Chuck Sambuchino This column excerpted from Chuck's book, GET A LITERARY AGENT (2015, Writer's Digest Books)   Concerning the definitions of high fantasy vs. urban fantasy: “In high fantasy, an entire world is created; it doesn’t take place in what we recognize as the world as we currently know it. It usually has magic or […]

Susan Spann In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to Mos Eisley spaceport as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” and adds, “we must be careful.” Obi-Wan’s wisdom applies to the Internet too.  Regardless of your publishing path, if you write for publication, you should take steps to protect your copyrighted work against Internet-based infringement. […]

Readers are smart. Smarter than we authors give them credit for. They get where we’re going way before we think they do. I think that’s why it’s so hard to give them an ending that will shock them. I mean, think of the books you've read. How often have you been truly stunned by a […]

Piper Bayard & Jay Holmes One of the most common mistakes in fiction is confusing which intelligence agencies have the power to do what to whom and where they have the authority to do it. Today, we want to clear up that confusion. While there are numerous military and civilian intelligence agencies, we’ll focus on […]

Janice Hardy I love the online world just as much as the next person, but writers already spend so much time alone--it's good to get out into the sunshine once in a while. There's a different energy you get from having a physical in-person conversation versus typing a conversation online, and that energy can be, […]