Two years ago I gave a presentation to 800 people at Ignite Phoenix titled “Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen and the Art of Argument.” I argue that if they had lived at the same time, Jane Austen and Aristotle probably would’ve fallen in love, because Jane Austen’s novels are really rhetoric textbooks that teach the […]
When I was ten years old I decided to keep a reading log. I wish I had kept one all growing up, but at least I have a little window into the past. I rediscovered the notebook the other day while unpacking after moving. Highlights When I was 10, I read Pride and Prejudice for […]
Learning how to write emotions was one of the hardest skills I had to learn as a writer, and something I’m still trying to improve on. (Sadly, statements like “Mary felt afraid” are actually terrible at showing Mary’s fear.) Finding Your Sense of Place by Janni Simner focuses specifically on how to use setting and description […]
The Steel and Bone anthology will be released on Saturday, and in addition to pre-ordering the book, you can enter a Rafflecopter giveaway with a lot of awesome giveaways (free books, a ThinkGeek giftcard, and more!). While you’re waiting, here’s an excerpt of my contribution to Steel and Bone, “The Clockwork Seer,” and my Character Casting. […]
There’s a pretty standard consensus that organic search accounts for between 50 and 64% of website visits (the exact figure depends on the study’s approach). Search engines–including Google, Yahoo, and Bing–are the biggest driver of traffic on the web. If you’re blogging or creating an author website, you need to make it possible for people to find […]