Writer Unboxed

A writer whose name escapes me (Rita Mae Brown? Virginia Woolf?) once said, “You only know the book I wrote. You’ll never know the book I meant to write.” That pretty much describes to a T how I’m feeling, having just spent the weekend reading the second set of page proofs of my new […]

So over at Flogging the Quill, Ray has fiendishly come up with another way to improve your fiction writing.  He’s devised the Flogometer ™, a forum where he posts the first two pages of your project.  Part one, he rips your hook apart.  Part two, he asks himself if he’s compelled to turn the page and read […]

This past Saturday marked the 216th birth-versary of musical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Recently, I watched the special edition director’s cut of one of my favorite flicks - the fantastical, academy award winning movie Amadeus. With 20 extra minutes of never-before-released footage and a 2nd disc dedicated to interviews on the making of the movie, […]

If you missed the first part of our interview with women’s fiction author Barbara Samuel, click HERE, then come on back. In part 2 we talk all about her RITA-award-winning book Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas, how to elicit reader involvement and empathy for your characters, the difference between women’s fiction and romance, the controversial […]

Pardon us.  We’ve got a few things to squee about here at WU, so please indulge us while we take today’s post to do so!  What’s a blog for if you can’t brag a little, hm?
Recently we passed our one year anniversary!  Therese and I were so busy blogging, writing, and living our lives that […]

Before I got published, I always thought that nothing could be better than actually seeing and holding copies of my books in my hands. I’ve since discovered that fan mail is a close second.
Like many writers working today, I have a website with a form readers can use to contact me with their comments. In […]

I don’t have time to post much today, but I wanted to point out an interesting development for those who love ancient mysteries as much as I do.  Archeologists have found other mini ’stonehenges’ close by the original.  They also found an ancient cremation burial site, with the remains of a man indicating he was about […]

I stumbled upon some interesting information this past weekend: The author and screenwriter of Dances with Wolves, Michael Blake, has written a follow-up novel and is currently working on a screenplay adaptation for it. The Holy Road (2004) , another epic tale, picks up where John Dunbar (Dances with Wolves), Stands with a Fist, Three […]

RITA-award winner Barbara Samuel has an ensorcelling ability to reach inside of you with her writings to tug at heart strings you didn’t know you had. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading her romantic fiction or her expansive women’s fiction, Samuel creates memorable characters who tackle tough obstacles authentically. She’s also a wordsmith of the […]

I’m Kathleen Bolton, and I’m a plot-aholic. I have an addiction to trying out plotting methods (see my roadtest of the Vogler method). I try one, it seems to fulfill the juice I need for the fix, but by the next weekend I run across a new method and I just can’t leave well enough […]

Psychologists call it “convergence.”
In lay terms: Shit happens.
First, an unexpected expense claimed a large chunk of my bank balance. A friend was diagnosed with a serious illness. Later the same day, word came that another friend had lost a close family member. We’ve had two days of torrential rain and flash flooding here […]

Thanks to everyone who voted for Writer Unboxed in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll!  We appreciate it so much!
Many of you have probably already heard about the death of the controversial Sobol award, beaten down by critics across the country. Now there’s a new contest, which though seemingly more respectable and trustworthy, is still […]