The past couple of days, I’ve been with my sons at their Taekwondo tournament. Athletes from all over the world gathered to compete in an array of events, including board breaking, traditional and creative forms (see the first video – my son is the one on the right), and team events. First thing on…
Have you seen this floating around the interwebs lately? My local radio station posted it on their Facebook page this morning. As of this writing, it’s been shared from that page 55 times, and it’s one of many pages I’ve seen it on in the past few days. I’m sure the number of shares is…
Have you noticed this trend, especially in sci-fi or superhero movies? I think I first noticed it with Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy. But after that, I started noticing it other places. How about Darth Vader? Or even the “queen” dragon in How to Train Your Dragon. I’m not talking about motivations, or back…
I stumbled across this image in my phone. Apparently I decided to save it at some point. I think past me knew that present me would need to read this right about now. I recently started querying agents with my completed middle-grade novel, hoping to one day join the ranks of published hybrid authors. I’ve…
When we fiction writers put pen to paper or finger to keyboard or, I dunno, bloody toothpick to cocktail napkin, we are likely writing a story that 1. We enjoy in our heads enough to write it into reality, and 2. We hope others will enjoy as well. Lifelong readers have come to expect certain…
Originally posted on Allison Maruska:
Nothing beats the feeling of typing The End following the last scene of your manuscript. You’ve spent weeks to months to years laboring over sentence construction, timeline details, and character development, among many other things. Now is the time to celebrate. Because soon, it will be time to edit. If…
In April, I was a judge for two writing contests – Dan Alatorre’s Word Weaver contest and Ryan Lanz’s short story contest. I was honored to be asked to fill the role once, let alone twice. And while I enjoyed judging great stories, I also learned a few things about how to make short stories…
Originally posted on Allison Maruska:
Starting April 6th, find links to the posts here. I’ll update it every few days. The original theme reveal post follows the links. A is for Atlanta Burns (YA mystery) B is for Blamed (Thriller) C is for Crow Vector (Pandemic/suspense) D is for 100 Days of Solitude (Memoir) E is for Eat, Pray,…
Hey, look at that! It’s Day Z, the last day of the A-Z challenge. I hope the past month has offered some interesting titles to add to your list. Our final Bookbag title, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, is a unique way to end the series. It features Zinzi, a young lady living in a…
Today’s Bookbag title is a sci-fi thriller that combines time travel, mind reading, and good doses of humor. Yesterday’s Thief by Al Macy is the first part of a series, all featuring a private investigator named Eric Beckman. This book is set in 2020, when self-driving cars, medical technology that allows for super-fast recovery, and…
Allison Maruska 