As a reader of romance, both contemporary and historical, I am completely okay with the use of tropes. What's a trope? It's a commonly used literary theme or motif like 'city girl moves to the country and falls for its native son.' As Ecclesiastes says "There is no new thing under the sun." You could … Continue reading The Trouble With Tropes
November was rough. Actually, it's been a rough Autumn. I utterly failed to do NaNoWriMo, I didn't meet my exercise goals, and I didn't get a job I really wanted. There's no point into relating the trash-fire that is our political system here in the States so let's just move along. I'm not sorry to … Continue reading Snowflakes Welcome Here
Looking for writing advice? The internet has a ton waiting for you. You'll find the good, the bad, and the downright odd a Google search away. My favorite odd advice? Edgar Alan Poe suggested that a writer better the story this way - "Include a beautiful woman with raven locks and porcelain skin, preferably quite young, … Continue reading Writing Advice: The Good Stuff
As regular readers know, I have a book coming out shortly - The Broken Trail. It's a contemporary Christian romance in which a smart, successful education consultant travels to a rural Maine town to help turn around the local private school and ends up locking horns with the town's police captain. I write fiction that reflects … Continue reading The Truth Beneath Our Surfaces
The Broken Trail will be out on October 1st! Right now you can pre-order the digital version for a ridiculously low price. Click here for the linky-thing: The Broken Trail If this is the first you're hearing about it, there's lots more places to go to get extra content, book teasers, my deepest thoughts etc My Twitter … Continue reading Book News!
In the business world as well as the creative industries there's something called the 'elevator pitch'. It's a way to summarize your project for a prospective customer/agent/publisher/producer. The idea is to make the pitch concise enough to fit the length of a ride in an elevator from one floor to the next. It's something that writers have to develop … Continue reading A Pitch for Forgiveness
Hey folks! A little news. I have an author page up at Amazon! Right now it only has the short-story anthology I was published in, but coming soon will be The Broken Trail! You can follow me there to get a link to preorder the moment it's ready! How cool is that? Oh, and sequel … Continue reading Follow me. I have cookies.
Like Fight Club, the first rule of dysfunctional families? There is no dysfunction. It's all fine here. Nothing to see. Move along. Ask any veteran of a family with issues and you'll hear the familiar echo. Someone called DSS? Nothing to see here. A neighbor called the cops? We're all fine here, officer. Again and … Continue reading Fight Club
So... where have I been you ask? Working. The day job heated up just about the same time I finally had BITTERSWEET ready to submit to agents. In between meetings, crunching data, and what felt like endless spreadsheets I was polishing up my query and submitting my latest book to potential agents. How's it going? … Continue reading In the Query Trenches
Hands down the most helpful information I have sourced on publishing and even creative writing itself has been through Twitter. I opened an account years ago just to check it out and then ignored it for a good five years because my life got really complicated. In a six month stretch I had a … Continue reading Here Be Dragons: Twitter’s Stormy Seas
Christa MacDonald 