Category: Publishing
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“Show Don’t Tell” is B*!!$#1t – Just ask Jane Austen
According to publishers, writing coaches, editors, and English professors all over the world “Show, Don’t Tell” is a fundamental rule in storytelling. The underlying theory is that it encourages writers to immerse readers in their narrative through vivid descriptions, actions, and dialogue rather than relying on direct exposition of the characters’ thoughts, actions, and motives.…
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Why Your Friends Hate Your Books . . .
I recently received an email from an old friend who’s also a novelist, though in a very different genre. “Hi Alice, I’m feeling low and in need of advice. Maybe everybody secretly dislikes me, but my friends and family, neighbours and acquaintances generally just don’t care about my books. They’ve sold great, and one was…
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Remember When It was Just Text-to-Speech?
June is Audiobook Appreciation Month. With that being the case, I can think of no better topic to discuss: non-human narrated audiobooks. Hate them? Love them? Indifferent? I can’t help but think of it all as sophisticated text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Indeed, a tool that has served a critical role in my book publishing process since…
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Excerpt from Newest WIP
Hello friends! It is officially summer and there’s so much to do. Camps for the kiddos, catching up on my atrocious yard, reading my never ending TBR, and I think I still have a full-time job in there somewhere. I’m also excited for a huge Austenesque indie author event that will be happening in 9…
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Celebrating “A Fortuitous Wager: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary” Release with a Giveaway
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”—Pride and Prejudice, Chapter VI After another disappointing Season fending off matchmaking mamas and grasping debutantes, Fitzwilliam Darcy has given up hope of finding a wife. His business partner, Edward Gardiner, suggests a sojourn into Hertfordshire to escape the machinations of Town—and meddlesome aunts who take every…
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Pride and Perjury ~ Releasing in Two Days!!!! + a Giveaway!!!
An introduction to my Pride and Perjury . . . Pride and Perjury, my short story collection, ambushed me while I was planning, and even plotting, my fourth novel in the series, and my seventh altogether. It was the holes in Pride and Prejudice that bothered me. The omissions – my own, in Darcy, as…
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The Bandwagon Post – What’s Up with AI ?
So, to be fully honest, I’ve been swamped lately. My kid has been sick, my day job has been a bit all consuming, and with the advent of nice weather all the outdoor stuff needs to get done. Which means that I haven’t had a lot of time to think about, research, and write a…
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Effective Book Covers
As authors, we want to attract readers to our books. How do we do that besides the blurb? Obviously, the cover is usually the first thing a reader sees. What are the attributes that each cover should have to make them take a second look and consider buying your book? So, what are some of…
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May Is a Big Month for the McVeighs!!
First, we shall see our daughter Rachel, who is a Presidential Scholar (Ph.D-level) at Harvard. Once term is over at Harvard, she’ll be home!! Second, my husband’s Music in Edwardian London (designed to please my fellow music lovers, my husband’s new book about music in London 1890 to 1914) is released. On the same day,…
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Spot the Mistakes! a Guest Post from Jayne Davis and Gail Eastwood
As I have mentioned previously, one of the Facebook groups I follow is Regency Kisses: Lady Catherine Salon. Back in November, Gail Eastwood, one of the admins on the site, shared a number of short posts and asked us readers to spot the errors. Some mistakes were easy to spot. Some I did not know,…