Matthew Iden's Blog, page 18

There's a Crime Fiction Writers group on LinkedIn that I belong to. Recently, this question was posed: what's the difference between crime fiction, thrillers, and mysteries? I thought about it and responded: Crime fiction: the party's going to happen Thrillers: the party's happening Mystery: the party's over. Who drank all the beer? My answer might [...]

I can say that, after a short trip to Key West, Florida,  I'm more interested than ever in the concept of "setting as character". Key West is so rich in history, personalities, and opportunities that you'd have to be made of wood not to see the story-telling potential in the place. After walking around the [...]

Robin Sullivan over at Write to Publish has a nice post about how, as an indie author, you can keep from being left in the cold as Amazon–love 'em or hate 'em–goes about its quest to retain market leadership in publishing (c.f., KDP Select exclusivity, flexing contract muscles on Independent Publishers Group, etc.). Find it [...]

At a certain point when you're writing, no matter what the subject matter or how excited you are about a plot–often when you're ready to revise or rewrite–there's a moment when you'll feel like you're being pushed around by the words on the page And that's the wrong relationship to have with a manuscript. It [...]

Hi Friends - My short epic fantasy tale, Sword of Kings, is now available for just $.99 on Amazon. This is an original fantasy of about 4,000 words and includes–as all my stories do–a Story Notes section that details the background and motivations for how I created the tale. Description King Andreas was confident, bold, [...]

While I've chosen fiction for my own writing, I've always been struck by the research and writing skill that's required for the best non-fiction. Some people are amazed at the fertile imagination of novelists and short story writers, but non-fiction writers pour the same amount of passion and effort into non-fiction writing…and they have to [...]

I need some help in designing the cover for a new fantasy short story titled Assassin. I've been tinkering with two designs for a few days and could use your comments to give me some direction. The covers need to be provocative enough to get people interested as well as hold up fairly well when [...]

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Two events are going to put a slight zig in the zag of this blog over the next week. Even if you follow my blog religiously, you may not notice either one of them, but I think it's good practice to have full disclosure. Facelift After some careful consideration and advice [...]

The letter began with a simple statement. "If you're reading this," it said, "I'm probably dead." A sick feeling ran from the pit of my stomach to the back of my throat as I read that sentence. I wanted to put the letter down, bury it under a stack of papers, burn it, but you [...]

(This is part II of a two-part series about keeping up your writing morale. Find Part I here.) Critique Groups Critique groups are certainly double-edged swords: you can feel relentlessly beat down if the criticism is destructive rather than constructive. Even when the critiques are useful, honest, and diplomatically couched, you can feel irritated and [...]