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Continue reading →: Hit the books #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Hit the books As writers, we have an interesting relationship with books. We spend our life surrounded by them – our own, other people’s – it doesn’t matter. Reading is a passion we share for various reasons; for the connection, for pleasure, to learn. We collect them, covet them, and…
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Continue reading →: Going through a rough patch #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Going through a rough patch There comes a time in any project when we hit a rough patch and things grind to a halt. It can be a minor setback and, if we’re lucky, we have the tools in place to deal with these, shall we say, roadblocks along…
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Continue reading →: Feeling Blue #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Feeling blue Yesterday, I touched on the subject of completing a novel, and the thrill we experience. What I didn’t talk about is the flipside, the turbulent emotions that are often akin to mourning. This tends to happen when we reach the end of our journey and it begins to…
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Continue reading →: Easier said than done #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Easier said than done Okay, picture this. Your novel is finished, the latest word count is around ninety thousand words, and you’re finally satisfied the story is ready to share with your betas. After all the blood, ink and tears, the sleepless nights, the assurances to your family that you’re…
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Continue reading →: Deny, Deny, Deny! #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Deny, Deny, Deny! The internet can be a powerful tool, and for writers who often drown themselves in research, google is both a blessing and a curse. You can search for anything, and though you often need to confirm a source or get the information backed up, in many cases…
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Continue reading →: Chop, Chop, (Choppity Chop) #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Chop, Chop, (Choppity Chop) For writers well traversed with the short story, a sweet novella, or an anthology or two, then keeping and sticking to a word limit should be a breeze *cough – yeah right – cough.* Seriously, though. Most writers will experience a time when their precious…
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Continue reading →: Beginning or the End? #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Beginning or the End? In one sense, whether writer, reader, tv fanatic, or movie buff (or all of those), we have a sense of how things are going to end. We know that (generally) a love story has a happy ending and the protagonists unite. We know what to expect…
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Continue reading →: Articulate…who me? #AtoZChallenge – Peculiar ‘Pen fellows’ – Quirks only a writer can understand
Articulate…who me? Give a writer a pen or a keyboard, and it’s kind of like handing Thor his hammer – it’s when the magic happens. Not the greatest analogy, but hey, words can strike like lightning, so it’s not the worst. My point is, in our comfort zone, we are confident…
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Continue reading →: Zero to Sixty…Blogger Style!
It’s been over a year since I last posted on the blog, and with each month that passed, it became more difficult to return. I love being part of the community, so I’ve been looking for a way to ease back into things. Of course, easing in has never…
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Continue reading →: Badge of Honour – A Maddison Wood Story
As you may know, instead of publishing the first season of the Collective, as I had intended to do, the plan changed. Quite drastically. I will now be publishing several books in the series, starting in February 2017. So, to satisfy fans of the Fractured, I wrote a companion story…
Hello,
I’m Melissa
Welcome to my website and blog! I’m happy you’re here. Stay a while and look around. You will find information on my books, latest posts and information about the worlds I create.
Melissa Barker-Simpson 