My thanks to the East Texas Writers Guild. This year, I entered two books in their First Chapter awards, one in each category: Published Work and Work in Progress. And this week I learned that both won! Under the Nazi Heel: Book 2 of Walking Out of War, earned Second Place in the Nonfiction/Memoir category. […]
This week, Written Words turns the tables on book reviewers by asking them few questions about what they’re looking for in the books they review. Today, we have two avid readers whose have carved out a broad platform on Amazon and Goodreads: Sue Alexander Devers and Anima Giraldez. What genres do you review? Sue Devers: […]
It’s Victoria Day in Canada, a national holiday. As comedy troupe The Irrelevant Show said, it’s “Canadians’ favourite holiday devoted to Victorian oppression and yard work.” For those readers in warmer climes, the Victoria Day long weekend is traditionally the time to plant your garden. It’s the earliest time in the year in most of […]
A guest post by Scott Justin About a month ago, a young writer named Scott Justin sent me an email, offering a guest essay for Written Words. Here is his observation on a tool that writers can use to bring audiences into their stories and bond with the characters. What do you think? Leave a […]
I’ve been re-reading Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels in a probably vain attempt to capture the mood and inspiration to write my own crime fiction, and when I compare Chandler’s prose to 21st-century mystery, thriller and crime fiction, it seems that Chandler’s challenge was less than today’s writers’—or at least, very different. The Big Sleep […]
Some communications pack a lot of information into a very few words. A skit on the CBC comedy program The Irrelevant Show last weekend is the best example I have heard in a long time. A sketch started with a narrator explaining that in about the year 2050 (or maybe it was 2030—I’m not sure), […]
You would find it hard to find three excellent writers who are more different than Seb Kirby, Lisa Jay Davis and Charity Parkerson. Seb writes thrillers and science fiction; Lisa published a bestselling memoir of her time as an event producer in Hollywood; and Charity writes erotica, romance and fantasy. But you’ll be surprised at […]