Updated Cover Art for Vortex: Book Two of Axles and Allies
Danny Mendoza is a hero. Or, was, since it seems like forever ago since he saved the alternate reality land of Umberhold from the evil scientist, Gray Matter. Things seemed to have gone pretty much back to normal at home. Which, for Danny, pretty much means hiding away from school bully Mike and his gang…
A Story For The Ear: Writing the Audio Drama
A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep … heard this line before? Welcome to Night Vale is an audio drama podcast written by Joseph Fink and Jeffory Cranor about a strange desert town where the unusual and horrifying…
Creating the Story Playlist
There are some stories that we can see playing in our heads; we can see the cinematic sequence of every fight, of every kiss, betrayal, victory, and defeat. And as we play these movies through our heads, what do we hear? You can visualize the actions and scenes playing in time as your eyes scan…
Tension and Terror: Pacing Horror for Beginners
Horror is one of the most primal genres to exist. It touches the primitive parts of our minds that still fear what we cannot see in the dark and how it will hurt us. However, a lot of modern day horror focuses less on building to those moments in favor of the instant-gratification emotions of…
Alien Encounters: On Writing Sentient Beings Beyond
Millions of people have stared into the night sky and asked, are we alone? Arthur C. Clarke has said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” But if we are not alone, what will we find? There are thousands of science fiction and science…
Writing Asexually
Don’t tell the television executives and mainstream media this, but not everyone wants sex. Imagine! And here we were thinking that the “A” in LGBTQIAP+ meant, “ally.” There are projected to be over a million asexual people across the world, yet the saturation they have in media can almost be counted on two hands. But…
To Describe Your Main Character or Not: That is the Question…
When writing a story, your goal is to paint such a vivid word picture that your readers will be able to see and experience everything on the page as they read it. Your goal, then, is to paint as many vivid images as possible. To do that, you have to describe settings, characters, sights, sounds,…
The Three POVs You’re Most Likely to Use
So, you’ve drawn up a complex character sheet, prepared a full outline with all the plot twists and surprise reveals, and have everything ready to write that future best-selling novel. But before you can write the clever opening line of your book, you have to decide on one important thing: the Point of View. Point…
The Query Letter
The query letter is usually the first thing that is seen by an editor, and unless the query is polished and stands out above the rest of the slush pile, it may be the only thing seen before your letter is tossed to the “rejected” stack after the first paragraph. The opening of your letter sets…
