The is Part 3 of a four-part series reporting on the "Why Haven't You Written Your Book?" survey we offered last year. You can read Part 2 here. I'm afraid to write (or submit) my book because … A clear margin shows that the two highest-ranked responses held true for most authors, while the remaining three ranked very close together. Here is how all of the answers ranked: I don't know if it will be any good. I don't know how to distribute/market it. I don't think anyone will read it. I'm afraid people will judge me. I don't know...
Why Haven’t You Written Your Book? (Part 2 of 4)
The is the second part in a four-part series reporting on the "Why Haven't You Written Your Book?" survey we offered last year. You can read Part 1 here. I would write my book if … The answers we received ranked fairly close in terms of the numbers of responses received. Here is how all of the answers ranked: I knew someone would be interested in publishing it. I had more time to do it. I had a support group to help me along the way. As the results were close across all three responses, we might conclude that writers:...
Why Haven’t You Written Your Book? (Part 1 of 4)
Many of us know people who have written — or threatened to write — books, but then those books never seem to materialize in a final form. Even after we started Paper Angel Press, and positioned it as an author-friendly platform for getting your written creations read, we still experienced the same hesitation among writers, even those with whom we had good working relationships. Why was this happening?, we wondered. So, last fall we ran a survey with two different audiences in order to try to understand why writers don't complete or submit their books. We also sought to understand...
New Book Release: “Broken Bridge (Book Two of the Glass Bottles Series)” by J Dark
We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Broken Bridge, the second book in the Glass Bottles series, by J Dark. Sometimes a broken bridge has to be crossed. Talk about Byzantine influences. Fern Fatelli is approached by a desperate father to find his daughter before something bad happens to her, only to find that the job is really a diversion made to have her owe a service to a fae lord. Cobb, the fae lord, then contracts Fern, not as a finder, but as a wizard, and forces her to re-open the Anolyn way. As this is going...
Interview: L. A. Jacob, author of Grimaulkin
The first question I'd like to ask is about the book in general. If I remember correctly, Grimaulkin is written for Young Adults? Yes, mostly in the high-school plus range. The main character is 18 years old. Did you find that focusing on that particular age range influenced the style of your writing? Oh, definitely. My first draft, the one I wrote when I wasn't paying attention to words, had a lot more detail and swear words than the final version did. Since the time period is in the year 2000, I didn't have to worry about modern lingo and...
Interview: J Dark, author of Best Intentions
By your own admission, you say that you came late to the writing game. What prompted you to start and want to get published? I was having a rough go of it back in 2006 when, on a whim, I got into the online game City of Heroes. When I joined, this group called “Futura Force” that had these players, “Kill Favored”, and “Electroidium” that got me interested in posting short little stories on the forums. Then both of those players started talking about “National Novel Writing Month”, and how they were going to participate because they liked writing. I’d...
Interview: Lisa Jacob, author of Homecoming (A War Mage Story)
What inspired you to get into writing? I was always a voracious reader. I had been surrounded by books since childhood, and my mother was always a big reader. In junior high, I started reading “adult” authors like Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon, books my mom read. I finished The Shining and I thought to myself, I can write like this. So I started writing fan fiction for a few TV shows—this was way before fan fiction was a “thing.” My first original novel was written during the summer from 8th to 9th grade, and really improved my typing skills....
Interview: Laureen Hudson, Acquisitions Editor
What got you into editing as a profession, and what helps with being a good editor? So that’s actually a funny story. Waaaaaaay back in high school, I signed up to work on the school newspaper. The teacher noticed me informally answering other people’s questions about spelling and word choice, and decided I should be the editor. That would have been where it stopped, except that the school principal made a habit of censoring editorials in the paper. It enraged me, and I embarked on an anti-censorship campaign that ultimately got me suspended a few times… but I learned the...
Interview: The Unruly Woman interviews Steven Radecki, author of Building Baby Brother
When the guy who makes your book dreams come true publishes his first book, you read it. So I did. I read a science fiction book, my first ever science fiction book! And I shocked myself by loving it. I asked Steven Radecki to let me interview him so I could drag other people into my excitement about Building Baby Brother. He said, "YES!". So I did my first Unruly Books interview and it is here for your listening pleasure (http://goo.gl/92HTqM). [powerpress]
Interview: Steven Radecki, Father of Building Baby Brother
Where did you get the idea for Building Baby Brother? To be honest, I don’t remember where the actual idea for the plot came from. The story itself started as part of an exercise that, well, kind of got out hand. My son’s charter had planned to sponsor an event to help foster reading and writing skills by asking students and willing family members to write a short story and then read it out loud at this event. Always willing to write, particularly for a good cause such as that one, I started pondering possible story ideas. I knew I...