The Building Blocks of Story

/ Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

Are you a right-brain kinda person or a left-brained one? Do you know that you use both for different tasks while writing? Staci Troilo has a very interesting post today on Story Empire. I highly recommend checking it out. It’s really got me thinking! Please consider passing it along so others can check it out, too, thanks, and thanks to Staci for such a cool topic! 🙂

Staci Troilo's avatarStory Empire

Ciao, SEers. I’m currently wrapping up edits on a full five-book series. It’s hard to revise all day, every day—especially when it’s your own work instead of a client’s—so sometimes, creative breaks are necessary. They actually serve two purposes.

  1. They let your analytical brain take a rest, so you’re less likely to make editing mistakes due to mental fatigue.
  2. They give you fodder for your next work.

And, let’s face it. If you’re a writer, you’re probably not a one-and-done artist. You’ve got a lot of stories to tell. There are no shortcuts. If you want to write multiple books, you have to write multiple books. So, while you’re doing the post-work on your soon-to-be-released masterpiece, you might as well also be thinking about your next one.

I’ve got a pretty cool concept for my next series. It’s combining two genres I love plus lore that I adore. (Sorry…

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Featured On the Reef ~ Super-Sized Stay at Home Sale! #StayAtHome #BookSale #AmReading

/ Marcia Meara / 2 Comments

You folks need to put on your scuba gear and take a swim over to Lemon Shark Reef today, where Sarah Brentyn has put together a terrific list of books on sale. You’re sure to find something that suits your reading tastes in this array. (Maybe even one of mine! 😀 ) And now is the time to take advantage of these bargain prices! Hope you’ll check it out and will share the list far and wide, so others can take a look, as well. Thanks, and my heartfelt thanks to Sarah, too! 🙂 ❤

Sarah Brentyn's avatarLemon Shark Reef

On the Reef is a series featuring fabulous indie authors from around the blogosphere and beyond. Titles, covers, and blurbs that catch my eye, new releases, great reads… Basically, authors I’d like to highlight and works I’d like to share with my fellow book-loving word nerds. Happy Reading!

As I posted, both my books are on sale as “lockdown literature” right now. 

I’ve seen other authors who’ve done this so thought I’d compile a list. I got as many as I could but I’m only human. (Honestly, was hoping to have a bit more time to pull this together but some of these sales are time-sensitive so please know I did the best I could.) 🙂📚❤️

There are some AMAZING books and talented authors here. Please do check them out.

Stay Healthy!

Featured Lockdown Literature (On Sale for You)

_________________________________

BOOKS ON SALE:

On the Edge of a Raindrop by…

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Character Archetypes: The Guardian

/ Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

Craig Boyack has been running a series of posts on Story Empire discussing Character Archetypes. It has been most excellent, and I’ve saved these posts for future reference in my own work. The current archetype under discussion is the Guardian, and this is my favorite of the entire series, so far. Do yourself a favor and check it out. You’ll see what I mean. And as always, please remember to share far and wide so others can enjoy and learn, too. Thanks, and a big thanks to Craig for helping us all improve our writing skills! 🙂 ❤

coldhandboyack's avatarStory Empire

Hi gang, Craig with you today. This is post number seven in the character archetypes series. In the Hero’s Journey, there are some common characters that are likely to show up in all stories. This doesn’t mean each archetype shows up in every story, and aside from the hero, the rest are kind of optional. Almost every story will have an assortment of them.

This series is to introduce you to them. Once you’re aware of them, you can decide if they can benefit the story you’re writing.

The Guardian has a few different names, the Threshold Guardian, the Gatekeeper, even The Wall. They all mean the same thing. This is another one that can be a character, but can also be a situation or a physical obstacle. Your hero cannot complete the task without conquering the Guardian.

It might be as simple as figuring out the bad boy who…

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#FirstLineFriday Submissions Are Now Closed! Here’s the Answer to Our Quiz, and the Name of Our Winner!

/ Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

Submissions for #FirstLineFriday are officially closed now. My thanks to all who emailed me with their guesses. Today, we have one winner: Sarah Brentyn. Congratulations, Sarah, and I hope you enjoy your prize.

Sarah Brentyn’s Author Page can be found HERE.

And now, here’s the answer to today’s quiz:

“Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love” is the opening line from Maggie Stiefvater’s wonderful 2012 novel, The Raven Boys. 

The Raven Cycle is a series of four contemporary fantasy novels written by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The first novel, The Raven Boys, was published by Scholastic in 2012, and the final book, The Raven King, was published on April 26, 2016. While categorized as a Young Adult novel, the book is far, far more than that–a beautifully written and well-imagined fantasy, with characters that pull readers in from the start.

WHAT AMAZON SAYS:

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them–until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Buy The Raven Boys HERE

That wraps it up for this week, folks. I hope you’ll give this one a try. Trust me. It’s worth it. Thanks again for taking part, and stay tuned for another #FirstLineFriday quiz next week. See you then!

 

 

#FirstLineFriday #GiveawayContest #FreeDownloads

/ Marcia Meara / 27 Comments

It’s Friday again, which means you have another chance to try your hand at  #FirstLineFriday, our little quiz designed to help us appreciate some of the best opening lines in literary history. From the classics of long ago to the latest best-sellers, no matter how old or how recent, everything is fair game on #FirstLineFriday. Let’s see how many of you remember this one.  

As always, the rules are simple:

  1. Be one of the first five people to email me before the game ends at 4:00pm, with the title and author of the correct book. 
  2. Do not reply here on the blog. Email only: marciameara16@gmail.com
  3. Honor System applies. No Googling, please.
  4. Submissions end at 4:00 P.M. EST, or when I receive 5 correct answers, whichever comes first.
  5. Winners who live in the U.S. may request a free download of any one of my books for themselves, or for someone of their choice. OR, if they’ve read all of the offered books, they may request a free download of my next publication.
  6. Winners who live elsewhere may request a mobi or PDF file of the same books, since, sadly, Amazon won’t let me gift you from the site.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! I’ve been easier on you this time, so put on your thinking caps, because here’s today’s opening line: 

“Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.” 

Remember, email answers only, please. Thanks! And now off I go to await your guesses. 

 

Karaoke At the Saddle Up Saloon

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 4 Comments

In a world gone crazy, or at least to keep yourself from going stir crazy, why not a virtual wild west saloon run by fictional characters? Something different, served fresh every Monday.

D. Avery @shiftnshake's avatarShiftnShake

Karaoke Coming Soon! Come Crow and Croon at the Saddle Up Saloon

“Clever, Kid, but how we gonna manage thet? We ain’t set up fer sound.”

“I hear ya Pal, but it ain’t quite like that. Won’t be no actu’l singin’.”

“Then it ain’t actu’l karaoke, but okie-dokie, what’cha got in mind?”

“Figger on havin’ folks rewrite song lyrics ta a familiar tune. Ya know, like Weird Al.”

“Thet could work. Ya got a theme?”

“Nope. Jist keep it fam’ly frien’ly. Any tune, jist give credit an’ apologies ta the original a course. Then put yer lyrics and/or link right in the comment section fer the May 4thSaddle Up Saloon post. Or, if’n ya send somethin’ ta me c/o averydede.1@gmail.com afore April 30th, mebbe that’ll be right in the post!”

“So yer sayin’ ta pick a song, then put yer own lyrics ta it an’ come…

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#WhyWriteWrong?

/ Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

Just want to let you folks know I have a post on Story Empire today, in case you want to check it out. It’s in my Why Write Wrong series, and I’d love to have you stop by, if you have a chance. And if you do, and you enjoy it, it’d be super if you’d pass it along. Thanks! 🙂 ❤

Marcia Meara's avatarStory Empire

Hi, Folks! Marcia here, hailing you from central Florida where temps are starting to soar, and spring is tipping over into summer even as I type. So much for getting all my outdoor projects done before I can no longer bear to leave my air-conditioned house for anything more than a quick trip to the mailbox and back!

But heat or no heat, it’s time for another #WhyWriteWrong post, wherein I share some common errors I see popping up in books way more often than they should. These short posts are designed to help you avoid having these errors crop up in your own books. As a reader, these kinds of mistakes really jump out at me, pulling me out of the story long enough to think (or occasionally yell) “Noooo! That’s just wrong!”

As I writer, I know we always want to avoid anything that distracts our readers from…

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The Countdown Continues – 12 More Weeks Until Peace Talks!

/ Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

And here we are, folks–one week closer to the release of Peace Talks, Book 16 in the Dresden Files series. If you’ve visited here in the last two weeks, you’ll know I am counting the days, and celebrating each passing week with a few Harry Dresden tidbits, pictures, and quotes. Obsessive? Yeah, maybe. BUT! We’re talking a SIX-year drought for Dresden fans, here! And now, with Peace Talks coming out on July 14 and Battle Ground on September 29, it’s suddenly MONSOON time. I think that’s worthy of great celebration, so here goes:

Dresden Files Cover of the Week


(May as well start with #1 and work our way up to #16!)

This is actually one of my favorite covers, featuring that determined jaw line Harry is famous for. I like the moody colors, too, and the hint of a gritty Chicago street in the background.

A Dresden Files Mini-Quiz

Last week, I mentioned three possible pets for Harry, but only two were correct, and even those, I reversed the names on, just to see if you were paying attention. The correct answer was that he lived with an enormous dog named Mouse and a long-haired cat named Mister. Now for today’s question. What breed of dog is Mouse? (No prizes here. Just a fun bit of trivia. Guess all you want in the comments.)

And Last …

Our Dresden Files Graphic of the Day

And that’s this weeks Countdown to Peace Talks post, folks! Hope you enjoyed it. And if you haven’t started reading this series yet, you really should. But just remember:

How to Publish with KDP: Part Seven B

/ Marcia Meara / 2 Comments

Harmony Kent’s back on Story Empire today with the 7th installment of her terrific series, “How to Publish with KDP.” This time, she’s sharing how to create your own book cover, and her instructions are detailed and extremely helpful. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself, and then share with your fellow writers so they can learn a few new tricks, too. Thanks, and thanks to Harmony for another job well done. 🙂 ❤

Harmony Kent's avatarStory Empire

Image courtesy of bigstock.com

Hello SErs. Harmony here.  As promised, here is the second part of the seventh installment in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links below:

Outline: https://wp.me/p7OGru-29c

Part 1 (Software for Writing) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29t

Part 2 (General Formatting Necessities) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29J

Part 3 (Ebook Conversion) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2ah

Part 4 (Paperback Formatting) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2eS

Part 5 (Image Software for Making Book Covers) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gi

Part 6 A (Using Amazon’s Cover Creator Tool for eBook) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gQ

Part 6 B (Making your own ebook cover to upload to Amazon) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2hQ

Part 7 A (Using Amazon’s Cover Creator Tool for Paperback) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2jY

To make it easy…

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine Weekly Round Up – April 12th -18th – Relationships, ABBA, Guacamole, Pasta, Guests, Poetry and Funnies.

/ Marcia Meara / 3 Comments

Do stop by Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord blog for her always-wonderful weekly round-up. This time, in addition to writers, books, food, jokes, music, and some wonderful videos, Sally shares a bit of news worthy of MUCH congratulatory applause! After you’ve enjoyed perusing this assortment of goodies, do remember to pass it along so others can enjoy, as well. Thanks, and thanks to Sally, as always! (She ROCKS, you know! 😀 ) ❤