Tag: fiction

Reading Through the Seasons

Reading Through the Seasons

By Emily Groff

Do you love reading? Do you need help deciding what book to read off your long TBR list? Seasonal reading may be the right fit for you. What is more fun than reading books that fit with the season you are in? So slather on the sun block, put on your shades, and buckle in to plan your reading for the next year.

Why should you read seasonally?

Reading seasonally will add richness to your reading experience. It allows books to transport you into each new season. Feel more immersed in your reading by experiencing the reality of nature with the imagination of your books. As you look forward to each season change, you get to look forward to each new seasonal book.

Seasonal reading allows you to have variety in what you read, both in authors and in genre. Broaden your horizons and dive into each new world that the pool of literature gives. 

What books should you read?

Conquest and Wild Ink Publishing offer a variety of books that are perfect for each season.

For some, Fall is about pumpkin spice, chai, sweater weather, and the dropping of autumn leaves. For others, Fall is the magic, spells, mythical creatures, death, and mystery.

If you are looking for the magic and spells that is Fall these are your perfect picks:

Jinny Buffett’s father is dead. She is trying to start a new life: break from the loneliness that consumes her, but her mother is spiraling out of control and threatens her entire existence. It is her ancestors who arrive in a mist of magic, bringing the swamp and hope with them that come to save Jinny Buffett.

Callie Aigean drove thirty-six hours, carrying thirty-six extra pounds on her plus-size frame, staring down her 36th birthday- in less than thirty-six weeks. That’s the day she’s due to make her magical ascension into a full witch and take her place among the elite spellcasting community of Blue Crab Bay.

If you are looking for the death and mystery of Fall, read these books:

Grace Everly is not friends with her next door neighbor Gloria Sanchez. So when Gloria goes missing, and the only clue leads back to Grace, tensions run high! Seth, Grace’s boyfriend, goes missing, putting an even bigger target on her–and she starts experiencing stress-induced flashbacks of a kidnapping scene right out of some campy horror flick. Armed with new clues, Grace and her friends race against time to find Gloria and Seth, before the rotten-faced man from her memories turns Richmond Hill into a real life horror movie.

Ember Wildes comes from a family of witches. After the death of her mother, it was the right time to start a new life and learn more about the craft that her grandmother had taught her as a child. But a dark evil has befallen the town, leaving the bodies of murdered women on its shores.  After settling in town, Ember learns of these horrible murders and quickly finds herself at the center of the mystery.

If you want to read about mythical creatures, these are your perfect Fall picks:

Olivia Beckett has lived through thousands of lifetimes, dispatching miscreant supernatural creatures alongside her sisters as the mythological trio of Furies. Memories of her past lives begin to appear and haunt her, and she starts questioning everything she thought she knew about her life and her duty. In the midst of a brewing war between the factions of Creatures, Olivia goes against all the rules and falls in love with a human, only to realize he may be connected to her mysterious past. Can she have it all, or will she have to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the war?

Caiden is a 200 year old vampire who has been dropped into a walled-off prison city for the world’s fantasy creatures. In his time there he will work with a courageous leader of rag tag elves, an ambitious warrior vampire, street-wise goblins, a hapless halfling, and finally a young and headstrong vampire girl called Alma.

After you’ve finished these fall reads, Winter will be just around the corner. Winter is full of snow, love, and holiday adventures. Here are our Winter picks:

After being roped into spending Christmas with her best friends and her alluring ex, Thando finds herself questioning her holiday spirit. For Jimmy Warner, Christmas means cold beers and comfort food, but reuniting with the captivating, yet prickly, Thando ignites memories of a fiery weekend they once shared. Pretty Unexpected is a Christmas romance novella weaved with drama, friendship, and wrapped in a touch of holiday magic.

The cabin is heating up in this romantic comedy as a pro-athlete and corporate marketer dodge the tabloids and save a ski lodge. Professional athlete Juniper Hart was forced into retirement after a permanent injury. He acquired a failed Colorado ski lodge. Rachel Friedman looking for a raise begins working at the resort and begins to wonder if this was the right choice. Rachel needs to thaw Juniper’s icy heart so they can work together to save the lodge.

After the holidays, warmth seeps in and so begins Spring. Spring gives warmth of love and new beginnings. Any book can be read in Spring, but here is our choice of a Spring book:

Set in 1890s New York, Elijah Jameson inherits a steel fortune, a fancy townhouse, and a free pass to enter New York City high society. While he doesn’t want this, he needs the position to give his sister the best life. Isabella Marin is a pushy and stubborn socialite who wants nothing more than to be far away from the social season. Instead of finding a suitable husband, she is locked in verbal sparring matches with Elijah Jameson, the boy she left in another life. No matter how much she likes Elijah, Isabella knows they can never be together. If he knew what she’d done, he would never look at her the same. Even though Elijah has fallen for Isabella, society will never see them as equals.

Adding a little more warmth into your life, here are our Summer picks:

Sixteen-year-old Ivey Des Jardins knows her summer is going to suck. Rather than working with her friends at a local Florida boutique, she’s been sent to Walloon Lake, Michigan, to work at her Aunt Lauren’s summer shop where she meets her handsome coworker, Rafe Torres,  and discovers a devastating family secret. Rafe has his own secrets that threaten his new romance with Ivey. With her Aunt Lauren grief-stricken, Ivey takes on the summer shop and sets out to solve her family’s mystery. But there are people who don’t want this mystery solved, and they’re on Ivey’s trail.

Epicurus On Writing

Epicurus On Writing

By Anthony David Vernon

Epicurus is perhaps one of the most misunderstood philosophers and writers. He was a man of simple pleasure mistaken for a hedonist, and his writing resume is usually reduced to one work, The Art of Happiness. This is partly because the vast majority of his work did not survive, but “Estimates claim that Epicurus wrote over 300 works during his lifetime.”[1] Nonetheless, this all has led to Epicurus being an underestimated writer. But, Epicurus, in the fragments we have from him, presents quite useful pieces of writing advice.

Epicurus speaks to his writing, stating, “I write this not for the many, but for you; indeed, each of us is enough of an audience for the other.”[2] Epicurus points out that writing is always between the writer and a single reader. Too often, writers focus on a potential mass of readers instead of focusing on the fact that is is always one reader engaging with a work of writing. Even if a work of writing is being read aloud to a crowd, each reader is having a personal engagement with a given piece. When writing, imagine that there will only be one reader of your work, this will allow your writing to be more intimate. For Epicurus, writers are too concerned with having mass appeal and so lose out on emotionality. This is not to say that writing for one person cannot appeal to the many, quite the opposite, personal works possess personality.

The above quote from Epicurus also teaches another writing lesson: a writer should be happy that they have readers at all instead of being worried that they do not have enough readers. As the proverb sometimes goes, expectation is the thief of joy, and writers often suffer from expectation. Having a quantity of readership expectations can kill the writing process because it shifts the writer away from the joyful intimacy of writing into mass expectations that can never be actualized. A writer can never fully know who their readers will be or how their writing will be interpreted. Thus, a writer at any level should write with the satisfaction of knowing that they even have the potential of having a single reader.  

Epicurus also states, “Writing presents no difficulties to those who do not aim at a constantly changing standard.”[3] What Epicurus means by this is many-fold, but for one, Epicurus is advising writers not to worry about writing trends. For Epicurus, it is more important for a writer to hone in on their style rather than the style of the day. If one writes as themselves, they will not struggle to be as themselves. Meanwhile, it is a struggle to fake a writing style that is not one’s own to wear sheep’s clothing.

In addition, for Epicurus, writing should be an act of personal ease, not an uphill battle, but instead a demonstration of a self-constant standard. This means that writers should not set shifting goals but instead aim for one simple goal. What this goal is depends on the writer. However, a writer should pick a goal that at least rarely shifts and ideally is a constant.

Likely, a great deal of writing wisdom was lost among Epicurs’ missing works. Still, what we hold from Epicurus is extremely limited, it holds depth both mentioned and not touched upon. This is part of the greatness of Epicurus; a writer can dig for inexhaustible writing advice from Epicurs with examination.

[1] https://www.thecollector.com/epicurus-on-the-values-of-family-and-friendship/

[2] https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1839/notebook/ch05.htm

[3] https://www.attalus.org/translate/epicurus.html

Written by Anthony David Vernon

Author’s Bio

Anthony David Vernon mainly writes poetry and philosophical articles when he is not walking trails.

Education: 

Oklahoma State University MFA

Publications & Prizes

Anthology: 

Faery Flying: The Art of Self Care (Fae Corps Publishing, 2023)

Book: 

The Assumption Of Death (Alien Buddha Press, 2022)

Journals: 

Apocalypse Confidential

Beautiful Space: A Journal of Mind, Art and Poetry

Brief Wilderness

Conceptions Southwest

Poetry Super Highway

Synchronized Chaos

The Drabble

The Literary Yard

Unlikely Stories

ZiN Daily

Prizes won: 

Pushcart Prize Nominee 2022 for “Guilt is a Pleasure” nominated by Alien Buddha Press

UnCensored Ink Interview – Riley Kilmore

UnCensored Ink Interview – Riley Kilmore

Hey everyone, 

Ian Tan here, lead editor and project coordinator of UnCensored Ink: A Banned Book Inspired Anthology, set to release this October 29. Here is the UnCensored Ink interview series to introduce you all to the incredible writers, as well as the local bookstores and libraries that gave them safe, creative spaces. Hopefully, you can put these incredible places on your to-visit list and feel inspired to support your own local bookstore, library, and indie authors.

Today, I’m with Riley Kilmore from Pennsylvania.

  1. You’ve written a fine piece for UnCensored Ink: A Banned Book-Inspired Anthology. Can you give us a synopsis? How did the idea for this piece come about?

An inquisitive farm boy in 1940s Appalachia encounters a peddler surreptitiously distributing banned books and is given a copy of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

Prior to writing The Tinker, I’d finished reading Ann Pancake’s Strange As This Weather Has Been, about an Appalachian family struggling in the shadow of exploitative mountain top mining. Pancake’s book was the 2023 One Voice One West Virgina Read, and she was the Appalachian Heritage Writer In Residence that same year. 

I was taking some Appalachian Studies classes at Shepherd University at the time, so I entered a (different) piece in the 2023 West Virginia Fiction Competition, which she judged, and I won. So her novel and body of work definitely inspired me. 

My winning piece, Mother, May I?—about a disillusioned Catholic caught in a Twilight-Zone-esque liminal space (a western Pennsylvanian convent-cum-Bread & Breakfast run by a handful of aging nuns)—appears in the 2024 Anthology of Appalachian Writers along with five of my photographs which were also selected for inclusion.

I originally wrote The Tinker as my entry piece for the 2024 West Virgina Fiction Competition, but didn’t place. However my sister, playwright DW Gregory (Radium Girls) did win this year! In fact, she also won the 2022 competition.

  1. Now, we would love to know you more! What do you enjoy doing in your free time, what is your favorite book quote, and how did you get into reading and writing?

Well, I used to run a lot in my spare time. That’s when I’d compose stories in my head that I’d later put to paper. Now, though, I mostly walk, but it’s still my “composition” time. 

As for a fav book quote, I have to wonder if any reader or author can honestly pick just one. I certainly can’t. So I’ll leave you with a quote from my 2024 debut middle grade adventure, Shay The Brave, which champions friendship, the courage to be your authentic self, and vegetarianism: “One is wise to hunger for friendship, but a fool to hunger for friends—no matter how good they may taste.”

That third part of your question begs a twist: how did reading and writing got into me?

I credit several things. One of them is a mother who made weekly trips to our local public library a part of our childhood. She also subscribed to numerous magazines—Time, Post, Life, National Geographic—and to the local papers, so that there was always current event news and information at our fingertips along with all the books containing fiction and poetry that were shelved right in our attic bedroom.

Another possibility is an inborn propensity for it—as in, “is there a writing gene?”—since I’m one of nine kids and the majority write, along with some in the next generation, as well. Not all are published, but I mentioned my award-winning playwright sister above, and our oldest sister’s debut novel just came out this year as well: The Bomber Jacket by K.M. King, also available from Wild Ink Publishing.

  1. Do you have a favorite local library or bookstore? Also can you remember bookstores and libraries from your childhood, if they are not the same as the ones now? 

I grew up in Lititz, PA, so my fav public library was, of course, the Lititz Public Library.

When I was born the library was set up in the old ballroom of the famous General Sutter Inn. From there it moved to an old house further down South Broad Street from our own place. That was my favorite location of the library because it was a house my parents almost bought, themselves, before deciding on the one I grew up in. So I loved imagining it being our family home when I’d go there and check out books each week.

The bedrooms—which weren’t accessible to the general public but which I and my sisters convinced the librarians to show us—had an ancient intercom system, which was really fascinating. After that we not only frequently imagined what it would have been like growing up there, but imagined calling back and forth to one another via those old intercoms. It certainly would have leveled-up Earl Hamner’s notion of simply shouting out “Good night, John-boy; Good night, Mary Ellen!”

The only “book store” in town back then—or what we called the bookstore—was Bell’s Bookstore on Main Street, only it was more of an early rendition of Staples marries a Hallmark Card shop. Lots of office supplies and cards, but not too much in the way of books. I loved to wander around in there when I was growing up, but Lititz today has a genuine book store and a great one, at that: Aaron’s Books.

It’s great for a host of reasons, but of course one of them is that they stock copies of Shay The Brave. Copies of Shay The Brave are also available at another Lancaster County indie book seller, which is the delightful Pocket Books Shop. 

  1. What do you have to say on the importance of sustaining bookstores and libraries?

Libraries launch imaginations. Towns without a library are like clipper ships without sails: sure, they can stay afloat, but their citizens aren’t apt to take in distant horizons, eh? And librarians? Well, they’re the captains who keep us on course—always sailing forward, never aft.

  1. Do you have any projects that your current and future readers can look forward to?

You bet! Check out my website, www.rileykilmore.com for updates, but here’s what’s in the offing: a companion workbook to Shay The Brave called Share With Shay, which uses prompts from the original adventure to encourage kids to do a little deep thinking of their own on important issues; a sequel to Shay The Brave called Alexy, Strong and Silent, which follows Shay’s sidekick from the first book into his own adventure of personal growth while simultaneously—just like Shay—redeeming others.

  1. Lastly, what platforms can we find you? (Social media and websites are all encouraged, this is to highlight and champion you guys)

Besides my author website listed above, readers friends can find me on facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, and at my own Substack, where I write the (generally) weekly Monday Morning Literary Bric-a-Brac to which they can subscribe for free.

Map indicating Pennsylvania

Well, that was Riley Kilmore, everyone. It’s time to take a trip across the pond to the United Kingdom.

Riley Kilmore earned an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2022. Her award-winning poetry and short fiction have appeared in numerous anthologies. Her debut novel, Shay the Brave, a middle-grade fantasy, is available from Wild Ink Publishing. A twenty-year veteran of the fire service, Kilmore has leaped from airplanes, sailed the world, been a cop, and braved the life of a homeschool mom. She resides on a sequestered mountainside farm in south central Pennsyltucky with one horse, one cat, a dancing goat, a beer-guzzling hound, and her husband of 36 years.

Purchase UnCensored Ink at Barnes & Noble
Purchase UnCensored Ink at Amazon

Getting to Know Wild Ink Author William J. Connell

Getting to Know Wild Ink Author William J. Connell

by Bruce Buchanan

To the legal community, William J. Connell is an experienced attorney who works within the education and government sectors throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts. To his students, he’s an adjunct professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law, where he shares his real-world legal experience with other aspiring attorneys.  To his home community, he is a member of the School Committee.

But readers know another side of William: The author. Despite his busy career, he has become a prolific short story writer and on November 27, 2024, , his debut novel, MASK OF DEATH, will be released by Wild Ink Publishing.

Set during Europe’s Middle Ages, MASK OF DEATH reexamines and expands upon the classic Edgar Allan Poe Short story “The Masque of the Red Death”. Prince Prospero. his wife, Elizabeth, and Clarinda, Prospero’s younger mistress, already face the real-life horrors of the black plague and widespread famine. Now, add supernatural terrors to that list in the form of “fleshers”—undead creatures who feast on the living – and you have the start of the novel.

1. When did you first get interested in writing? And what got you interested?

“I’ve always liked to write. In high school, I wrote a book, but didn’t publish it. But I enjoy writing. I’ve done writing for law journals, but  I really like fiction.

When I’m writing, I’m in the moment, just thinking about the characters and plot. It helps me focus and I find it engaging. For example, I spent last Sunday working on a complaint for a client. It’s rewarding, of course, but it’s not as energizing as writing a story.

2. Tell us a bit about Mask of Death. You say, “It’s not the story you think you know” – in what way (without giving too much away, of course!)

I have to thank Wild Ink Publishing for that line (and also give a reminder to my students, proper attribution is important). This story grew not only out of the Edgar Allan Poe story, but also my love for Clint Eastwood westerns and old zombie movies. I also used to teach world history, and I’ve long been interested in the Black Plague period, particularly in Europe. How did mankind survive? How hard must life have been then.

I thought, ‘What a fascinating time to set a novel. You could tell a lot of stories set during that time.” In my book, Clarinda is Prospero’s mistress.  She and plants some of ideas that set the main action in motion. But what to do with Prospero’s wife, Elizabeth? That’s a key question. I take some elements from “The Masque of the Red Death” and expand on them. I also read fiction written during or shortly after the Black Death period, particularly “The Decameron “by Giovanni Boccaccio.  My novel tells about the events leading up to and beyond Prospero’s story.  We also might glimpse what started this plague. The story is complete, but it also leads right into another. 

Also, this will be a three-book series. I’m already working on the sequels.  

3. You are an attorney as well as a writer. How do you balance such a demanding career with your passion for writing fiction?

It’s hard—you have to be committed to writing. Sometimes, I feel like I’m spread thinner than I want to me. But I want to write, and I enjoy it.

4. What is your writing process like? Do you have any particular tips or methods that help you?

“My writing process really depends on my schedule, but I like to get ideas from reading and watching movies, or just running outside. I see something I like, and I’ll take it in a different direction. Some of my horror stories have come after reading Poe or Lovecraft—I’ll take an element from one of those stories and flip it around.  I try to create the stories I’d like to see and read.”

5. Finally, tell us about Lulu, the ped bird in your author photo!

My daughter Amanda has always been a bird person, and she adopted Lulu as a rescue bird from the Rhode Island Parrot Rescue. For anyone looking for a pet, I’d encourage you to consider adopting a rescue animal. Lulu is a handful, but she loves attention and being on camera.  We can’t get over how fast she adjusted to us!

Click here to pre-order Mask of Death

An Interview with K.M. King

An Interview with K.M. King

By Bruce Buchanan

K.M. King has worn many hats—she’s been a journalist, a teacher, a business owner, a corporate trainer, a student of history, and a member of the U.S. Army.

She recently added one more line to her already impressive resume—Wild Ink author. Her novel The Bomber Jacket will be released on Aug. 20, 2024.

K.M. King has worn many hats—she’s been a journalist, a teacher, a business owner, a corporate trainer, a student of history, and a member of the U.S. Army.

When an American college student buys a World War II vintage bomber jacket, it sends here on a search to learn more about its original owner. Along the way, the veil between past and present becomes ever thinner.

You’ve said you fell in love with reading at a young age. Did that also extend to writing?

I always loved reading stories and creating stories in my head. The first writing I remember doing outside of schoolwork was in the little pink diary I got as a Christmas present in fourth grade. All through school, I was involved in writing for our school papers and was editor of our high school newspaper in my senior year. I loved all the writing assignments for English class. I had a hard time deciding whether to study English or history in college—history won.

As for writing fiction, that didn’t happen until I was in my mid-twenties. I was taking some business classes at a local college and signed up for a fiction writing class. I wrote a short story and got great feedback from my professor. The rest, as they say, is history.

It sounds like you’ve had some amazing career and life experiences. How have those experiences shaped your writing?

That’s a challenging question to answer. I think for me writing is so ingrained in who I am, I’m not always sure I can parse out what influenced my writing. Every job I’ve had involved writing, whether as a teacher, journalist, non-profit publication specialist, personal coach, or creator of staff development curriculum.

I’m essentially an introvert—like a lot of writers—and very self-reflective. I almost minored in philosophy in college. My journal, which I’ve kept from my early thirties, provides a space for me to ponder the inexplicable mysteries of life. I think I ponder those same mysteries in my fiction, through my characters, hoping they’ll give me the answers I haven’t found elsewhere.

How did the idea for The Bomber Jacket come to you?

I’ve always been fascinated by flying. Probably should have joined the Air Force instead of the Army! When I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, I used to go to the Frankfurt Airport and watch the planes come and go. Something about that planted the seed of a story about a pilot.

In 1997 and 2004, my husband and I took trips to Scotland, and among the places we visited was Drem Aerodrome, a former Royal Air Force base near Edinburgh. That seed, which lay dormant for more than two decades, sprouted into a Scottish bomber pilot from World War II. I began reading extensively about the RAF, and the characters crystallized during a trip to Scotland in 2011 with our oldest granddaughter, Zoe, who was 11 at the time.

I’m also interested in the idea that the veil between the past and present could be very thin. Spirits and ghosts have always fascinated me, and the possibility that spirits linger among us until they’ve completed whatever unfinished business holds them here helped shape the novel.

I am documenting the whole process of writing The Bomber Jacket on my website: www.kmkingauthor.com.

Were you interested in World War II history before you started this book?

Yes, definitely, both because I was a history major, and my father served in the Army in World War II. Like many of his generation, he never spoke about his experiences, except for a few succinct statements here and there when he was older. I’ve been reading World War II fiction and non-fiction for years and share my enthusiasm for history of all eras with my husband.

You’ve written other novels. What has been your biggest challenge in writing? And how did you ultimately overcome it?

I think my biggest challenge is I don’t just write in only one genre. I started writing novels in the early 1990s—a series of young adult fantasy books. Wild Ink is publishing the first of them, Jenna’s Journey: The Bronze Key in January 2025. I wrote The Bomber Jacket next; it’s World War II fiction.

I’m currently working on a three-book rom-com series with fantasy elements. I also have a mother-daughter generational story half-finished and the skeleton of an idea for a comic novel about a woman who gets obsessed with K-drama and K-pop. Nothing biographical there at all! 

I’ve yet to overcome this challenge.

My other challenge is imagining my books might attract the interest of a publisher, especially after 45 rejections in attempting to find an agent for The Bomber Jacket, let alone a publisher. I am astounded and incredibly gratified that Wild Ink has seen something worthwhile in my stories.

Getting published was always a dream, not a motivation for writing if that makes any sense at all.

What is your writing process like? And how has it evolved?

I have to say, my process is different for different kinds of books. But for every book, the motivation is the same: I have questions about life, about an experience I’ve had, about someone I’ve known, and I write to find the answers to those questions by giving them to my characters to grapple with. I don’t always like the answers they come up with; sometimes, I’m not even sure what question they are working out in their story. I often discover it when they do, sometimes at the end of the first draft.

With Jenna’s Journey, the story simply appeared, and I wrote it when it did. There were long periods of time when I didn’t work on it, except to edit what I had written. No wonder it took me ten years to write the four books.

With The Bomber Jacket, I did extensive research, character development and plotting, but still the characters sometimes did things I didn’t expect them to. Or the story took an unexpected twist or turn.

For all the books I write, I first tell myself the story. That’s the first, second and third draft. When I am satisfied that my characters have answered my questions, even if I don’t like their answer, then I’m ready to consider sending the story into the world and work with an editor or a writing group to hone it.

What tips would you give to new or aspiring writers?

I still feel like a new and aspiring writer, because every book is a new adventure and has its own unique challenges.

I’ve read and continue to read books on writing. I think some of the advice is awful. One famous writer, who shall remain unnamed, said unless you write every single day, you’re not a writer. Hogwash. Writing is unique to each writer– the process, the purpose, the story to be told. Discover what works for you.

I have learned that very often the first several chapters of a first draft are the backstory—what the writer is telling him/herself about the story. Finding where the story actually begins for the reader can take some work.

Also, work on your book for a while, have at least 75 pages or more written, and then join a writers’ group, but one with serious writers who give valuable and supportive feedback. Or find a developmental editor.

Anything else you want to mention, either about yourself or your novel?

I also teach journaling workshops and have written two workbooks which will soon be available on my website: Pen, Power & Possibilities: A Guided Journaling Experience to Expand the Horizons of Your Life and Time: Tyrant or Treasure: 11 Steps to Embracing Life in All Its Messiness.

Preorder K.M. King’s book, The Bomber Jacket, through Aaron’s Books here.

Interview by Bruce Buchanan

Bruce Buchanan is the communications writer for an international law firm and a former journalist. But he’s been a fan of fantasy and heroic fiction for most of his life. His influences range from the novels of Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman and Terry Brooks to the Marvel Comics stories of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. Bruce has short stories appearing in the upcoming Wild Ink Publishing anthologies Tenpenny Dreadfuls, Clio’s Curious Dash Through Time, and UnCensored Ink. He lives in Greensboro, N.C. with his wife, Amy Joyner Buchanan (a blogger and the author of five non-fiction books), and their 17-year-old son, Jackson.

The Facts and Fantasy of ‘Bestselling’ Author

The Facts and Fantasy of ‘Bestselling’ Author

by Marla Miller

Los Angeles author Joe Ide, a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars, is delighted with the success he has enjoyed since selling his first novel, IQ at age fifty-eight, delighted and making no bones about this when he addressed a room filled with writers at a recent Southern California writers conference. Few writers reach the heights of bestselling. Part of the magic motivating us to remain seated at our writing place includes nurturing the fantasy that our stories will someday resonate, too.

The dream of becoming a bestselling author is perfectly fine to dream. After all, at our core, writers are dreamers. But is this why we write stories? For fame and fortune? The answer is no and if chasing fame/fortune provides the only motivation, this segment of writers eventually moves on to other ventures.

Craft vs Business

We write stories because we have to write them and why Joe Ide’s keynote so resonated with me. In his time at the podium, Ide delivered many terrific tips about creating characters from our everyday living, echoing what we know about our tribe: at our core, writers are nosy. I videoed what I could and had to hear more so I attended Ide’s Sunday morning workshop. He did not disappoint. Ide talked craft, the creative side of publishing, co-mingling solid craft ‘pointers’ with the business side of publishing, sales and making money. Again, he pulled no punches, straight talk from his own experience about what bestselling means in terms of dollars and cents.

Defining Publishing ‘Advance’

Joe Ide’s  latest novel, The Goodbye Coast: A Philip Marlowe Novel garnered a six-figure advance. Sweet, right? Absolutely, and Joe wasn’t complaining as he broke down what the six-figure sum meant to his bank account. Some writers, likely those new to our tribe, don’t know that getting an advance from a traditional publisher requires the author to earn back that sum in book sales before seeing any more money from the publisher. Since Ide’s novel centered on a famous person, Raymond Chandler’s ‘Phillip Marlow’ character, permission to use this name came with a price. Raymond Chandler’s estate had to be negotiated with before Ide could publish his novel.  I don’t know what the estate required but when I negotiated with the Women’s National Team to write All American Girls: The US Women’s National Soccer Team (with full access to the team) that sum was 50% of a very nice advance offered by my publisher, Simon & Schuster. Joe Ide pointed out other facts: his agent’s take of 15% as well as Uncle Sam’s portion. All of a sudden, that six figure advance has a bit of a different context in reality.

Why Writers Write

Even before traditional publishing took a pummeling from the arrival of the worldwide web, writers have nurtured fantasies about bestselling books, national book signings, film options, TV interviews and oodles of money. None of these fantastical imaginings are rooted in facts. I share this story often in my workshops, a story told by one of my writing mentors, the founder of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Barnaby Conrad, a multi-published, bestselling author in fiction and nonfiction. In the early 1990’s, as we gathered for the opening night SBWC ceremonies, Barney announced that this SBWC session had attracted the greatest number of conferees in its (then) 20-year history. He asked us to look around the packed auditorium brimming with 400 writers and so we did. Then he said, “…At the most, one to three writers sitting here will be offered contracts from New York publishing.”  The audience let out an audible gasp to which he replied, “We write stories because we have to write them.”
Wisdom shared from a man who had enjoyed a storied career himself, Barnaby Conrad.

So, write on. That’s what we writers do.

Marla Miller segued to the writing life in midlife. Her writing credits includes editor-in-chief of a lifestyle magazine and books published by traditional and independent publishers. Her e-novel, Deadly Little Secrets is available on KDP. Her novel, SweetSpot: Now and Then, whose setting includes a writers’ conference, will be published by an independent press in Fall 2024.  Since 2003, she has delivered workshops at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference and The Southern California Writers Conference.

Where to find Marla Miller:

https://linktr.ee/Writersmama

MarlaMiller.com 

TikTok Twitter & Instagram:@writersmama

Medium

Facebook: Hooking Readers

Substack: writersmamasubstack

Amazon Author Page: https://bit.ly/4avJTRX

Pride at Wild Ink and Conquest

Pride at Wild Ink and Conquest

By S.E. Reed

Celebrating Pride Month by sharing some of our favorite Wild Ink and Conquest books that feature LGBTQ+ characters.

Adorned in Ice by Kylie Wiggins

Fear was not for the weak but for the intelligent who knew they were up against an unpredictable foe.

Eliza Hawke, the ice-wielding Princess of Keruna, has been married off to Will, the earth-wielding Prince of Mineros. The cruel and unfeeling place that is Mineros cares about power over anything else. As Eliza’s days of forced betrothal go by, Will leaves his mark with bruises and veiled threats. Yet, through Eliza’s misery, she finds solace within thePrincess of Mineros, Nissa.

Nissa, is a beam of light even on Eliza’s darkest days. It is not until Will’s coronation is almost in his grasp, Eliza and Nissa hatch a daring plan of escape. If the Prince is allowed control over the largest army in Catalina, then all will surely be lost.

As the two fight desperately to unite the kingdoms in their war against the Prince, a tale of danger and betrayal unfolds every step of the way.

Fate’s Fury by Shaelynn Long

Pansexual Olivia Beckett has lived through thousands of lifetimes, dispatching miscreant supernatural creatures alongside her sisters as the mythological trio of Furies. Memories of her past lives begin to appear and haunt her, and she starts questioning everything she thought she knew about her life and her duty. In the midst of a brewing war between the factions of Creatures, Olivia goes against all the rules and falls in love with a human, only to realize he may be connected to her mysterious past. Can she have it all, or will she have to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the war?

The Funeral Director’s Wife by Lindsay Schraad Keeling

Brooklyn Blatrix takes on a new job at the local funeral home after being dumped and fired in the same week. She strikes up a relationship with her supervisor, Brantley McAffey, in a hopeful attempt to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. However, Brantley has a secret he’s been keeping from everyone – a secret he’s willing to kill for. Brooklyn is about to find herself in the trenches of a trial by media before the year is over.

Infinite Mass by J.K. Raymond

“Hi there kittens, It’s Karma. I just helped Morna save the Omniverse from yet another impending apocalypse. It wasn’t my first, but funny thing about this turn on the merry go round, it was in fact my last! I’ve been at this game a long while. I’m not a stranger to these lands, I’d go so far as to say most of you lovelies know me. But do you? Karma is neither male nor female, she is whatever he wants to be, whenever they choose to be…get it? Got it? Good! But I’ve retired and now I’m just plain old Jane the bisexual human. A human that gets ravaged every night by their transgender boyfriend Loki.  Don’t get your runes in a twist. How did you expect a shapeshifter to identify? I bet you never even thought about it did you…just a trickster was all, right? Anyhoo, since it’s technically my first Pride Month as a queer human, I thought I’d wish you darlings a happy Pride! And let you in on a little secret…Karma’s always been on your side.”

Of Stars and Lightning by Melanie Mar

Sol Yarrow didn’t ask for much. A nice day for hunting. A peaceful shift at her gods-awful job. A steaming bowl of her aunt’s famous stew. Easy. Simple.


After twenty-five years of simplicity, everything she thought to be true is rewritten when four strangers come to Yavenharrow and take her back to the kingdom of Rimemere, a shielded land inhabited by ruthless Elemental Magic Wielders. A land only known through rumors and bedtime stories.


A kingdom where her mother was Queen. A kingdom, by order of succession, now belonged to her. What would a human with no magic and a short temper have to offer the Wielders? Sol didn’t think much.


Her Court thought otherwise.

Old Palmetto Drive by S.E. Reed

LGBTQ+ teen socialite Rian Callusa’s privileged NY life is over! Following her parent’s nasty divorce, and the death of her aunt & uncle, Rian’s mom drags her kicking and screaming all the way to Everglades City. Who cares if her new home is a mansion when it’s in the middle of nowhere without a nail salon or shopping mall in sight? And friends? Hell might as well freeze over before Rian would hang out with her hillbilly cousins.

The news that her Dad won’t be returning to New York after his job abroad crushes any hope Rian had of moving back to the Big Apple. So without a plan B, Rian explores the swamp and learns her cousins aren’t as backward as they first appeared. She even falls head over heels for a cute vintage-loving local girl named Justine. Now that she thinks about it, this might turn out to be the best summer of Rian’s life! Until her cousin Travis gets drunk at a party and confesses the dark truth about what really happened on Old Palmetto Drive, sending Rian into a tailspin of fear and self-doubt.

The Physician by Magdalene Dietchka

Jake Perlman’s fate changed forever as a child when a dam broke on the way to school, washing his bus over a bridge. Before the Angel of Death could claim him, a Shepherd named Omiel stole Jake from his fate. Now as a Stolen in his adulthood, Jake uses his powers under Omiel’s guidance to assemble his coterie, a group of Stolen with abilities like his.

Yael Taube learned in her youth she would become a Companion, the soulmate to a Stolen. After an unfortunate event finds Yael in the presence of her Stolen, Jake, things take motion.

Jake and Yael learn of their fates and see hope for their future. However, pulling the coterie together is anything but easy. Between their shared trauma, doubt in their fate, and evil beings called Sirens trying to harm them, the coterie’s future is anything but certain. Despite the Shepherds’ direction, there are dangers ahead. If the Stolen and their Companions come together too soon, it could lead to their undoing, but the world and the coterie are counting on their success.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job (and Why That’s a Good Thing!)

Don’t Quit Your Day Job (and Why That’s a Good Thing!)

By Bruce Buchanan

Making full-time living writing fiction is living the dream—but for most authors (even ones with book deals), being a writer means working a day job. 

If you are one of those writers, you are in good company. Octavia Butler wrote by night and punched the clock at a potato chip factory by day. T.S. Eliot worked at a bank, even after publishing “The Wasteland.” Charlotte Brontë served as a governess to wealthy British families; her experiences in this job helped her write Jane Eyre.

When I’m not clicking away at the keyboard on my next YA fantasy book, I’m…clicking away at the keyboard in the corporate communications realm. Like many other colleagues, I chose a career that allows me to use my writing skills, albeit in ways that don’t involve a magic-using princess or a blacksmith’s heroic son. I know writers who are English, writing and drama teachers (both on the high school and collegiate levels), librarians, editors, and journalists.

But plenty of other fiction authors have day jobs that don’t focus on writing or literature. One author friend manages a medical facility, putting her master’s degree in healthcare administration to good use. Another author I know recently retired as a funeral director and now is the office manager for her family’s small business. And one talented horror writer I’ve met delivers online orders from restaurants. She keeps a notebook in her car so she can write between deliveries. 

Balancing any job with a writing career requires strong time management skills, though. Conquest Publishing novelist S.E. Reed recently gave a great presentation on “Tips for Busy Writers” at the Writer’s Workout Virtual Conference. S.E. juggles a full-time career, three school-age kids, and a flourishing writing career, and she shares some best practices on how writers can manage their time.

My personal tip is to carve out a short amount of time every day for writing. I do a 20-minute daily writing sprint. This means no social media, no TV, no distractions—just head-down writing for 20 minutes minimum. You’ll be surprised at how much you can get done in an intensive burst if you eliminate distractions! 

Once you figure out how to balance your work with your writing, there’s a big upside in having a day job. Writing gets to be your passion project—the thing that you love to do. You can write what you want when you want to write it. 

Obviously, if you are working with a publishing company, you must keep their deadlines and commercial considerations in mind. But it is liberating to know your next meal or your family’s mortgage payment doesn’t depend on writing a story. Even the best jobs invariably become responsibilities (as one colleague put it, “It’s why they call it ‘work.’”) Writing doesn’t have to be that way—it can remain something that brings you joy.

I’ll give the last word to Kurt Vonnegut, who sold cars in addition to writing some of the most enduring works of the 20th Century:

“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

Bruce Buchanan is the senior communications writer for an international law firm by day. His debut YA fantasy novel, THE BLACKSMITH’S BOY, is coming soon from Wild Ink Publishing. A longtime lover of fantasy and heroic fiction, he lives in Greensboro, N.C. with his wife, Amy, and their 17-year-old son, Jackson. Follow him at @BBuchananWomble and @brucebuchanan7710.

Author Interview with M.E. Shao

Author Interview with M.E. Shao

Recently, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with author (and basically comedian) M.E. Shao. He’s a renaissance man, having achieved some impressive personal and professional accomplishments. He was kind enough to share a little about himself, his writing style AND his adorable puppy Pipsqueak.

Thanks so much for sitting down with me today, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Thank’s so much for having me. Let’s see here. Well, I was born in Baltimore, MD but lived most of my life in a suburb outside Nashville, TN. While I always had this dream of becoming a writer tucked away in the back of my head, I imagine most people viewed me as just your run of the mill jock. My whole world basically revolved around schooling or baseball, and I ended up getting the opportunity to play with my brother at Vanderbilt University (which was super cool since staying teammates with a sibling is somewhat rare in college sports). I graduated in 2009 with a degree in Economics and Corporate Strategy, and spent about the next ten years as an insurance agent. 

Sadly, it took a severely traumatic event for me to finally muster the courage to explore my childhood dream and to finally start writing. My beloved mother passed away in August of 2015 after a years-long battle with rheumatoid arthritis and COPD, and being that it was always her who tried pushing me toward writing/general happiness against the somewhat “less enthusiastic” influences I got from my father, losing her was the spark I needed to ignite the fire underneath my writing pursuit. It’s a bittersweet testimony for an “about” section, I know, but the most important one nonetheless.

Oh, I also have a wonderful daughter as of last January. She’s a fluffy little Pekingese named Pipsqueak, who I named after my MCs pet space-dog, Squeak. She only goes by Pip though, unless of course she’s in trouble.

So, what type of material do you usually write?

As far as commercially marketable material, primarily narrative fiction. Namely sci-fi, but I’m also working on a political thriller right now about a girl who inadvertently changes how legislation is passed in America by developing an app that holds hypothetical votes on Congressional bills that the public can participate in. I also do the occasional business copy gig, mostly for acquaintances from my pre-writing career of being an insurance agent. Aside from that, I write a lot of poetry as a passion project. I’ve also had some short story work printed in newspapers and a column in my own local paper called “Millennials Making a Difference”.

I’m dying to know, what does your writing and revision process look like?

I have to use this term since I first heard it in the Wild Ink slack group and I love it. I’d say I’m a “plantser”, which I’ve learned is a mix between plotter and pantser. I start with a very basic, high-level bullet point outline of what each chapter is generally going to be about. After that, I lower the curtains, turn off the lights, and dive in headfirst. I’ve found that’s the best way for me to let my imagination be as free and open as possible while making sure it’s still moving the story along in a structured manner. For revision, I have a killer combo of being both OCD and ADD, so I probably way over-edit if I’m being honest. I use beta readers for that reason. I have a collection of about 10-15 awesome people I’m connected to on Facebook who reign me in when it comes to that. Sometimes I’ll ask for feedback on a forum like Reddit or the like if I’m feeling I need a more neutral, totally unbiased take on a piece.

Okay, M.E. what advice do you have for new debut authors?

Find. Your. Courage. Remember that sunscreen song from way back in the day? The one that teaches all those profound life lessons, then ends with “but if I had only one piece of advice, sunscreen would be it”? This is my sunscreen. Because amidst all the nuggets of knowledge a writer might obtain over the years, none of them matter if that very first, very daunting, obstacle is never overcome. I envy the ones who might not struggle with it, but I’d be willing to bet nearly all of us can attest to how difficult it can be to put yourself out there. Sure, outwardly we might appear to say, “have at it folks, hope you like it”. On the inside, however…it feels more like we just dropped a hydrogen bomb on our head as the mental anxiety waiting for feedback is telling us we need therapy ASAP.

So that’s my advice. If writing is your dream, don’t let it take the death of a loved one for you to start the fire. Save yourself that regret, be proactive, and create the kindling out of whatever you can.

Last, but not least, who is your personal favorite author? And what is your favorite book? 

At the risk of sounding cliché, I have to say it: JK Rowling is my favorite author. I have a good excuse, I promise! It’s not just her inexplicable talent as a writer, which is very much an obvious presence throughout everything she pens, it’s more for how I relate to her personal background. She lost her mother during her mid-twenties just as I did, and she openly discusses that despite how hard it was to not succumb to the depression, she took solace by leveraging the “wrecking ball to my life” and instead created something positive from the fallout. She often credits her mother’s loss as her inspiration behind the beautiful story arch that is Harry’s relationship with his late parents, and how that parental love and tenderness quite literally saved his life. This ability of hers to turn the pain of death into the joy of life, so to speak, is why I look up to her so much.

Oh, and my favorite book hands down is Lois Lowry’s The Giver. I read it when I was in fifth grade, and it totally changed my life in so many ways. It opened my mind in terms of how I view the structure of governments/societies, it helped me understand that we shouldn’t judge people based on stereotyped predispositions, and most it all, it was the book that made me want to become a writer. After finishing it I knew I wanted to give others the same feeling of awe and wonderment I was left with, something for which I’m so grateful to now spend every day trying to achieve. 

Thank you for this! And please thank your readers, too : )

Cheers!