Double The Love at WITS, Fall Edition
Since the beginning here at Writers in the Storm, we've been all about spreading the love. And every so often, we throw the doors open for some shameless self-promotion opportunities for our readers. Our only requirement for those glorious days -- formerly called "Pimp & Promote" — is that they double the love and promote someone else's work alongside their own.
Today's event will give us all the opportunity to share great resources and celebrate our own successes. Plus, it is Fall, one of our favorite seasons for writing. So get ready to double the love!
How DO you "Double the Love?"
Here in the States, school is going strong, athletic games abound, and it is homecoming season. In that same spirit, let's get out our pom-poms and cheer for ourselves and other writers! Down in the comments section, we ask that you:
- Heap love on somebody else’s work—a favorite author, blogger, post or book you’ve read, a wonderful teacher or just someone who had profound influence on you as a writer or a person. Please limit your comments to one work.
AND - Promote one of your projects that you’re excited about—a hobby, a blog, a book, or a new direction your writing is taking you. You decide. Just tell us about it in the comments! (Please restrain your enthusiasm to just one of your WIPs.)
The rest of us will shake those pom-poms, and “ooooh and ahh” (with a side of rah-rah). Full disclosure: our to-be-read piles and our resource lists double in size on days like these, which is always a cause for both celebration and nail-biting.
We'll lead off the love fest with some of the WITS Team!
Ellen Buikema
New Love:
Laura Rossi has written a dark, mafia romance, Skins, De La Crux Famiglia, book one of a four book series. The story weaves elements of danger, secrets, and lies, along with a deep and abiding love.
A breathtaking thriller.
Self-love:
If you are looking for a young readers chapter book series, take a look at The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon. I wrote these stories to help encourage empathy and cultivate insight into children’s lives.
These multicultural stories cover situations children typically encounter like getting lost, moving, starting a new school, making friends, family vacations, working in a team, and dealing with bullies using positive methods. Each chapter ends with one or more activities for children and parents or teachers to do together, related to the actions in the stories. These books are filled with humor to make the stories more engaging for children (and more fun for parents to read to their kids).
The first three chapter books in The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon Series are New Beginnings, School Days, and Summertime.
Lisa Norman
New Love:
My husband and I have been enjoying the writing of Olan Thorensen. This indie author enjoys going deep into science, anthropology, cultural change, chemistry, and pretty much any other topic you can imagine. While normally these deep dives would interfere with the narrative, his are so fascinating I find myself hanging on every word in these big books. He's up to Book 9 in the Destiny's Crucible series right now, and I can not wait for book 10. He keeps the suspense building throughout each book. I'm in awe and would love to study how he does that, but I'm usually too distracted reading them.
Self Love:
All of my energy has been going into building No Stress Writing Academy! We have a bunch of classes already with more coming all the time. I offer a Marketing 101 class at no cost for those who want to explore the platform and see what we're up to over there in World Anvil!
Jenny Hansen
New Love:
If you've been around WITS for a while, you've seen some of the gorgeous posts by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, the co-authors of the Emotion Thesaurus series of books. Perhaps you know about the labor of love they created called "One Stop" for writers.
They've kicked it up a notch recently with the Storyteller's Roadmap. Frankly, I love it. I love that it meets you where you are as a writer, and that there are three different paths you can take, based on your own writing challenges. For example, I have friends who get hives at the thought of plotting so they happily write away like the pantsers they are. Then they get stuck or get lost in revisions. There are roadmaps for all these scenarios!
Below is a screen capture of the main page.
And here is a snippet of the Planning Roadmap:
So, to summarize, if you haven't checked out One Stop for Writers with their thesaurus cheat-sheets, character builders, checklists, timelines, and now, their Storyteller's Roadmap...why not?
Self-love:
Writers in the Storm is looking for new blog hosts and contributors. We like to change it up every few years and hear from some new voices and viewpoints. And we like to spread out the hosting over 4-6 people so no one has to do more than a dozen hours of work throughout the year.
Let us know in the comments if that's something you'd be interested in or contact us through the contact form here!
Okay, now it's your turn!
* * * * * *
What do you think of "Double the Love?" Do you like the new name? Spread the love all around the comment section, and we'll chime in and cheer you on!
Top Photo by Frantisek Duris on Unsplash
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25 comments on “Double The Love at WITS, Fall Edition”
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New love: Becca Syme's Dear Author series is absolutely fabulous. I'm particularly fond of the Intuitive one, because it made my brain and writing process make so much sense. I felt validated and stopped worrying about the advice on the internet that never felt right (because it isn't right FOR ME).
Self love: I'm really excited about the pre-order for book 3 in my Return of the Fae series. Academy of the Fae is #3, and the new-to-Earth fae teens are now in a top-secret high school with humans, trying to learn each other's language and culture before a treaty can be made. But not everyone wants peace...
Hi, Marty! Becca's classes are fantastic! Great add to the list! Your book sounds like something I'll love!
I've had that Becca Syme series on my list for a while. Your comment is a sign that I need to bump it up the list!
And how exciting for you that you're on book 3 of your series! Congratulations. 🙂
I love the new name.
New Love
A relatively young author whom I've been helping to promote is David Kumar. David has been writing and publishing since his teens, and I've seen how he has developed over the years.
His favoured genre is Horror, but he has written a non-horror book called Everything Somewhere.
There are three teens in the book.
Hudson is a troubled character. He is the only child of a couple struggling to make ends meet. His father has a job in one of the local factories, at the same time farming their small-holding. Hudson wants to leave the small town of Little Rush. At least that’s what he says. He also has thoughts of suicide, although he is unsure if he wants to do it or not.
Mason is his friend and the son of one of the rich property owners in the town. His ambition is to remain in the town and to take over his father’s business. A typical rich teen, the relationship between him and Hudson is somewhat difficult at times.
Willow is Mason’s girlfriend. She is beautiful, but from a broken home. Her parents live separately in the poorer parts of the town. She also wants to leave Little Rush as soon as she can.
The three get up to the usual kind of things teens will do, drinking and smoking and generally being a nuisance.
Their life changes when a popular film star decides to retire to the town. Everyone is excited, but is he all he seems?
I was most impressed by the research David put into this tale of growing up and mental illness. I would recommend it.
Self Love.
I am excited that the cover of my historical fiction book, Jealousy of a Viking, is a finalist in the Page Turner Awards.
This book is set in England during the time of the Vikings. It follows a young girl, Helgha, as she falls in love with a young man of a much higher station than her.
She and Erik,her lover, are happy and have two children, but when Erik marries for political reasons a feud develops between her and Erik's wife.
She uses her knowledge of herbs to try to prevent Erik's wife from conceiving, but ultimately, she has to come to terms with her crimes.
I won't say any more as I don't want to give things away.
This is one of my favourite books I've written.
I'm currently on my tablet, so don't have the images of the book covers. Sorry!
I'm excited about the new name too! Much more to our theme here. 🙂
And OMG, so many congratulations on the award. We'd do the work anyway, but those awards feel so fabulous. Proud of you!
V. M.
Congratulations on being a finalist!
I love the title of your Viking book and the part of the story that you told. It sounds like something I'd be interested in reading. I especially like the part about the herbs. The novel I've just finished features a protagonist who learns herbal magic from her aunt. Doing research for the book, I became a huge fan of herbals and herbalism.
Best wishes 🙂
I love this, and love the new name. Thanks for the opportunity!
I've been reading Pam Houston's new book, Without Exception, which is spectacular. A gifted writer, her prose is spare and clear, and she shoots straight from the heart, delivering an unflinching look at what it is to be a woman, different facets of motherhood, and why female reproductive rights are essential for a healthy planet. She's long been one of my favorite authors, both for her courage in tackling difficult subjects and her knack for capturing intangibles.
My name is Dana Renor and I write a photo-blog on Substack called Nomadica, a documentary about my transition into nomad life in the desert southwest, USA. If you love to travel, are thinking of becoming a nomad, or have ever dreamed of living a freer life, here's a chance to share the beauty, challenges and joys of the journey.
I'm a writer-artist-photographer, and a life-long student of truth, Nature and animal behavior. I write about all of those things, as well as the process of creation, the divine feminine, following your dreams in spite of fear and grief, and of course, my experiences with camper maintenance, renovation, and repair.
All main content is free, but paid subscribers get some awesome perks.
https://nomadica.substack.com/p/youre-going-to-do-what
Hi Dana,
I checked out your blog. It's great and the pictures are phenomenal! Thank you for sharing.
Best wishes!
Wonderful recommendation, and what a pretty site, Dana! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you for this post. It is wonderful. And "Double the Love" is a great name (decidedly better than the former name).
Here's who I love: Jon (no last name available; he goes by "Jon"), the editor of Typishly, an online literary fiction journal--one worth checking out for its beautiful pics as well as the excellent poetry and short stories.
Here's why I love John: He wants Typishly to be "a positive and welcoming space for writers, where creativity is respected, cherished and nourished." To this end, he responds--with a personal email, not a form letter--to everyone who submits to the journal.
He responds quickly with positive feedback to all submissions, including those not accepted for publication. Again, I quote from the journal's website" "Even if he does not accept your writing for publication, Jon will briefly point out phrases or ideas he likes, because submitters have told him it’s good to know someone has read and thought about their work."
After racking up a number of form rejections while querying my novel, I felt in need of a little affirmation, so I submitted a lit. short story that I'd poured a lot of love into. However, I suspected it didn't quite fit Typishly's vibe and expected to be rejected. But I held out hope that Jon would say something nice about it. Just a little crumb. That's how pathetically far gone I was at that point.
The story didn't get accepted for publication, but Jon sent me an email with more than a crumb. He was enthusiastic about how good both the writing and the story were. He included specific examples of lines and aspects of the writing he particularly liked. That nourishment gave me the strength to work on revising the submission materials for my novel and I'm now preparing to start querying again.
Here's a little about my novel:
Herbal magic, Celtic folklore, and the mysterious allure of dragons intertwine in my YA fantasy, Music of Dragons. Siobhan Bla h'Eithne, an untrained faerie on the edge of adulthood, resolves to take a perilous journey to the Dragon Kingdom to clear her father of a charge of treason. Her quest is complicated by political intrigue, family secrets, and an increasing inner confusion about her own identity. Worse, she's unaware that a stunning secret her mother is hiding from her endangers not only Siobhan but her homeland with every step she takes.
Sorry for the long entry. Thanks for reading it--and please consider thanking Jon for being a positive force in the writing world.
LOLOL to this, Christine --> (decidedly better than the former name)
I have never heard of Typishly, so that's intriguing research for me. Thanks! And how cool are your story elements? You had me at:
"Herbal magic, Celtic folklore, and the mysterious allure of dragons..."
Thank you, Jenny. I'm glad I made you laugh. 🙂
And I'm delighted to hear my novel's story elements hooked you. In truth, I've infused the story with them because they're things I love. 🙂
A writer friend of mine, Dawn Downey, broadens my perspective on life by sharing hers. She has a Substack column at https://dawndowney.substack.com/ and her books can be found at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dawn-Downey/author/B005HAYI60. She has just published the 10th anniversary of her essay collection, STUMBLING TOWARD THE BUDDHA.
My most recent historical novel, WHEN HEART SHALL FAIL, is a finalist in the Missouri Writers Guild Best Fiction contest, as well as a Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award nominee. My books can be found at https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B009H8QIT8.
Thanks for the opportunity to promote two of my favorite authors!
Theresa Hupp
Love the new name!
Thanks, Denise!
My friend Kevin Ikenberry has a new Military SciFi release:
An elite soldier. A new armored weapon. The invading aliens have finally met their match.
First Lieutenant Mike Sandhurst led an elite infantry platoon on a rescue mission to Tycho-3. Wearing state-of-the-art ATLAS powered armor, Sandhurst’s unit faced down a relentless, wasp-like enemy who tore through them and left Sandhurst for dead.
Rescued by ground forces, Sandhurst gets reassigned as humanity races to war against aliens they call Buzzers.
To fight the Buzzers, humanity turns to the modernized Centurion main battle-tank. Sandhurst must quickly learn the lexicon of “shoot, move, communicate” and lead his fast, self-sustained, and very lethal armored forces.
When the Buzzers appear again to threaten colonized worlds, Sandhurst’s regiment moves forward to hold the planet Heske by force. But they aren’t alone. The orbital carrier Yorktown and its space-capable wing dominate the skies while tanks take the fight and put Steel on Target.
Join the fight against the Buzzers in this new rollicking Science Fiction thrill ride from Kevin Ikenberry. With realistic military action, space and ground battles, and a vicious bug alien invasion, it's perfect for fans of Starship Troopers, Hell Divers 2, and Rick Partlow's Drop Trooper!
https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Target-Buzzer-War-Book-ebook/dp/B0D63MK837
Kevin invited me to write a story in his anthology set in The Four Horseman Universe, "Bureau 42":
Peacemakers. The Galactic Union’s most capable enforcers and resolute negotiators, their name alone elicits fear and awe among the Union’s citizenry.
It doesn’t happen often, but when a Peacemaker can’t solve a case, it goes to the Peacemaker Archives, as all Peacemaker cold cases reside within “Bureau 42,” as it’s also known. Cases dealing with ghost ships, missing Peacemakers, mysterious killers, and even a few cases that aren’t even really cases can all be found in the files of Bureau 42.
Fourteen authors present thirteen all-new stories from the depths of Bureau 42. Take a look into the forgotten files of the Peacemaker Guild and find never-before-seen secrets, some of which herald the future of the Peacemaker Guild and even the Galactic Union itself.
These stories honor the threat, set the terms, and walk the knife edge between standing or falling. Step inside, Candidate, and see what our files hold…
https://www.amazon.com/Bureau-42-Phoenix-Initiative-Book-ebook/dp/B0D96DN6BY
Oooh what a fun name and great concept!
New love: Marisa Wolf's Beyond Enemies. I cannot say enough good things about Beyond Enemies! Marisa Wolf more than knocked it out of the park - she knocked it out of the galaxy. The story grabs you from the beginning and refuses to let you go until the last word, and then you find yourself frantically scrolling, wondering why there aren't any more words! And then if you're like me, you sit there for awhile and wonder what you're supposed to do with your life now. While not a military veteran, she absolutely nails her military characters from their mannerisms down to the dark humor and bantering. More than that, she has a knack for not only making her characters feel real, but making you care about them. Combine that with a delightful new scifi setting and a plot that's more than twisty enough to keep you guessing until the very end, and you've got one of my favorite stories ever.
Beyond Enemies broke my brain in the best way possible. I need a sequel, I demand a sequel. I need to know what happens next, because team Breezy for the absolute win!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGVRQ13V/
Self-love: I just released an Urban Fantasy Romance novel that I'm absolutely in love with. Slow burn enemies-to-lovers, he falls first, touch her and die vibes. All the epic stakes and snarky banter! It's book 2 in the shared Hit World: Valkyries universe but it can be read as a standalone!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDJPXZM2
Ooooh, I haven't heard of Marisa Wolf, so thanks for that. And I truly love snarky banter, so thanks for that second link!
Marisa and are both all about the snarky banter LOL. Hope you enjoy!!
Nice! Credit to Charli Cox for letting me know about this!
New love: I've been reading the "Arcane Carolinas" books from Charlie Mewshaw. I'm a complete sucker for anything related to Appalachian folklore, and these books scratch that itch wonderfully. I particularly like how each chapter covers location, myth, and history - volume 2 even includes potential story suggestions (talk about knowing your audience!) These are WELL worth the read if you are a fan of Manly Wade Wellman or American folklore.
Volume 1: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF7JKYFW/
Volume 2: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB3QY5RM/
Self love: last year, illustrator Cedar Sanderson and I collaborated in an unusual way. She created an image each day in October, and I wrote a story to go along with it. The result was "One October Night", a collection thirty-one flash fiction stories and accompanying illustrations. These science-fiction, fantasy, and other stories range from whimsical to strange to realistic, many with a seasoning of horror (I did write them in October, after all!) Perfect light reading for the upcoming month.
https://www.amazon.com/One-October-Night-Illustrations-Stories-ebook/dp/B0CQNLM97Q/
Thanks in advance to Charli! And welcome to WITS. 🙂
Thanks Jenny. Happy to be here!
First time poster, also courtesy of Charli.
I bumped into F.D. Lee at a con. last month, having been pulled in her direction by a poster compring her to Terry Pratchett and Eoin Colfer. Her 'Fairy's Tale' (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T3E9QL8) is incredibly funny in places, as Bea, a would-be fairy godmother, struggles to complete her Plot, only to discover the world is much more complicated than she thought.
As for one of mine: 'The Feather and the Lamp' (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMHKGZS2) is also a comic fantasy. Imperceptibility Happenstance is catapulted out of her quiet life into a series of adventures thanks to being tricked into acquiring a magic lamp whose occupant would find it incredibly beneficial should its owner happen to suffer a fatal 'accident.'
That Charli has cool pals! Welcome to WITS, and thanks for sharing Double the Love. 🙂
I am fortunate to have the best author friends! 😃