Guest Post, Donna Ballman

Today our guest post is by a nonfiction book. Her name is Donna Ballman and she wrote a guide that many writers would probably find useful. Also, it has quite the witty title!


The Writer’s Guide to the Courtroom: Let’s Quill All the Lawyers

By Donna Ballman

Everything you need to inspire your writing, help your characters navigate the legal system, and get your story right. When your fiction or non-fiction calls for a character to sue someone or be sued and survive the ordeal, this book should be number one on your docket.

Winner of the Florida Writers Association's 2010 Royal Palm Literary Awards.

Award-Winning Finalist in the Business: Reference category of the "Best Books 2010" Awards, sponsored by USA Book News

With foreword by Alex Ferrer, TV's Judge Alex. Featuring comments and writing tips from bestseller Brad Meltzer and other lawyers.


ABOUT THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO THE COURTROOM

Maybe you have a novel, story, screenplay, or other writing project that has a character involved with the court system. Or you're a journalist writing a story about a court case. (Some law students and new lawyers have said they found it useful too, but we can't vouch for its exam-worthiness).

When you write, sometimes you don't know where your mind will take you. Maybe there's a character in your head but you haven't decided what to do with them. Or you have a plot that's stuck. The law is a great device for writers. It can add an obstacle, a sexy twist, or a fun character to your story. If you start thinking about the law when you write, it can be used to enhance your story, flesh out your characters, get you unstuck, or even inspire you.

The law can also accidentally drift into your plot, and laypeople who read your books, watch your shows, or read your articles will learn what they know about the justice system from you. Everything your characters touch during their day has something to do with the law. They wake up. Their alarm clock went through customs and is regulated. Or was it made with hazardous materials that make your character sick. They drive to work in a car that doesn't explode when hit from behind because of civil lawyers. Or are they caught up in a conspiracy to cover up the defect? They go to work and, because of employment laws, have to be paid wages and overtime, can't be subjected to discrimination, can't be retaliated against because they objected to illegal activity. Or is conflict in the workplace your character’s central problem? When they get a divorce, your characters have to do it through the civil justice system. The terms of that divorce affect their daily lives. If a character dies, their will has to go through probate. Does the family inherit or are they left destitute?

Whether or not your character’s world is just or it all goes horribly wrong is up to you as the writer.

Most lawyers can't read or watch stories about law because the factual errors are too frustrating. Gross misunderstanding of how the justice system works can take away from even the best plot. There are over 1.1 million lawyers in the United States, so alienating them with mistakes that are easily corrected can affect your sales and ratings.

The purpose of The Writer's Guide to the Courtroom is to touch on some of the highlights, to give you a starting point for your research or just trigger an idea for your story. This book is for every writer who doesn't have a law degree, and even for those lawyer/writers who are writing outside their area of practice.

WHERE TO BUY

Buy it at Better World Books.

Buy it at Barnes & Noble.

Available on Amazon.com in traditional and Kindle format.

Available on Amazon.co.uk in traditional and Kindle format.

READ AN EXCERPT

Read an excerpt from The Writer's Guide to the Courtroom.

MORE RESOURCES ON WRITING AND THE LAW

Like The Writer's Guide to the Courtroom on Facebook.

Find out more about using the law in your writing by following Donna's blog, The Write Report.

Listen to Donna Ballman talk about the latest writing and publishing news and tips on using the law in publishing with literary agent Peter Cox on Radio Litopia's The Debriefer.



You can stay up to date with the latest writing and publishing headlines by following Donna on Twitter @WriterDonna.

WRITE A REVIEW

If you like The Writer's Guide to the Courtroom, don't forget to write a review on Amazon, in your blog or on Litopia.

READ A REVIEW

Travel The Ages book review.

Florida Bar Journal book review.

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Thank you, Donna Ballman, for sharing your book!

-LR

guest post: C.L. Talmadge

Today we have C.L. Talmadge, author of the Green Stone of Healing Series. What is the series about, you ask? Well, below is a description of The Vision—Green Stone of Healing® Book One from the author herself.











“A vanished past roars back to life in the Green Stone of Healing® series, which chronicles what happens when politics, passion, and piety collide in the lost island nation of Azgard.

This hidden history is really herstory. Four generations of strong-willed female characters are at the epicenter of the power struggles of their country. So are their loves.

The Temple of Kronos has far-reaching authority. Its priests preach the superiority of the island’s dominant Toltecs and forbid sexual contact with the subservient Turanians. Infractions of their edicts risk severe consequences.

The stated reasons for such laws are lies. The Temple fears half breeds’ legendary paranormal abilities. The priests lost these gifts and are trying desperately to reclaim them to maintain their control.

One of the most powerful Toltec lords falls for a Turanian woman, defying this cruel social order. She refuses to wed him, but from their secret liaison is born a half-breed, a daughter named Helen Andros.
Thirty-one years later, Helen’s full parentage becomes public, igniting a political firestorm outlined in The Vision, the series’ first book. This revelation shakes the foundations of power. The Temple’s leader orders Helen’s death. His subordinate plots to use her to create more half-breeds in a quest for absolute power.

The latter bloc eventually assumes control of the Temple. The consequences are dire. The Temple and its supporters splinter into groups that fight each other and prey on the vulnerable. Armed goons wave holy writ as justification for violence and further repression.

Taught by the otherworldly Mist-Weavers to use the gem’s occult properties of healing and protection, Helen and her descendants offer a loving, inclusive alternative to theocrats whose lust for total dominion destroys them and nearly the rest of the world.

In the darkest hours, the heroines find love to sustain them….”

This novel is available at any online bookseller or by order through physical bookstores.



Title: The Vision—Green Stone of Healing® Book One
ISBN: 978-0-9800537-3-9 (paperback)

author@greenstoneofhealing.com
www.greenstoneofhealing.com
www.facebook.com/stonescribe
@StoneScribe


Thank you to C.L. for sharing her book/series!!

what is this? naughty video game?

My brother has been on the Facebook, talking up storm about a super naughty wii game, and it amused me so much that I decided to put it on the blog. Ubisoft cooked up this gem.

The game is called "We Dare". Ooh la la. Party time! And what do we dare to do? We dare to spank eachother and take our clothes off and do unsanitary things with the wii remote. Oh my to the eight power!

According to brother dearest, Ubisoft has canceled the release and attempted to block the trailer from US browsers. Last time I checked, we didn't live in China.





You're freaky, Ubisoft. Never deny your true pervy self.

You would probably make a fortune.

Of course, maybe that was the point - to build buzz for the game. Video game development is mucho expensive. Why would they let the project get to this point and then abandon it? I wouldn't be surprised if this hit the shelf in the near future. I smell shenanigans.

Related note: I'll never look at the wii remote the same way again.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Author Erin O'Riordan

Today we have Erin O'Riordan and some information about her book, I Made Out With a Teenage Communist!





High school junior Miller Markowitz has a new English teacher: her grandfather, World War II vet Steve Markowitz. Steve is there for Miller through her struggles with her insecurities and first love. As he fights his own private war with cancer, Steve teaches Miller about life and literature. Bosnian classmate Miroslav Vankovic teaches her about compassion, and to her surprise, may turn out to be more than a friend.

----------------------
Excerpt

"Miroslav Vankovic is from Sarajevo, Bosnia. This is his third year in the United States, although you wouldn’t know it from talking to him. When I first met Miroslav, I wanted him to have an accent. I wanted him to sound like Bela Lugosi, to have a deep and deeply foreign voice, to mispronounce words and use odd phrases in a charming Eastern European way. But nope. Miroslav speaks the same bland, unaccented Midwestern English as the rest of us. There is nothing exotic about tall, thin-limbed Miroslav, with his straight dark hair, long, narrow nose, and lovely brown doe-eyes. I don’t know why it is, but I’ve always thought that brown was the most beautiful color in the world. The deep, dark pools that are Miroslav’s eyes are beautiful to me."




The novel is currently available on Amazon.
Here is a link.



Thank you to Erin for sharing her book!

She can also be found on her blog - http://www.erinoriordan.blogspot.com

Dreaming Disaster and Some Visual Aids

I have an open field behind my house, well, two of them actually. The arrangement goes back yard-field (not mine)-country road-field. The expanse is relaxing during the day.

But sometimes, at night, my subconscious sees that open space as vulnerability. Since moving into the house almost eight years ago, I've had a lot of dreams about various disasters happening in that field.

I've dreamed about tornados coming from that direction several times. They never actually hit the house, but I see them out there. They look like photographs of tornados I've seen, some big, some small. Sometimes they're black.

Once, there was a tsunami. Like the tornados, it never hit the house. The wave just sort of hung there in midair, water rippling, but it never came down.

Last night in my dream, there was a plane crash. I didn't hear it happen. I dreamed that I looked out in the morning and it was just there - a very big gray sea plane (cargo?), still mostly intact. I ran to get my camera to take a picture, which is something I would totally do if I were awake and that happened.

When I returned, the plane had turned into a different model - a smaller red and white plane, and as I reached the window, it tilted and fell into a crack in the earth that hadn't been there moments before.

What does it all mean? I'm pretty sure it means I'm on the news websites entirely too much.

This evening we have an actual, real life storm moving in. I took some pictures of the clouds. I liked how the sky was beautiful and blue in one direction and dark and ominous on the other. Here are a couple of shots for your viewing enjoyment. You can see rain falling in the distance if you look closely.

Yes. I take pictures of pretty much anything.

Tomorrow we have guest post! Authoress, Erin O'Riordan will be here with some information about her novel, I Made Out with a Teenage Communist! and an excerpt. WOO!

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

laziness and reading

Yeah, I didn't really do that much in the way of writing this weekend. I spent most of my time either hanging out with the children, playing video games, and hanging out on the Twitter.

I did read some more of On Writing Horror. I know I've complained on the blog a couple of times about it, but it really is a good book. I don't love the entirety but there are some really good parts.

Like Chapter 8, by Jack Ketchum, in which he delves into writing technique for scary parts and the importance of rythm. That was very good.

There was also an interview with a guy named Harlan Ellison (IRobot). I like that part of the book mostly because he seemed sort of angry. Let us quote the first line of his first interview question response.

"My feeling about contemporary horror writing is that it suffers from the same malaise that is suffocating most art forms in our time: wide-spread and deep-seated illiteracy on the part of the body politic and a lack of historical memory."

The body politic? Who says that?

I bet Mary Sunshine really gets going after a couple of drinks. I would invite him to a party just to watch.

On Writing Horror is educational and useful, but I think it could use some major updates. For example, more focus on writing techniques instead of multiple lessons in the old ways of publishing. Nowadays for most writers, that system is just one big, repeatedly slamming door.

I opted out before I even gave traditional publishing a real go. Life is short. I have books to write. Query letters and story pitching to people who probably wouldn't give me the time of day is a waste. If they ever want me, they know where to find me. I'm not exactly hiding.

I'm off task. Back to On Writing Horror.

Other useful parts included some examples of what these industry leaders have deemed good horror (I now have a reading list) and some genre history. That was good stuff.

Is the book worth the purchase/read? Yes. However, one should remember that we are all unique. Just because a career path worked out for Stephen King doesn't mean it will work for me or whoever might read this or anyone else. Carrie was published in 1974. The world of publishing is a very different place.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: The Other Guys

The Other Guys, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, is a comedy about a couple of cops who don't function very well as partners.

Allen (Ferrell) is a nerdy, accountant guy who gets teased by other cops at the police station. They see him as a weenie who doesn't do "real" police work.

Terry is frustrated with the fact that Allen is his partner. He also yearns for a more exciting career. He is very vocal and whiney and not very smooth with the ladies.

The partners learn to get along better as they investigate the kidnapping of a billionaire. However, that doesn't stop them from arguing a whole heck of a lot on the way. The banter is often childish, but it's more strangely hilarious than annoying.

The Other Guys isn't the most intellectual movie in the world but it is very funny. A-

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Guest posts available

Once again the sun shines! I do not miss February, not even a little, tiny bit.

I’m getting tired of prattling on about my writing and such, so I’m accepting guest posts for at least the next month or so.

Authors who want to plug their book can send - information about a book that is currently available for purchase, title, short synopsis, an excerpt of about 600 words or just something short about the book (inspiration, etc) , cover thumbnail and/or author pic, link(s) for buying.

Musicians or artists (visual/graphic) who want to plug their work can send - a description of their work, relevant images, and links for buying and/or listening.

Lea-Ryan@hotmail.com

Have an enjoyable Saturday!
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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.
Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

on a wednesday

The weather is so amazing right now! The outside temperature is a wondrous 55 degrees. I had GRILLED chicken for dinner! Grilled!!!

I took this awesome picture of the moon because it was up at the same time as the sun.

I know, I know, this is the second picture of the moon I’ve posted in the last month or so. Give me a break. I’ve never had a zoom lens this bangin’ before. I’m kind of excited about it. I like how the moon looks almost transparent against the blue sky.

I’m still working on the remix project, of course. The book is getting to the point where it’s starting to take on a life of its own. I love it when the writing does that. The only problem is that I’m itching to go back and paint another layer over the part of the rough draft that I already finished.

I’m also thinking of cutting part of the beginning. People in the publishing industry and writers in general really seem to hate prologues. They say that most prologues aren’t needed and a lot of the time, they have nothing to do with the actual story.

Back in the days before I wrote anything, I read some books with prologues. As a reader, I never thought of them as being unprofessional. I just read them as a component of the novel.

Right now, I have a short prologue. It has a lot to do with the story, but mostly just the first couple of chapters. I keep thinking about cutting it. I don’t want to cut it because I feel like other people say I should, but I also don’t want to refrain from making a change that improves the story. I’m leaning toward cutting.
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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.
Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

random Tuesday updates

What a fantastically awesome Tuesday. i mean that. seriously.

Remix word count update – 12,750

I'm still writing my ass off, pretty much whenever I can. I started staying up slightly later at night and thumb typing stuff on ye olde blackberry before I go to sleep. That seems to have really improved the pace at which I write. The kids are in bed; the house is quiet; and the only one really trying to get my attention away from the writing is a certain feline/furry stalker.

I'm still reading On Writing Horror, which is okay. So far, there has been a lot of explanation about traditional publishing and the same writing advice I've read in a bunch of other books - don't overdo speech tags, adverbs, etc.

That kind of writing advice is good but I wouldn't advise anyone to take it as scripture. Not that I'm sitting here polishing any literary awards, but if something works and flows with whatever I'm writing, I'm not going to change it because someone told me not to use an adjective. Whatever writing advice I read, there's almost always a revered author who has done the opposite.

Also, I found a typo in the book. I love it when I see those in traditionally published books because they make me feel better about my own screwups. If you're reading along, it's page 90 and says "Nobel rize".

They've also used the word "versimilitude" about a thousand times. It's like they're clubbing me in the head with it. I understand, now quit it.

I hope to get to better parts of the book soon. I bought it to learn about creating tension and scaring people with words. I haven't learned that yet. I paid full retail for this beotch. I'd better get some useful information soon or Mort Castle is getting an angry letter.

TTFN.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: The Town

The Town is a movie about a gang of bank robbers. During one of the robberies, they take a hostage and subsequently let her go. One of them is sent to intimidate her into not talking to the police (if I remember correctly) and instead falls in love with her. Also, the cops quickly figure out who the robbers are and spend most of the movie building a case against them.

The main character is Doug, as played by Ben Affleck. After he starts romancing the bank manager, he decides to change his life. This endeavor of his is complicated by the fact that he and his buddies work for the Irish mob. The mob really doesn't want to let him go because he's the brains of the operation.

The Town is a somewhat odd mix of action and romance drama. The movie had some slow parts in the beginning but was pretty good once it really got moving. I thought there was a lot of feeling sorry for Doug and his various situations with his parents and his new girlfriend and his old girlfriend and the police running him down, etc.

The Town was alright, not super great, but the acting was fine and the story was compelling. B-

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

really, really, really, really, really

bad movie posters.

I love the X-Men movies, including the Wolverine movie that a lot of people didn't like. There's a new one coming out this year X-Men First Class. It's a prequel.

Here are the posters.



Holy crap dude. Those are the worst posters I have ever seen...including regular non-movie posters. It's like Prof. X is pregnant with Magneto's giant head baby and vice versa.

What I want to know is what on earth happened? Movies require investments of millions of dollars. Would you use this garbage to advertise your investment?

I mean, what happened to the graphic designer? Was there even one involved or did some chimp in a three-piece suit assume he could save a coupla bucks and toss something together? Unfriggin' believable.

I wasn't sure about this movie when I read the premise. If the studio or whoever didn't see fit to provide adequate marketing materials, that says a lot about the production, I think. These posters have sealed the deal for me. I will not be shelling out my hard-earned money to see this in the theater.

I predict massive bomb.

And where the hell is Stan Lee? Is he okay with this?

End rant.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

designing imaginary places...again

I design imaginary places when I write. This time it’s the setting for the remix novel project. The building is called Ducat Tower. The name might change before the book comes out, FYI, but for now, that’s the name.

The fictional building has two different histories, as many places of interest probably do. There is the version people hear and tell, basically rumors, and then there’s the truth. With the remix project, the rumors are offered to the protagonist somewhat easily, as rumors tend to be. However, the truth about the tower will emerge slowly with bits and pieces in each chapter like delightful sprinkles.

I have two diagrams of Ducat Tower so far. One is a list of the floors, who currently lives on each floor (at the time of the story) and who originally lived on each floor. The original residents of the building are almost as important as the current residents, even though almost all of them are long gone.

I also have a map. Wait, is a map considered a diagram? Hmmm…anyway, it’s an overhead view of the property. There’s a garden to the side of the tower, an open pit mine behind the tower, and a set of abandoned tracks and some other stuff farther out.

My notes are helping me keep everything in order. I’ve referred back to them several times.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

TUESDAY!!!

Good Tuesday, dear ones.

I've been writing obsessively since the end of last week, so I hope you'll excuse the absence of the usual monday movie post. I did start to write one, but I couldn't get properly focused in a blogging sort of way, so I abandoned it.

Here's a mini-review.

The husband and I watched The Social Network this weekend. I didn't want to see this movie when I first heard about it, but then, after so many people loved it, I decided to give it a shot. It really is good, albeit a bit too long for what is.

Zuckerberg creates Facebook; people sue him for cutting them out of the deal and stealing their ideas; he's socially inept and says whatever pops into his head; we all get it by now. I'm giving it a B+ with points off for the length.

Next, I have been hard at work on the remix project. I mean, head down, writing my ass off. I have a sense of urgency with this one. I don't know if it's because I have so much more planned for this year or what.

So, blogging may be sporadic during the next few weeks. On the bright side, I'm about 6000 words into a project that I expect to hit somewhere between 80000 and 90000 words. Not bad for starting less than a week ago.

I also bought a book at Borders this weekend (yay Borders!) called On Writing Horror. I've been reading bits of it when my brain gets so tired it refuses to produce coherent sentences.

So far there is a lot of talk of the old ways, i.e. traditional publishing. I try not to skim through too much of it, but I did skip some parts about writing conferences and workshops. I don't dig that whole scene. Not that I don't want feedback. I love constructive criticism.

But many an author or industry figure has profited by overcharging people to teach them how to write. I firmly believe there's some ripping off going on. Conferences often cost $500 or more. Why not just take a college course at that price? You would get some personal feedback and spend more time studying.

As another update, Spring/Summer is up in AvinaLeo. Here's a link for your perusal.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

random friday updatesgoings on

Where was I yesterday? Oh, um, I was doing word stuff, you know. I transferred some barely organized chicken scratched book outline material onto the computer screen and now it's neat and clean and ready to go. This is the rewrite of the classic novel, which I shall henceforth refer to as 'the remix project' in the blog posts.

I read up on the author a bit yesterday and determined he was likely ill of health when he wrote it. The book was published just a year before his death. There were some parts of his book that felt a bit disconnected and after I read about his death, I wondered if that was partially due to his declining health. Did he have the chance to get the book the way he wanted before he died? If not, that would be a terrible way to go into the great beyond.

I really want this book to be the best of my work so far. I want to think he would be happy with my use of his monster.

Anyway.

I did want to touch on this Harper Collins vs. the libraries business. I love the library. I go to mine all the time and I have fond memories of going to the library as a child. They perform a vital public service.

The library ebook system works in a way similar to the regular library system. They have a set number of copies of an ebook. You log into a system, if the book you want is available, you dowload it and get to keep it on your kindle or whatever for a set period - two weeks or whatever. Then at the end of the checkout period, the file expires. I think you can renew it as long as no one has requested a hold on it.

Now, in case you're unfamilair with Harper Collins, they're a publishing company - a big one. What they want to do is limit the number of times an ebook can be lent out, which would basically require the library to purchase the ebook again after a certain number of people check it out.

I think it's wrong. Libraries are suffering enough with budget cuts and branch closings. This isn't going to help them at all.

The publishing industry as a whole has been suffering financially for a while, but this move reeks of desperation. I can understand the concerns about piracy, etc. However, if someone is determined to steal intellectual property, you won't be able to stop them. Kicking libraries when they're already down is, at the very least, a bad public relations move. Libraries are some of Harper Collins' customers.

You would think in this economy, they wouldn't want to piss off too many of the people who give them money. There are many, many books in this world, especially with the freedom authors have right now.

An unrelated announcement. Smashwords is having a Read an Ebook Week event March 6-12. A bunch of books with special offers will be listed in a separate catalog during that week. My two freebies will be listed and also MacDowell Sisters & AnnaBeth is set to be a freebie for the event.

That's all I have for today but really, wasn’t it enough? I might pop in over the weekend if I decide to take a break from slapping word to page.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

changing gears

There is a story that's burning a fricking hole in my brain. I can't even begin to work on anything else. I'm going to have to drop my current work in progress and make a quick jaunt into this other universe for a minute.

I read this ebook I downloaded from Project Gutenberg and it's just begging for someone to reimagine it. I'm not going to say who the author is or which book, but it's going to be awesome if I can get it to be what I want it to be.

The genre is horror.
The author is not Poe, which would have been a good guess. But the author is really notable, as in there is a movie based on one of his novels - a good movie. This story is lesser known than the one the movie is based on.

I see potential in the concept, but the book itself is not written in a way that's appealing to a modern audience. I'm bringing the concept into current times and making that bitch scary.

I'm not doing a mashup. I'm not stealing anyone's writing. I am using certain parts of the conflict, including the monster.

I want to spend no more than 2 months on this rough draft because I have so much more planned for this year.

Let the word sprint commence.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

on editing

The other day I read an older post on the smashwords blog in which an author was interviewed. At the time of the post, he said his books weren't edited.

Did you get that? Not. Edited.

I won't rip this author's methods, mainly because he outsells me by like a bajillion copies. Clearly whatever he is (or was) doing works for him. More power to him. We should all be so lucky.

So that made me wonder what would happen if I just slapped whatever into a book and sent it into the world.

I realize that I'm not, nor will I ever be perfect. While I have complete creative control, the occasional mistake will sneak in. I do have an editor aside from myself, but I always end up monkeying around with the writing when I get it back.

What would happen if my writing weren't edited at all?

There would be a whole lot of me repeating myself - pet phrases, incorrect words, weird stuff that just plain doesn't make sense. I don't know where Brain comes up with the stuff sometimes.

I realize that eschewing the 10 rounds of editing I usually do would be freeing. I would be able to release books three times as fast because edits/rewrites take so much longer than the initial draft. However, the finished product would be little more than word vomit. I plan to continue editing.

Also, a side note. Something is going on with one of my book listings on the amazon kindle store. They either had a system glitch or someone is publishing my work without my permission. If you run across a listing for What the Dead Fear that costs $2.99 instead of 99 cents, do not buy it!!!

I e-mailed them. We’ll see what happens with that.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1