I originally was going to blog about POV today, and have a nice partial post written about how and why I changed the POV of the first chapter of my paranormal novella. But that can wait until next week. In the last twelve hours, two of my online communities have suddenly started talking about making a living writing–print runs, advances, etc. The overall tone turned negative and fatalistic–how can anyone make a living doing this? I’ve heard statistics thrown around (with no back-up) that only 200 writers “make a living” as writers, or 5% of published authors, or whatever. I… Read More

I’ll admit, I was surprised when I was asked for an author blurb. This is basically a one or two-sentence endorsement of the book which may go on the front cover or on an inside page. First, though my debut trilogy did well, I’m hardly a household name among suspense lovers like, oh, Robb, Coben, Connelly, King, Koontz, Gardner, Gerritsen, Hoag and many others. Second, and most important, who am I to judge whether a book is good or not? What if I love it and one of my readers hates it and gets mad at me? What if I… Read More

. . . is the new title of my novella for Pocket. Yeah!!! Maureen, you win!!! Email me your snail mail address and I’ll send out a $20 gift certificate to Borders (unless you’d prefer something else.) And Carolyn, you get an early copy of SPEAK NO EVIL, but I haven’t heard from you. My email is allison @ allisonbrennan.com (without the spaces). I’m really excited!! I was partial to ETERNAL EVIL, but hands down, DELIVER US FROM EVIL was my agent’s favorite. Now off to finish the story . . .

Carolyn! Carolyn, please email me your snail mail address at allison @ allisonbrennan.com (no spaces) and I’ll send you an early copy of SPEAK NO EVIL! Okay, I didn’t pick Carolyn’s title, I randomly drew her name from all who commented last Thursday on my NAME THAT BOOK! blog. THANK YOU everyone for your help! I loved the suggestions. So much, I couldn’t narrow it down to three. If my editor picks a title that someone gave me, that person will also get something 🙂 I just don’t know when. Anyway, here are the titles I’m sending in: ETERNAL EVIL… Read More

Well, here I go again . . . everyone was so helpful in giving my heroine a name (Skye McPherson.) Now I don’t have a title for this novella. I need one. The anthology book will be titled by our editor (and I’m love the name she’s most recently suggested, but we don’t have approval yet for me to share) but I get to title my story. I don’t wanna. I titled THE HUNT, and that was the only book I titled. I wrote all of SPEAK NO EVIL as OPTION BOOK #1. Seriously. I didn’t want to fall in… Read More

On every writer’s loop I’m on, professional jealousy has been discussed. We often talk around it, because we don’t want to be seen as green with envy. Some people are the brunt of it more than others. Some people tend to be more envious than others. But one thing we all don’t quite understand is WHY. Why do some feel the need to slam the success of fellow writer’s? Today I read a great blog over at MJ Rose’s Buzz, Balls & Hype about WHY professional jealousy exists and offers some great advice. So I’m passing it on to all… Read More

Over at Backspace, a writers community I belong to, a member started a conversation about chapter endings and beginnings. I’ve followed it closely because in reading the thread I realized a lot about my own endings and beginnings. You might think that’s backwards–endings and beginnings–but in fact that’s exactly right. Why? Because the first sentence, paragraph or two–your hook, what you open your book with–is more important than any other beginning so I consider that separate. It should be crafted with the purpose of enticing the reader to keep reading. Sol Stein, a famous literary attorney, said that he and… Read More

Some writers can write scenes out of order, then put all these odd scenes into some semblance of sanity and have a completed book. Some people write the ending first. Or they see a scene in the middle of the book and write that, then go back to the beginning. Me? I write linearly. I go from Point A to Point B to Point C, etc. Or I should say, Chapter One, Two, Three, Four . . . Two examples to share. First, in SPEAK NO EVIL I thought I saw the ending. I was getting near deadline and I… Read More

Something weird is going on. I just wrote this blog, published it, and it disappeared. So if somehow it comes up twice, you’ll know. I love Jade and it would have worked for her personality, but she doesn’t LOOK like a Jade, and also since Karin has a character Jade coming out near this novella, she gets dibs. 🙂 To me, Jade is a brunette. Period. So I picked the names that seemed to fit her character the best–Skye, Holly and Cassie. Skye just jumped out at me. It was SOOO obvious once she went into the story. Thank you… Read More

This business is tough. Every writer knows it, because they’ve gone through the trenches, had their favorite manuscript rejected by numerous agents and publishers, and frankly, other writers are the only ones I feel truly understand me. One thing I’ve learned is that every writer is unique. Not only our voice, but our process. Some write fast, some write slow. Some write sparkling dialogue, others intensely atmospheric setting, and yet others achieve a depth of character that make you really believe you know that person. But like a parent, a spouse, sibling or best friend, other writers know instinctively what… Read More