RWA National Conference is fast approaching. So it’s time to start prepping for it. Of course, getting the conference schedule is a top priority and deciding which sessions to go to, which to avoid. I’m not pitching this year, or I’d be working on that. I suck at elevator pitches and tag/log line type descriptions so creating those is torture. In order to make sure I’m not forgetting anything, I googled to find some internet advice. Continue reading
Author: Michille Caples
Michille: Summer Reading List
Now that Memorial Day is behind us and summer has officially begun, I turned my mind to my summer reading list (it should be on my summer writing list, but alas . . . ). Right now, I’m reading Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott. It’s about four women undercover during the Civil War. Next up will be Nora Roberts’ latest, Come Sundown, and The Uses of Enchantment has been on my shelf for a while now and I’d like to get to that one. Continue reading
Michille: Recorded Sessions
So many recorded sessions, so little time. Actually, the second part isn’t exactly true. I have all the time in the world. I’m referring to the RWA National Conference recordings. I bought them at the last RWA Conference I attended with every intention of listening to them regularly for motivation and craft reminders. I thought, oh, I have lots of time because I don’t have to listen to them all at once and was looking forward to parsing out the listening as motivation until I went to the next one. Continue reading
Michille: A Pill to Get Rid of Writer’s Block
Seriously. There’s a pill. I heard an interview with Robert Anthony Siegel on NPR Radio in which he discussed a one-man open-label placebo trial he’d undertaken with John Kelley. Siegel is a writer and Kelley is a psychology professor at Endicott College and the deputy director of Harvard’s Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Encounter, a program devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the placebo effect. The goal was to get rid of Siegel’s writer’s block, and the panic attacks and insomnia that went hand-in-hand with the writer’s block. The interview was a discussion about the research and subsequent article in the Smithsonian Magazine – “Why I Take Fake Pills: Surprising new research shows that placebos still work even when you know they’re not real.” Continue reading
Michille: Blog Steal – 9 Story Openings to Avoid
And for this week’s blog post steal, I’m borrowing from Kristin Nelson and Angie Hodapp. They started a series in June of 2016 about 9 Story Openings to Avoid. The first one is the traditional sittin’ and thinkin’. As opposed to the opening of Julia Quinn’s Brighter Than the Sun which starts with this: “Eleanor Lyndon was minding her own business when Charles Wycombe, Earl of Billington, fell – quite literally – into her life.” Continue reading
Michille: Blog Post Ideas
Sometimes life interrupts and writing a simple blog post is like reaching the peak of Mt McKinley. Hello to the climb. One of my favorite writer blogs came to my rescue with “30 Inspiring Blog Post Ideas For Authors.” How about that. Here is an excerpt from that (with my abbreviated list of inspirations).
“Even creative people get stuck when they’re trying to come up with ideas for a blog post. I thought I would put together a list of possible topics to inspire you. These are based on some of our blog posts at Writers Write and others I’ve enjoyed reading on the Internet.” Continue reading
Michille: Just Have a Conversation
Spoiler Alert – I totally give away the plot, the conflict and the conclusion of two books.
I recently read two books (actually, I’m struggling to finish the second). Both had the same trope – mistaken identity. But in both cases, it was one person knowing the other didn’t know who they were. Not the mistaken identity of one looking remarkably like the real culprit thing, or the twin thing, or the wrong place/wrong time thing in which part of the book is about the one trying to convince the other of their identity. This was “I know you think I’m one thing but I’m this other thing and I’m just not going to tell you” which leads to the dark moment being about NOT HAVING THE **** CONVERSATION (if I were Chuck Wendig that would be an expletive). I hate that. But here’s the thing – I could tolerate it in the one and in fact purposefully sought out the book for a second read and am still struggling to finish the other (I just can’t not finish a book but I did have to skip the end when they finally HAD THE **** CONVERSATION and then go back to the middle). Continue reading
