Got Villain?

Let’s talk about the hero and the fatal flaw. No one is perfect, therefore the hero has to have at least one flaw to be overcome during the climax.
Hero + flaw = character arc = believable character.
But, how does the hero get to the point of needing to grow beyond their flaw? [...]

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Writer’s Master Class

Bob Mayer and Margie Lawson
Two of the hottest conference speakers making the RWA rounds in one intense weekend!
Writers’ Master Class Weekend http://www.murderinthegrove.com
DETAILS:
When: June 5-6, 2009 at the Owyhee Plaza Hotel
Where: Boise, Idaho
SPEAKERS:
New York Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has thirty-eight books published. He has over three million books in print and is in demand [...]

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My name is Sally, and I’m an SF-aholic.

My name is Sally, and I’m an SF-aholic.
Hi Sally.
You want my story? (The story of me or the stories I write? Today it’s me.) I got my first taste of SF when I was just a child: the sweet, tangy flavors of Walter Farley’s The Island Stallion, a charming and quite stirring (for an 8 [...]

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Former Green Beret and Sex Therapist Teach Writing

As a board member of Popular Fiction Association of Idaho I am in charge of writing our press releases and that’s the headline I came up with.
Writers’ Master Class Weekend
June 5-6, 2009
with
Bob Mayer and Margie Lawson
Hosted by the Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, the people who bring you Murder in the Grove, the weekend features [...]

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My Lair

One of my favorite workshops is by Elizabeth Boyle. The Superhero’s Guide to Writing Romance. She says the five steps to being a Superhero Writer is:

Learn Your Secret Identity – what you write, a.k.a. your voice
Discover Your Super Powers – your writing strengths
Build A Lair – your place to not only write but heal after [...]

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Have Laptop, Will Write Anywhere

My usual writing space is the “dinning room” table. I put that in quotes because my house has one living room/dinning room space with no walls. I sit in a hard backed chair that I can’t see TV. That way I can keep in eye contact with my wife (most times) and feel like we’re [...]

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Writing Workspace

I generally write on the MacBook in the family room when everyone is sleeping, usually that’s the early morning hours. When I get a day off from work, I may sit at the writing desk in the bedroom that looks out on the backyard. The first picture shows the bedroom desk.
I have never [...]

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Urban Fantasy

Here are the notes from the Urban Fantasy presentation I did at last month’s Boise Speculative Fiction Writers’ meeting. For those already familiar with the genre, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know, but…promise kept!
Urban Fantasy – definition
While traditional fantasy takes place in any time or place, and often in historic or [...]

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Writing in a vacuum is overrated

Writers are a driven bunch.  When the Muse is MIA, we are either pounding our heads on our keyboards, or torturing what we’ve already written with the red pen of doom.  When the Muse does show up for work, we strap in before the genie goes back into her bottle.  It’s easy for us to [...]

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Tip of the Day – 45 Master Characters

Tip of the Day – which was post on a day and writen with the tip of an ink pen so it qualifies.
45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters.
OMGosh where have you been my whole writing career. The book is a bit like Heroes & Heroines but with great [...]

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