christina Lynch: The TNB Self-Interview
Your novel The Italian Party is about someone trying to manipulate an election using some very sneaky methods. Are you about to be subpoenaed? I don’t think so, but it’s a pretty weird coincidence. When I started writing the novel in the summer of 2013, I came across a […] Click here to view full […]
5-Star Review from the Redheaded Book Lover Blog
What do writers value most? Connecting with readers. I’m thrilled about this review from the Redheaded Book Lover’s Blog because it sounds like she really “got” what these stories are all about. Thanks, Aimee Ann for reading my book and giving me such positive feedback. With her permission, I’m re-blogging her review. Also, for indie […]
Getting Your Book Into Bookstores
What is the biggest frustration authors face? Getting into bookstores. Authors and independent publishers who produce print books through Amazon’s Createspace confront a nearly insurmountable hurdle. Even though the book has a great cover, bookstores still know the book has been produced by their sworn enemy–Amazon! How can they tell? Amazon places a bar code […]
Swedish Writer MM Justine Shares How She Turned Her Dream of Becoming a Writer into 3 Published Books
Since its inception, the focus of this blog has been to encourage writers to turn their dream of becoming a writer into a reality. This week I’m featuring an interview with Swedish author, MM Justine. The points she makes about taking online classes, reading to understand what other writers were doing, and benefiting from reader […]
Psychic Wounds Drive Characters to Make Misjudgments and That’s Good for the Plot
Characters with psychic wounds engage our sympathies. In this post I’m going to talk about the benefits of loading your characters down with problems, including attitudes toward life caused by childhood psychic wounds. My purpose is not to play amateur psychologist. Save that for the self-help books. Instead, I’m going to show how psychic wounds […]
Talk Your Book: I’ll Show You How
Would it be easier to “talk your book” or to slave away for years trying to write it? A few months back my friend Gail Howard Gibson invited me to attend her book group. Although I was there to discuss my short story collection, Bond’s of Love & Blood, one thing led to another, and […]
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