Guest Posts

When we welcome someone else to the site to share their thoughts on all things books and writing

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Guest Post…From Sketch to Chapter

From Sketch to Chapter: an Illustrator at Work

For me, getting to work with Carolyn Arcabascio was a dream come true. On The Moon Coin, we worked from a master list of scene options, with Carolyn picking out scenes she liked and making sketches. For the prologue, Carolyn drafted three options. All three were great, but two in particular were spectacular. I first went with option 3 (one of my scene suggestions). I think we spent more time on this sketch and subsequent color drawing than on any other piece. But it never seemed right. At the eleventh hour, I asked Carolyn how hard she’d hit me if I suggested scrapping the thing and instead going with the pinky promise scene you see below (one of her scene suggestions).  Carolyn responded: “There would be no hitting involved!” and told me it wouldn’t be a problem. You sure can’t ask for better than that.

From the Prologue: Bedtime Tales

Richard: Did you make all these sketches in the same location, Carolyn?

Carolyn: Yes, I do all of my work at a drafting table that’s situated in a little nook of my apartment in Acton, Massachusetts. There’s a bookshelf to my right and a wall of “inspiration” to my left, where I hang prints of other artists’ and illustrators’ work. On either side of my drafting table are drawers of supplies, and stacks of sketchbooks and old paintings. The drafting table faces a window overlooking a quiet street and the woods beyond it.

From Chapter Two: A Coin of the Realm

Richard: Do you use models when you’re sketching?

Carolyn: I use a combination of models and photo references. If I need to work out the nuances of a character’s posture and really understand the perspective of it, I’ll ask whatever friend or family member is handy to pose for a sketch. Often, I’ll get into the position myself or mimic the facial expression I want to portray in order to get the feel of it. And sometimes, if there’s a character being portrayed multiple times across scenes, I’ll make a rough model of their head out of clay so I’ll have it to refer to.

From Chapter Four: To Barreth

Richard: When drawing fantastical creatures, do you use bits and pieces of real animals for inspiration, or have you actually seen a wirtle and you’re just not telling us? 😉

Carolyn: No wirtles native to Massachusetts, fortunately! When figuring out the look of fantastical creatures, I use photo references of different animals to understand the way the anatomy might work, and then combine features as I see fit and as the story calls for. To understand the wirtle’s legs and paws, for example, I referred to a series of photographs of show dogs leaping over hurdles. The severely arched, scruffy back was influenced by photos of hyenas on the prowl. The bone-structure of the face ended up being something of a cross between a cow and a warthog, and I wanted the snout to be bare—kind of gross and raw-looking. Add it all up and, voila! We have a wirtle.

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Thank you Richard for sharing this interesting and unique post with us today! 

For more information on the author and the book, as always…check out the links!

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The Moon Coin, by Richard Due, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iBookstore for $2.99.

❍

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Due. All rights reserved.

Gibbering Gnome Press, A Division of Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink™

The Moon Realm™

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Guest Post…My Letter to Stephen King

Today we’re pleased to welcome author Georgina Morales to the blog – look out for her in the Indie Author Event in May – with a special guest post to Stephen King…let’s see what she has to say….

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I always try to write original guest posts, engaging and fun so as to not embarrass my host out of ever inviting me again. Most of the time I debate on how to do it and most of the times I end up talking about my books and works in progress.

You see, we writers are a funny bunch. We want you to know our names, though we suffer from acute shyness. There’s not one writer who won’t say that, in order to make it in the world you have to believe in yourself, yet we are afflicted by an extreme case of self-doubt and paralyzing fear to fail. We crave attention but not for ourselves, instead we love it when perfect strangers fall in love with our alter egos, those obscure voices that torture us until we get their story write and put in paper.

Yep, that’s us. A walking contradiction. We usually tend to avoid opening our hearts to our readers, preferring to let them peek into our souls through our books. Well, today I’ll try something different. I’ll take this wonderful opportunity to share with you an important set of events that have made me the writer I am today.

I refer to these events as “My Stephen King Complication”. It is somewhat funny and frustrating but I also know there’s a bigger design that may hold more than a couple of surprises for me in the future. Though I can’t be sure of what lies ahead, I wrote the following letter because I want to acknowledge the one man that has influenced me the most in my life with books. I want to thank him for touching me in such a special way and for inspiring me to come as far as I’ve come.

What follows is a letter for Stephen King; within its words resides a big piece of me. I still don’t know if I’ll mail it one day. I suppose I will, though fear of rejection has kept me from sending it before. Instead, today I share it with you. See what you think of my trip so far; how it relates to your own special ‘complications’ and to those great voices that have guided you along the way. Hope you like it.

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My Letter To Stephen King

Hi Mr. King,

That’s how well bred Mexicans always greet someone they don’t know. It’s very hard for us to call someone by his first name when there’s no previous relationship. My husband, however, keeps lecturing me about how stiff that sounds to Americans. Well, I was also taught that wherever you go, you do as they do. So, Stephen it is.

Hi Stephen, my name is Georgina and I’m your fan. Yeah, I know, me and the whole horde chanting your name outside the window. I guess I’m no different to all your other fans, except for the fact that destiny has been preventing us to meet.

Ok, preventing me from meeting you. Or to even getting close to your autograph. Whatever the case, I’ll explain myself so you don’t think I’m a nutcase and will pull an Annie Wilkes’ stunt on you.

This mess started a long, long time ago, when I was a kid. I grew up in Mexico City to a very regular, run-of-the-mill middle class family. I grew surrounded by books because my mother is a reader, but more of a romance-fantasy-mystery kinda reader. However, my father’s oldest brother was an avid reader, too. His bedroom in my grandma’s house, and where we slept when we stayed, was covered with horror, suspense, and thrillers. I still remember staring at those covers for hours. I was too young to read but I dreamed of the stories those pages conveyed and that’s how I came to realize my innate love for the genre.

It goes without saying that many of your books filled those walls—yet I point it out just to be clear—and that’s how I knew your name for the first time. I was only elated when I found “Carrie” among my mom’s bookcases. I stole it from there and hid it under my pillow. I know, not the best place to hide anything when you don’t make your own bed. Anyhow, I guess my mom didn’t think I could do much with it because she let me keep it there. The pages became gray in the corners where I turned them incessantly, even though I could read nothing that had more than four letters.

Time passed and with my goal in sight, I became a proficient reader. Soon I took the book and started reading it. Except I didn’t understand half a page of what was written. You see, reading and understanding are two completely different things, I learned. The many euphemisms and metaphors were too complex for me, and I got the feeling that I was being left out of the joke. After the fiftieth time I asked my mother “what does he mean when he says she felt tired like if she had prayed a whole rosary on her knees?” she advised me—as gentle as a yell can be—not to read something if I couldn’t understand it. I was barely on page twenty or so, and I stopped.

Years later I watched the movie version and loved it but by then my social life was getting more hectic and I’d forgotten my old grudge with “Carrie”, the book. It was then that my mom decided she had to do something to instill the love of reading in me. Right when I had no interest on it anymore. It figures. She then decided that an adventure book would do the trick and bought me “Treasure Island”.

I hated it. She kept telling me how exciting the story would get, and I kept struggling to move forward even one page. I finished it after many months and several threats of quitting. “Respect the book,” mom told me, “never leave a book mid-way”, and I’ve never done.

The day I finished I threw me a party and drank all the root beer my body could handle. Even to this date, fantasy and adventure are the genres I least enjoy—Thanks mom. —

Of course, the next day I searched those old bookcases and took Carrie down. I finished it in two weeks. Two weeks!! After seven months with the previous one. It was clear this was my path.

I don’t know if you ever toured in Mexico or did some kind of promotional appearance, but I never heard of it, so I grew up thinking authors were these semi-gods living up in the clouds where no one can find them, much less meet them.

I read a lot of your books, decided becoming a writer was not a viable option if I ever wanted to be able to sustain myself, and studied a ‘real’ profession. Then got married, got a child, and moved to the US. It was attending a spinning class at the local YMCA that a lady there saw me carrying the hefty book—”Cell”—that was my read of the moment.

“Ah, Stephen King. He writes big books, but they’re so good,” this lady said. I smiled and was about to agree with her when she added, “I remember seeing him once in a conference talking about his books. A very nice guy, indeed.”

It stopped me on my tracks. I could almost hear the angelic chant from the sky that always accompanies a great revelation. I could meet you in person! It was possible! All I had to do was find the place of your next appearance and kill if needed to be there.

I got home and looked on the Internet. I discovered you had an official website and subscribed, but the good news stopped there. You are not doing personal appearances anymore. Life had gotten in our way.

Fast-forward a few years to 2010. Do you remember that personal appearance in New York City? Hell, yeah! I bought my ticket, got super excited, and told everyone within an earshot that I was going to meet Stephen King. Then my husband got transferred to Montreal. Whatever. We looked for a nanny and were planning our drive back to attend when we got news that our tickets had gotten lost on the way. We asked them to re-issue the tickets but those, too, got lost.

Goddammit! There was nothing else that could be done. So I cried that day and threw a shaking-fist-tantrum to the universe for keeping us apart.

A year later I got wind of the special edition of IT through your website. I logged in to buy my signed copy and there were none left. Fine!

This year I tried with the signed copy of 11/22/63. This time I logged in at eight o’clock and paid for my copy. Yoo-hoo! I did my happy dance all morning… until Simon & Schuster called to say there had been a blip in the system and my order hadn’t passed. The copies were now sold out and they were sending me a free copy of the book. Sans signing. Are you f$%& kidding me?!

Ok, you know what? Fine. Life doesn’t want me to know my favorite author and inspiration? I don’t care. I have a theory. Now that I’m a published horror writer, albeit an unknown one, destiny is keeping us apart until we meet each other on the hallways of one of the ‘big six’ as colleagues.

Sorry, I was choking from laughing and eating lunch at the same time. Where was I? Oh, yes. I was daydreaming.

Anyway, Mr. King. Stephen. I just want to thank you for all those nightmares of my youth, for providing me with such a great and disturbing imagination, for being my goal for so many years. I truly hope one day our books can meet each other on a shelf somewhere if it is not for ourselves to meet.

Keep being awesome and just know how many lives you have touched and changed.

Thanks again,

Georgina Morales

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About the Author 

Born in Mexico City, Georgina was always divided between the world of the paranormal, the religious, and science, even as a kid. Through her years in medical school, she experienced and heard all kinds of creepy tales. She, now, writes from her home in Norwalk, Ct. where she resides in the company of her husband and two young daughters. The history of the northeast, its old buildings, and its endless forests provide her imagination with a constant influx of ideas, which combined with her rich background make for her unique style. She’s also a staff reviewer for Dark River Press.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

www.diaryofawriterinprogress.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perpetual-Night-by-Georgina-Morales/159894374059399

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4646361.Georgina_Morales

http://www.darkriverpress.com/reviews.html

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/perpetual-night-georgina-morales/1100075745?ean=9780615438405&itm=1&usri=georgina+morales

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=georgina+morales&x=0&y=0

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38400

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Guest Post…In Appreciation of Writers

Author Jane Li joins us today with a guest post in appreciation of writers…
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In Appreciation of Writers
(that includes you Bloggers and Reviewers, and pretty much anybody who posts anything publicly)
I’ve been spoiled by good books.
Because I’ve read good books, I expect every piece of writing to be well-written.  I want them to hook me in the first paragraph and keep me hooked.  Most readers expect that now, which means a lot get tossed without a second thought.
And then I realized something: everybody on this planet has something valuable to say; sometimes they just don’t say it in a way that makes my eyes light up.  Now that I’ve actually written and published a book of my own, I’ve become much more respectful and appreciative of the work and time authors put into their books, not to mention the love.  I’m suddenly sensitive of how other people’s opinions of my writing can have a huge impact on my self-esteem.  So I’ve developed an attitude of appreciation for what I read.
Now, good writing isn’t necessarily one with the well-crafted prose, engaging storyline, or even the best insights (although those qualities definitely make good writing).  Good writing to me is something that resonates with my feelings and experiences, one that makes me think on the bigger lessons in life, or a composition that shifts my viewpoint to one of better understanding and compassion toward others.  Yeah, I know, that’s still a high standard, and a very personal one.  But now I look for the gold, and say all the good I can of every piece I come across.  If I don’t like it, then I’ll leave it to someone who does.
Much appreciation and gratitude to every writer courageous enough to let others read their words and comment on them.
Hugs and Blessings,
Jane Li
author of Barakel and Nissa
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Want to know more? Check out the links! 
Click here to go to Amazon for the paperback and click here for the Kindle version
Visit my Website at http://www.janeliauthor.com/
“Like” my book on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter @JLauthor
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Guest Post…Why I Write for Boys

Mikko Azul, author of Askari (Book 1 – Child of Muralia Trilogy) joins us today with a guest post why she writes for boys…

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Boys: The Forgotten Heroes of Young Adult Literature

Since the publication of Twilight and the subsequent exponential explosion of the Paranormal Romance genre in the YA marketplace, heroes of the epic fantasy have nearly become extinct. Rare are the newly-published tales of conquest by a young hero over his personal, metaphorical or, heaven forbid, actual demons. Despite the recent success of such movies as The Lord of the Rings and their encouragement of real-life heroes to find kinship between the pages of the original books, boys and young men are still largely ignored in the YA marketplace. Why is this?

After speaking to over 50 literary agents and a handful of YA publishers, I got an answer…one that disturbed me greatly. In their esteemed opinions, boys over the age of 13 don’t read books. Really? Why not? The demographic data shown to me by the agents indicates that boys at or over the age of 13 are into sports, girls and…you guessed it…video games. I think there are a couple really good reasons for this. First, there really aren’t a whole lot of great books being published right now that will appeal to boys of that age. With the exception of a handful of really great titles in the Middle Grade level including Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Michael Scott’s Nicholas Flamel series and Jenny Nemmo’s Charlie Bone series, there are few that portray strong male leads that our young boys and men can aspire to or identify with. Even so, these are all written for younger boys at the middle grade level. How do we capture the interest and excitement of teenage boys? I’m not convinced that teenage boys aren’t reading…they’re just getting their books in the specific genre sections instead of age level sections of the book stores. Go to any Barnes and Noble or, better yet, Powell’s World of Books and see how many teens and men are roaming between the sci-fi/fantasy aisles.

I can see the attraction to video games. Boys and men are, and will always be, warriors at heart. Where else can they possess amazing physical prowess with magical abilities and opportunities to wield extreme weapons? Where else can they triumph over adversity or overcome incredible odds? Video games totally rock! But, they’re so expensive that they aren’t accessible to everyone who would want them. The athletes who excel in the courts and on the fields at the Junior and High School level are excellent role models, but the recognition is limited to the talented few. Perhaps another venue for the rest of our kids who aren’t superstar athletes and who don’t have access to the expensive newest video game craze would be a return to the escapism of the written word. One that would appeal to our culture’s forgotten heroes…boys. The trick is how to get boys to sit still long enough to make their way through 300+ pages of text!

Personally, I have four boys; one with ADD, one with ADHD and two with the natural attention spans of gnats. Writing in such a way to keep my boys interested and engaged has always been a challenge. My oldest son gave me the key: keep it moving. He had a good point. Stan Lee of Marvel Comics gave me the best advice for writing for boys, “Take your guy, your main character, and get him into trouble…just keep getting him into trouble. Everything follows from there.” So, after writing a book that should appeal to boys, how do I convince them to read it?

I’ve found one way: a teacher at our local junior high school read my book Askari and was so excited about finding a book that she was certain would appeal to her struggling readers that she wrote a grant and ordered copies for each kid at the junior high school. We are working together on a curriculum that incorporates the elements that they need to pass their proficiency exams using a story that (we hope) will keep them interested and entertained. Perhaps if we can get our foot in the door by starting with a captive audience, we can remind publishers and book sellers that our young male heroes are still out there and reading the stories that are worthy of their valuable attention.

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About the Author: I’m a reader and writer of fantasy adventure novels. My first work, which still doesn’t have a satisfactory title, won the San Francisco Writer’s Conference indie publishing competition. So…they’re generously paying to have this first novel published! Writers tend to work in a vaccuum…no input, little useful support and oftentimes marginalized. Winning this competition was a huge boost of confidence for me!

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website: www.mikkoazul.com

Look out for Askari – Book 1 in the Child of Muralia series

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Guest Post…When a Novel Becomes a Film – An Author’s Perspective

I came across this post a few weeks ago on author Frank Nappi’s Goodreads blog and he kindly agreed to share it with us here. As an author who regularly answers questions about ‘who would play your characters in a film of the book’, I know that having your novel become a film is another facet of writing that many authors dream of. But what actually happens when that dream comes true? Frank shares his experience here….

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Many books are optioned each year for development by the film industry, setting off a conflagration of thoughts and emotions within those most closely tied to those books. When my novel “The Legend of Mickey Tussler” was optioned by Eye in The Sky Entertainment back in 2008, I was thrilled beyond words. Soon, however, I found myself languishing in the uncertainty that attenuates every step of the process. The potential pitfalls are many…who will be hired to do the screenwriting? Will there be enough financial backing to bring the project to fruition? Are there any industry experts out there who want to take a chance on directing? And what about casting? And do I really have to change the name of the story???

All of these issues, and an array of others germane to film production, took about three years to rectify.

Then the fun really started……

Every author realizes the “price” he/she pays for selling rights to a story — while it is certainly flattering to have someone compensate you for the opportunity to bring your story to life on the screen, in doing so, you abdicate your ability to guide the production and preserve the integrity of “your” story as you saw it from the beginning. As I was told on numerous occasions, “Uh Frank, this is no longer your story.” That was a tough one to swallow. Consequently, characters are altered or in some cases deleted, scenes are shortened or cut, and setting falls victim to the pragmatic reality that there is a very real budget which must be honored.

So you have these conversations, and most often you cringe, knowing full well that “your story” works best as is. Still, you are appreciative that this amazing opportunity has happened for you, and you certainly do not want to appear ungrateful. So many options never make it into production.

Time unfolds, and the film is shot. Eventually, you get to see what these folks have done with your story. You hold your breath as you view the “new version” of your creation, praying that they have maintained most of what you had intended in writing it…..

And if you are lucky, as I have been, you smile at the portrayal of your central characters and breathe a little easier as the music and cinematography add a whole new dimension to your tale. Yes, you still harbor disappointment somewhere deep within that your story has been altered in some ways that you know have a deleterious effect on the product (in my case, The Legend of Mickey Tussler was set in the 1940’s but “A Mile in His Shoes”was filmed as a present day story) but you cannot help but watch with surreal detachment as your words come to life for all to see.

So my overall experience with watching The Legend of Mickey Tussler become “A Mile in His Shoes” was favorable. If I can offer any advice to authors who have just had a novel optioned, it would be to pace yourself…and realize that while you are in for some rather taxing moments replete with all sorts of anxiety, in the end, the film credit is something that you will never forget.

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About the Author

Author - Frank Nappi

Frank Nappi has taught high school English and Creative Writing for over twenty years. His debut novel, Echoes From The Infantry, received national attention, including MWSA’s silver medal for outstanding fiction for 2006. His follow-up novel, The Legend of Mickey Tussler, garnered rave reviews as well, including a screenplay adaptation of the touching story which aired nationwide in the fall of 2011 (A Mile in His Shoes starring Dean Cain and Luke Schroder). Frank continues to produce quality work, including The Legend of Mickey Tussler: Sophomore Campaign, the intriguing sequel to the much heralded original story, and is presently at work on a third installment of the unique series. Frank lives on Long Island with his wife Julia and their two sons, Nicholas and Anthony.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Links for both of Frank’s Tussler books as well as the amazon link for the movie that was adapted from the first book (the subject of today’s blog post):
The Legend of Mickey Tussler
Sophomore Campaign
A Mile in His Shoes
website:  www.franknappi.com
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Guest Post…Where do you get your ideas?

Author Tony Talbot joins us today with a guest post on where writing ideas come from…

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It’s a common enough question, and one I think every writer probably has a half-different answer to. Some of them say from their own life experiences, some of them say from dreams or something they’ve seen or heard that sticks.

For me, it’s anything and everything I see, and most of the stuff that I dream. There’s a school of thought that says everything a writer sees never leaves their heads, but sits in there, waiting to bounce off something else. I like to think of it as my own solar system, the important stuff close to the star…and out beyond where the heat and the life is…ahh, that’s the good stuff.

There are comets out there, innocuous balls of ice and rock, dark against infinity. But give them a nudge, and they hurtle towards the planets, sometimes leaving a trail across the sky of my imagination. Sometimes they hit things. Wipe out whole continents, reshape whole planets and civilisations. Sometimes you think they’re going to smash into a planet only burn up in the atmosphere.

Here’s an example of one of those comets, one that left a bright streak but didn’t do much damage:

A month or two ago, I was eating in McDonalds with my wife on a Friday night, and sitting at the other end of this very noisy and busy restaurant was a woman at a table for two. Nothing very odd or spectacular about that, you would think, but she was wearing a wedding ring, and she was alone on a Friday night eating in a cheap restaurant.

Instantly, the questions about her started in my head: Who was she? Where were her husband and family (if she had one)? Why was she alone on a Friday night?

By the time I got home, the woman had stuck, and I managed to get a decent story out of her. Not bad for someone I never spoke to. And one of the pleasures of writing is this: Give this little snapshot to a dozen writers and they’ll come up with a different answer. That woman gave my little writing group a surprise party mistaken for an affair, a ghost story and a secret daughter. Just from a woman sitting alone at a table in McDonalds.

So next time you’re out walking somewhere, when you glance at something, glance again. You’ll never know when an image will stick and what you’ll do with it. Take that image and nudge some comets. Maybe blow out some continents.

You know, just for fun.

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About the Author: Tony Talbot was born in the 1970s and started writing in 2008 after a dream he had and couldn’t shake. American Girl was his third book, and he’s currently editing his next book and planning the book after, tentatively called, ‘Dome’.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website: http://www.tony-talbot.co.uk

Twitter: @authortony

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonytalbotwriter

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/tony-talbot

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Guest Post…My Pen is Lethargic

Interesting post from the blog of author Karen Payze on why it’s hard to get going with your writing sometimes.

Karen's avatarDrawing Room Days

You may be wondering why it is that I started a blog.  It all came about because of  a desire to reignite my creative writing flame.  I have been a bit stuck since completing my novel.  I have been asking myself for some time now why it is that I cannot seem to get myself to write a second novel.

I have come to realise that it is a combination of things rather than just one specific thing – like writers block.  In fact, I know that it is not writers block.  How do I know this?  Well, I have a million stories floating around my head, and more are added every hour of every day.  They just need organising.  So, writers block – not an issue.

When thinking about my reasons for not writing, the first thing that springs to mind is my previous book.  In the world…

View original post 884 more words

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Writing 101…Copyright

So, you’ve finished a book. You carefully wrote an outline, craftily developed your characters, sweated out the formatting to make every page perfect. If you don’t get yourself a copyright through proper and legal channels, you don’t want to self-publish that story. If you do, I can download it, put my name on it and sell it as my own — legally. If you think slapping a copyright symbol and writing a disclaimer is enough to protect your rights, you might be wrong. Getting a copyright is pretty easy…but it’s not that easy.

What is a Copyright? 

You can’t have one unless you know what it is. When you own the copyright to a work — usually a piece of music, a book, artwork or a film — you and you alone are allowed to sell, distribute and duplicate that work. This means that if someone else wants to sell and/or distribute your work, they’ve got to go through you first. Copyrighting your book legally marks you as the owner, and it’s something you’ve got to do before you make that book available to the public in any form or fashion.

…If you live in the United States, that is.

Obtaining a Copyright

Obtaining a copyright is a legal process, and there may be certain channels you’ve got to go through in order to get it. If you live in the US, you’ve definitely got some work to do before you start happily self-publishing. Elsewhere…well, it’s quite a bit easier.

  • In the UK

If you create and produce your book in the UK, it’s automatically copyrighted. The UK copyright goes into effect the moment an idea leaves its creator’s mind and becomes an object (rather than a concept). The moment you type your first word, you’ve got a copyright on your work. You do not have to be a citizen of the UK for this copyright law to protect you; as long as you create and produce your work within the UK, you’re covered. The UK Intellectual Property Office offers more specific details.

  • In Canada

Canada’s copyright laws are similar to UK laws. Once you create and produce your work in country, you’re protected under Canadian copyright law. However, you should take the time to legally register your work through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, a process which does include some monetary fees.

  • In the United States

If you live in the US, simply creating and producing your work absolutely isn’t enough. As an author, the responsibility falls to you and you alone to officially copyright your work and register it with the Library of Congress. It’s a relatively simple process that includes filling out a form and sending a copy of your work (for inclusion in the Library, of course). Use the online Electronic Copyright Office for ebooks and digital works. Filing the copyright does cost money, but it’s a necessity if you want to be legally recognized as the owner of your work.

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This post originally featured on Jade Varden’s author blog on 17th March 2012.

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Author Jade Varden is a regular guest contributor on Aside From Writing. The Writing 101 features originate from her own blog  at http://jadevarden.blogspot.co.uk where you can see more of her thoughts on writing, as well as her own books. Her debut novel Justice is available now, with The Tower scheduled for release in summer 2012. Read our review of Justice here.

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Count Dracula Should Really be Countess Dracula

Really interesting post on historical inspiration for fiction – particularly for vampire fans. Have been inspired to try the author’s book Evanescence – I’m feeling a vampire phase coming on after reading Ninfa Hayes’ Bites last week…

Mel x

saraesperanza's avatarAlexandra Pelaez

When people research the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s infamous villain, the name Vlad the Impaler almost always comes up. Renown for his cruelty and the number of his victims which number in the tens of thousands, Vlad was also called Dracula, his patronymic (a component of a personal name based on the name of one’s father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. Dracula literally means ‘son of the dragon.’)

But Vlad may not have been the only inspiration. Based on certain components of Dracula’s background and character, it can be safe to hypothesize that Bram Stoker was also inspired by the legends of the most prolific serial killer of all time: Countess Elizabeth Bathory.

Born in 1560, Elizabeth Bathory was a noblewoman, and a member of one of the most powerful Hungarian families of the time. So powerful in fact, that they were more affluent in both money and…

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Guest Post…An 18-Year Quest

The fire that ignited the fuel of my 18 year quest…

A recent reviewer for The Bridge of Deaths wrote, “Would you spend 18 years researching anything?”  I smiled and my first thought was, these are the words of someone young. They were indeed the words of a woman in her early 20s. Time is a matter of perspective and at 52 18 years does not seem like a very long time to work on fulfilling a dream or reaching for something as important as the image and love of a grandparent.

In many of my earliest memories as a little girl are thoughts and desires to sit on a grandfather’s lap and to get to know a person that inexplicably I loved and missed. He died 20 years before I was born, and not all the stories about him painted the image of a perfect wonderful man, but I felt an amazing affinity to my mom’s dad.

Do you know the scene in the movie The Parent Trap when the twin who has never met her grandfather gives him a big bear hug and tells him she is creating a memory with the smell of pipe tobacco and peppermint? Well it was that kind of fire that ignited the fuel of my 18 year quest, a fire of longing and loving for a grandfather.

That type of fire I refer to is motivated by two very strong forces all of us possess; love and curiosity.  These two strong elements combined with determination are bound to get anyone to the finish line. There were understandably some big hurdles and roadblocks and I am not shy to admit that amongst them one of the biggest was my absolutely limited knowledge in HISTORY and especially history of the era I had to work with.

This particular hurdle had a solution that can be useful to many with problems for variety of career goals. The solution was simply this, a willingness to learn, work hard and well yes, one could call it study. In my case it was the self-imposed story of historical data. Some of you may have goals where there might be a class you can take or a workshop, it can be training physically or making lifestyle changes.  I can tell you this from my personal experience, if something is important enough to you give yourself the gift of setting the goal and reaching it.

May all the Bridges you cross lead to happiness and great success!

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About today’s guest: M.C.V. Egan is fluent in four languages, Spanish, English, French and Swedish. She lives in Delray Beach, Florida with her husband and teenage son. Author of The Bridge of Deaths, you can find out more about her work on the links below:

http://www.thebridgeofdeaths.com

twitter: M_C_V_EGAN