First Taste Newsletter Features THE SACRIFICE

I'm pleased to share the link to read the first chapter of THE SACRIFICE along with two other books. Check them out at First Taste Newsletter!


It's all better with friends.

Wednesday Wisdom for Writers and Those Who Love Them

"As a writer, you ask yourself to dream while you're awake." —Aimee Bender



Not so hard to do once you've had enough
practice.



It's all better with friends.

Wednesday Wisdom for Writers and Those Who Love Them

"Readers need to see themselves between the lines of the story." —Karen Kingsbury



While plot is important, especially to someone who writes suspense, characters resonate long after the story concludes. At least they do for me.


It's all better with friends.

Wednesday Wisdom for Writers and Those Who Love Them

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all." —Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis


And who knows, one day your child may grow up to write books.

Yes, this is a photo of me. A very, very long time ago.


It's all better with friends.

Wednesday Wisdom for Writers and Those Who Love Them

"Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it." —Octavia Butler


Cool, huh?



It's all better with friends.

Wednesday Wisdom for Writers and Those Who Love Them

"A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it." —Mark Twain

It's all better with friends.

Over The Top Writing (Not a good thing)

Hello.

My name is Peg
and sometimes I tend to write over the top.

Before I give you an example, let me just say that I'm working through my very own recovery program (and that's not to make light of anyone who has actually gone through a 12-step program for addiction).

The thing is, when I write over the top I get euphoric.  High. Yep. It's my favorite place to be. I think that particular scene sparkles with everything a writer should strive for. I don't see the fluff. The pretense. The pure crap. I see literary style.

Thank goodness I've been anchored (yes, anchored) to some take-no-prisoners editors who've called me on it every time.

Here's my latest:

FLAMES SCREAMED out the windows, reaching up and licking the air like crack whores hungry for the next fix that could keep them going a little longer. The charged orange creatures chased the oxygen that pushed and twisted them into demented dancers. The ironic contrast between the energized heat from the fire and the snow nestled peacefully on nearby pines underscored the silence broken by the wail of sirens. 

Undulating smoke changed color depending on what was being consumed, then veiled silently down the mountain valley. The shades of gray faded into a harmless and barely discernible mist, its secrets lost.

The was the old opening for FLAME GAME. While I still love it, it's history. It fed me, not the story.  

As readers, have you ever read anything that sounded over the top? What did you think? Did you keep reading?

As writers, can any of you identify?

It's all better with friends.