On Being Unique
My debut fantasy novel HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE is set in a world where magic is an accepted fact of life, some family heirlooms come with an enchantment attached, and dragons lurk in all corners of the globe. Developing the world was one of my favorite parts of the writing process, but as I dove… Read More
Writing What You Know When You Write Fantasy
The advice to “Write what you know” always seems to fall apart if you’re a fantasy writer like me. I don’t know how to do magic, and I’ve never been to the world in my book The Moonlight Blade, because so much of it came from my imagination. But nothing comes from nothing. There were… Read More
The Future of Dystopian Fiction in a Post-Dystopian World
A lot of things have changed since I was a kid. Personal computers and the internet are the first mega-changes to spring to mind, and, indeed, they changed everything. The world is now so interconnected that it no longer feels vast, interacting with people from other countries is commonplace and even blasé, and traveling to… Read More
Writing Fantasy Festivals and Celebrations
Thanks so much for having me back on the auspicious book birthday for Curse of Shadows (Amassia #2)! To mark the celebrations, I’m giving away a signed copy (plus signed bookplates) of the first two books in this YA Fantasy series including (Crown of Bones, book #1 and Curse of Shadows, book #2. If you… Read More
ROAD TRIPS WITH WEREWOLVES by Marlene Perez
Thanks so much for having me back to talk about my latest release A Sucker for You (Afterlife #3)! Who doesn’t love a road trip story? From famous literary road trips like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to movies like the fan-favorite Vacation, road trips are an essential part of pop culture. Because of where… Read More
CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
Although set in a secondary fantasy world, many aspects of LAST OF THE TALONS are heavily inspired by Korea. While worldbuilding, I looked to Korean culture to create a world in which a teenage assassin begins a violent game of cat and mouse with a Dokkaebi emperor. Unsurprisingly, one of the most important elements of… Read More
Unsung Heroes: How Secondary Characters Win Over the Reader’s Hearts
Hi, Everyone! Thank you so much to Writerspace for featuring CROSSING THE LINE! Before we jump into our love of developing and writing secondary characters, we wanted to let you know there’s a giveaway! Woot woot! You can find all of the details at the bottom of this post. When writing IN THE PENALTY BOX,… Read More
Fairytales Feed Fantasy
When I started putting together my new fantasy trilogy, I knew I wanted to incorporate fairytales. Rather than a faithful retelling I wanted to touch on elements from several fairytales and make them my own for my characters and their world. I also wanted to pull in lesser known fairytales, which is when I started… Read More
Getting Back to Your Reading Roots
Writer’s block is not a new topic, but it’s always a relevant one. There are many things that can help out when your creative juices stop flowing: meditating, taking a walk, reading a book – the list goes on and on. Sometimes the block sticks around, which can be pretty miserable, but eventually, it does… Read More
What story were you born to write?
Every aspiring author has a unique story that they’re destined to tell. Think about it: nobody else in the world has your brain, your ideas, and your life experiences. When I began plotting The Helheim Princess, I knew right away that this was the story I was born to write. It combines everything I love—women… Read More
Introducing Unraveling Eleven: The Notorious Middle Child
On November 16, 2021, Unraveling Eleven will be released into the world. You might be wondering: what’s that? Well, it’s a book, first of all. More specifically, a YA dystopian romance with crossover appeal into the adult market. Also, it’s the second book in the Eleven Trilogy. That’s right—trilogy. The first book, Escaping Eleven, was… Read More
How to Embrace the Cliché
by Cookie O’Gorman What is a cliché, and why do people always say it like it’s a bad thing? “Trope” is a word I didn’t know until a few years ago. I didn’t realize there were these preordained categories of romance. Though I’d enjoyed and read several of them, I never knew there was an… Read More