Fiction
Writing Nostaglia
By Carla Stewart For fun, I want you to relax for a moment and think back to your childhood. What perfume did your mom wear when you were a child? Do you ever catch a whiff and feel like you’ve been hugged? Do you remember the song they were playing at your first dance? Were…
Choosing Words Carefully
You ever talk to someone who just doesn’t know when to shut the trap and wrap it up? People who take five minutes to say what could be said in thirty seconds? Sure you have. We all have. Some people just have diarrhea of the mouth. I’m sorry, I know that sounds awfully harsh, but…
Why I write category series books?
I have been writing for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line since 2000 and have enjoyed creating over nineteen Love Inspired and eleven Love Inspired Suspense books, some still to come out in 2009 and 2010. Writing for a category inspirational romance publisher has challenged me and helped me to grow as a writer. I’ve learned…
Love Languages
Since this is the month of love and Valentine’s Day, I decided to post about Dr. Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages, which I recommend to read. I read an interesting book about the language of love we use. In the book, The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman was insightful and interesting. But most…
10 Things I Wish I Had Known by DiAnn Mills
1. Research doesn’t mean a jaunt to the library or sailing through cyberspace. It means a trip into your characters’ lives. 2. Some critics are like boo birds that sit on their lofty power lines and crap (mess) on those beneath them. 3. When I grow up, I will know the difference between lie and…
Emote!
People read fiction for one thing above all else–emotion. They want to laugh, cry, get warm fuzzies, be surprised, be scared, be so scared they pee their pants! The problem is that too many times writers don’t DELVE into their emotions. They say, “Clark was angry.” or “Clara was excited.” Well, so what? Those are…
Handling the Big Rejection
Q: How do you handle rejection? A: Before or after I stick pins in my eyes and swallow hot coals? No, of course I don’t do that. I usually shave my head, exchange my clothes for sackcloth, and spend days of solitary isolation sitting on a heap of ashes. Okay, seriously, unfortunately, rejection is a…
What is Happening to the Book Industry?
Everywhere one turns these days, people are bemoaning the state of the book publishing industry. Even non-book people can be heard citing news reports of the downturn in sales for publishers and book stores. Downsizing, low sales, bankruptcy, returns, closures of independent mainstream and Christian bookstores–all bad news. And then one of the worst reports arrived in…
Creating a Great Villain
Q: What makes a great villain? A: Ah, yes, everyone loves to hate a really bad guy, don’t they? Max Cady (Cape Fear), Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), Annie Wilkes (Misery), Darth Vader (Star Wars): they all stir something inside us, something that makes us uneasy and uncomfortable with our own feelings. Good versus…
Write for the Reader
“I write what I would like to read–what I think other women would like to read. If what I write makes a woman in the Canadian mountains cry and she writes and tells me about it, especially if she says ‘I read it to Tom when he came in from work and he cried too,’…