I am drowning in good intentions, and it is quite the bittersweet experience. It all began on the first day of December 2016 with an idea spurred by an event that took place almost a month earlier—that most hateful of days: Election Day. Now faced with an ugly political landscape guaranteed to harm the disadvantaged,…
Juggling multiple POV characters? Do THIS!
Congratulations! You’ve gone and done a heroic thing and put multiple heroes in your book. As the saying goes: two heroes (or three or four or…) are better than one. Yes, I’m paraphrasing a tad. My point is, you have a big, beautiful, complex book – more than likely part of a series – and…
Pitch Wars Young Adult Mentors Handy MSWL
So, I did a thing…. If you are a hopeful Pitch Wars mentee for Young Adult/New Adult, and you haven’t already picked out your Most Wanted Mentors, then do I have a helpful list for you! I had the day off (courtesy a left eye surgery – thanks, early onset cataracts!) and spent the parts of…
A Word on Whores
That’s an attention-grabbing, click-bait headline if ever there was one. But lucky for you, I’m not going to try to sell you anything. Okay, that’s actually a lie. Eventually, I want to sell you my book once I get it out there, but you have some time before you are contractually obligated to me for…
Kick-Ass Women and the Woman Who Loves Them
Somewhere between the ages of 5 and 10, I had a bracelet. Well, to be honest, my oldest sister had the bracelet. I just borrowed it on occasion. It was a cuff-type bracelet; about two inches wide in faux silver finish and open in the back so you could squeeze your wrist into it. Whenever…
The Inner Worlds of a Writer
I have a rich inner world. A treasure chest of stories in my head. A personal copy of a “1001 Arabian Nights”-type book in which I write all the tales. No big deal, right? I’m a writer. All writers have thriving imaginations. It’s what makes us able to create the stories people want to read.…
When Tea Companies Hire Authors for Package Design
Many, many months ago, I picked up a box of Tazo tea at the grocery store and read the label, expecting to find a simple and succinct write-up on the ingredients. This is what it said:
Dear Important Minor POV Character
Dear Important Minor POV Character, It has come to my attention that, despite the epic fantasy genre of my latest work, it is not advisable to have more point-of-view characters than George R. R. Martin has dead ones. In an effort to bring my POV character count down to a more respectable and manageable number,…
A Captain’s Call to Duty
Vacation was officially over. “Papa, there’s a ‘bout in the driveway.” A young girl peered out the kitchen window as she handed a plate dripping with suds and water to the girl next to her. “And it has the Imperial Guard emblem on the doors,” the second girl added, drying the plate with a towel…
Of Terms and Titles
Last week, I bombarded you with a mega-ton of angst over the title of my Young Adult fantasy manuscript. The bottom line on that post? In its querying stage, the importance of a clever book title is insignificant compared to other aspects of the project (i.e., is the plot interesting and fresh? Is it well-written?),…
D.M. Domosea 