Kelly McClymer's Blog

What is Your Christmas Fantasy?

Do you have a fantasy idea of the perfect Christmas? Do you create it for yourself every year? Or do you simply dream about it, but never make it happen?

My favorite childhood Christmases involved a lot of family, a tree we all decorated, and presents that were carefully wrapped and piled under the tree. When I grew up, and tried to recreate a similar Christmas for my own family, I quickly realized how time-consuming it was. I hear the same from other people ...

I’m on a mission with my new Hack Your Muse initiative to help writers write when they want, how they want, what they want:

 

The post Writer Giveaway! One Week. Better Hurry. appeared first on Kelly McClymer Books.

Are you a sucker for oral storytelling?

Me too. I love the MOTH Radio Hour on NPR. Love it.

So, when I was visiting in the Bay Area, looking for somewhere to take my sister to repay her hospitality, I saw there was a MOTH Story Slam. No brainer. I got the tickets.

My sister is aware that, quiet and unassuming as I usually am, I sometimes do daring things.

Getting on a stage in front of a packed theatre and telling a story in 5 minutes or less is…daring.

My sister asked if I planned to tell a...

This post is part of the Empowering the Goddess Within Blog Tour hosted by www.BraveHealer.com. To read more entries and potentially win a fun prize, visit the tour page HERE, between today and 9/18/17.

 

How I Unwittingly Awoke the Wild Goddess by Trying to Write a Bestselling YA Fantasy

Do you hesitatingly set ambitious goals for yourself every now again?

Me too.

About a decade ago, after I’d published ten novels, I began to look very hard at how to write a bestseller. It seemed like a rea...

Do you remember when hospitals were the place people went to die?

Me neither. But my dad did.

My father was born in the early ’30s, and hospitals had actually improved quite a bit (thanks to the Victorian heroine you will meet in this post). But his parents, and myriad aunts and uncles had been born in a time when you would rather cut your own gangrenous arm off at home than go to the hospital and die. The reality began to change in Victorian times, but it was a slow revolution until medical...

Welcome to the Glass Slipper Sisters Beach Reads Bundle Sale! All ten of the below titles are available at Amazon and other retailers for just 99 cents each from July 24-28. Then the pumpkin carriage turns back into a pumpkin. Some of these books have never gone down this low before, and you won’t see a deal like this again for quite a while. So, load up your e-readers this summer with some royal fairy tale reads.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * iBookstore *Kobo

Please note that book one in this...

Do you have a writing muse?

Ray Bradbury has been quoted as saying, “I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.”

William S. Burroughs advised, “So cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality.”

I know many writers shake their heads at the fanciful idea of a muse. They are motivated by the payment they expect for the work they produce. Some prop up bills to keep themselves writing.

That’s not me. And...

Ebook vs book. Woman sitting on chair holding traditional book and e-book reader tablet touchpad pc back view grunge background.

Many people, when they find out I’m a novelist, will say, “Oh I want to write a novel some day, when I find the time.”

I’ve learned that most of them mean in the same way that I mean it when I say, “I really want to learn another language.” The truth is, if I really wanted to learn another language, I’d do it. One day, I may. But right now, learning another language...

Should you outline your novel?

If you’re thinking about writing a novel, you may be asking yourself that question. Here are some things to consider as you answer that question for yourself.

First, you do not need to outline a novel to write one. I did not outline my first novel. I just wrote it as it came to me, scene by scene, chapter by chapter, for 400+ pages.

That novel will never be published.

It was a great practice novel and there are many things I love about it, but it is an undiscipl...

A Interesting Take on Genius and the Writing Muse

I highly recommend this TEDTalk by Elizabeth Gilbert for writers who are serious about the craft and having difficulty increasing productivity during writing sessions (or creating time to write, period). And for moms who want to nurture the best in their children and themselves.

======================== My genius

I’ve been working on some authorpreneurial ideas for a few years and this talk really spoke to me, because it allows me to elucida...