From the Backlist: Bringing the Passion

Image by Guren-The-Thirdeye from Pixabay

 
As we move toward the end of the year, it's refreshing to look at the backlist and think about what came before. As this post from 2011 shows us, writer's are always looking for inspiration to bring more power, passion and riveting storytelling to their works. 

With that in mind, today's selection from the Backlist is Kim Falconer's writing tips on Bringing the Passion. Good for all seasons! 
 

We hope you enjoy!

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Sunday, October 16, 2011 

Bringing the Passion

by Kim Falconer

Write while the heat is in you. -- Henry David Thoreau

Passion translates through the pages and to make sure readers are enthralled, the writer must be too. But deadlines don’t go away when there is a lull, or the holidays have arrived, or there’s a new show on HBO. Writers must write, high, low, rain, sleet or perfect beach weather. Where does the inspiration come from? Here are a few ideas:

Tip #1 Show up: Writing is like a date; you have to show up if you want something to happen. Get to your desk every day, turn the computer on and say here we go! Sooner or later the Muse will be there, but you have to make the first move. Always.

Tip #2 Set an intention: State your goal for the day. Say it aloud. You might also write it down on a post-it and stick it to your monitor. It might be, two thousand words a day, flowing like a river, or ten pages edited, clean and easy. Setting an intention keeps the goal in sight. Adding a ‘feel good’ to the statement lifts the spirit.

Tip #3 Write what you love: This is major. If you aren’t passionate about your story, readers won’t be either. This isn’t something you can fake. Write what lights you up. If your current assignment doesn’t, find a way to change your mind about it. Throw caution to the wind. Fall head over heels. You have to LOVE the thing to make it sing!

See More of Kim's Books

Tip #4 Look after yourself: When others are on holidays, splashing in the pool or gliding down the ski slope, the ‘blank screen’ can seem like a punishment. When this happens, amp up the self-nurturing! Good food, power naps, exercise and socialise. Deadlines to not equate with prison sentences. You’ll get more done if you schedule in daily ‘me’ time.

Tip #5 Evoke the muse: In ancient times, no story told without calling on the Muses. ‘Tell me, O Muse,’ Homer begins, and we know where that got him. Stephen King suggests that when writers feel blocked it’s not because the Muse has abandoned them: I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it. Love your Muse and she will love you back! More on evocations

Tip #6 Ghost write: If the keys aren’t clicking, open a new word .doc and write a few paras in another voice...

Read the complete article here: Bringing the Passion

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

 

 

We're a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

 

From the Backlist: Making Wishes

 

Image by VitorCruz2019 on Pixabay

 

Welcome to our October posts from the Backlist! 

Today's spotlight was written October 7, 2010 by the fabulous author Jocelynn Drake. This gives us a chance to say Happy Birthday to all the Libra's and wonderful dreamers out there who still blow out the candles . . . and make a wish!

Hope you enjoy!

You can read more about Jocelynn Drake on her website. 

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Making Wishes

by Jocelynn Drake 

Oct 7, 2010 

Today is my birthday. Yep, I unwittingly chose the seventh of every month to write my blog post for Supernatural Underground simply because it seemed rare for me to be traveling at that time. For some reason, all conferences and out-of-town appointments tended to fall in the middle or the end of the month. It honestly didn't occur to me that I had chosen the date of my birth to be one of my blog entries.

So, today I'm going to talk about birthday wishes. These are something that I take very seriously. Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My family gathers around and sings "Happy Birthday" as badly as possible. And trust me, they are getting really good at being really bad. And then I make a wish before blowing out the growing numbers of candles.

I look back and I remember that there were some years that I simply wished to be happy, but then those were some dark years. However, most the time, it was the same wish over and over again -- I wished to be published. Writing has been my heart and soul for so much of my life that I wished on candles, shooting stars, and pennies in a fountain that my words would one day be read by others. That's not to say that I didn't also work my butt off to also make it happen, but I like to think that all that hard wishing also helped to add a special magical aspect to it all.

Now that I've accomplished that mean feat, I have to come up with a new wish. I think I've got one, but

I obviously can't share it or it may never happen. However, I will share with you an impossible wish that I have. I wish I could sit down and have a long dinner with my main characters Mira and Danaus. (Perferrably when they are both in a good mood and not fighting with each other.) Both creatures are not only something other than human, but also centuries old. 

I would love to hear from their mouths their thoughts on the world, humanity, and the struggles they've been through, including the people they have loved and lost. I want to hear about their dreams and fears. And for reason, something in me yearns to actually hear their laughter and see them in person as they gaze across the table at each other as they share a private joke. In them are deep layers of love and loss and desperation and hope. I only wish I could see it in person, because I think it would truly be a beautiful thing. 

Read the full post here . . . 

 

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

 

 

We're a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

From the Backlist: Fantasy Festivals

Art by the amazing Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Happy Equinox everyone. 

Whether your season is turning from summer to autumn, or from winter to spring, it's a time of Sola Aequo where the divine beings 'make equal' the power of the sun for day and night. It's traditionally a time of celebration and gratitude, and a time to reflect.

With that in mind, today's post from the Backlist is Kim Falconer's Fantasy Festivals.

Enjoy!

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Fantasy Festivals 

by Kim Falconer on the Supernatural Underground

There are a number of ways an author draws the reader into their story. They can use pace, suspense, fear, excitement, but behind the page-turning tools is a little something called atmosphere, the nuance that creates immersion.

For example: Harry Potter's first festival feast not only helps create an atmosphere at Hogwarts, it shows a contrast to his austere upbringing.

In this way, the readers and audience are captivated by the story, not just because it excites them, but because it feels 'real'.

Ways to create an atmosphere stem from language, word choice, dialogue, character and world-building - the sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes and history of the story-world. Included in the art of world-building is the power of celebration. . . 

... and there's nothing like a royal wedding to make the heart sing.

Tolkien certainly new how to put on a festival! LOTR Return of the King

These fantasy festivals might match ones the reader is already familiar with ...full post here.

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Do you have a favourite fictional celebration? We'd all love to hear it.

Happy Equinox, everyone!

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About Kim Falconer

The Amassia Series

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. 

 Quantum Enchantment

Kim can be found on AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site. See you there!

Read Blood and Water, a PNR alt history that will leave you questioning every natural disaster ever endured.

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” 

From the Backlist: Never Make an Author Mad

 

Art by Omven on DeviantArt

Welcome to our posts from the backlist! Today's spotlight was written August 2011 by the spooky-wonderful author Karina Cooper. Check out her hilarious, somewhat disturbing take on why it's best not to poke the bear, if the bear be an author!

Hope you enjoy!

You can find Karina Cooper on Goodreads!  

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Reasons Why You Never Want to Make an Author Mad *

by Karina Cooper

Come on, you've seen us. We're all very lovely people, us authors. We smile at the cameras, sign books, hug fans, and so on. Surely, making an author mad must be akin to swatting at a dust bunny, right? I mean, what are we going to do? Cry into our keyboards?

I mean, can't you just see the gorgeous Vicki Petersson cackling with glee as she comes up with creative ways to use a coin slot machine and a pair of dice to off somebody . . .

. . . let's not discount Merrie Destefano, who knows all the good places in New Orleans to hide a body, or Joss Ware, who knows seventeen ways to dismember a man beyond recognition. Juliana Stone knows what kind of wounds look like animal attacks—"I have no idea, officer, it looks like a jaguar attack to me."—and Pamela Palmer who is an engineer, and you know how devilishly clever engineers are. I wouldn't mess with her with a twenty-foot pole and a getaway driver on speed dial.

Ahhh, authors. So innocent, and yet...

Mwahaha. . .

Well. Sort of.

See, yesterday I found myself in the middle of a task that I do actually need for this current run of books I'm plotting. And as I scrolled through pages and pages of data, I thought to myself, Karina, it's a damn good thing your profession is what it is.

Because how else am I to explain why my internet history is full of information on modern day torture techniques?

That's right. Let's talk about reason number one: We know how make you scream. We've researched it down to the last details—certainly not for ourselves, oh, no, but what out characters know, we know. And if we're carrying around a character who is an inquisitor, or a character who was tortured, or worse, we know.

Would we use it? Oh, of course not, officer! We'd never use this information for evil. We're entertainers, not in the business of making the things we know actually happen. Right?

Heh. Heh heh. Right.

Reason number two to avoid making us angry? We know how to hide the body. We've thoroughly researched it. Currents, erosion, garbage truck route details, you name it, we know it. We're a little obsessive when it comes to details, you might have noticed. After all, how else can we guarantee that the extra we offed in chapter 4 doesn't come to light until chapter 15?

The devil is, in fact, in the details.... 

 

* Note: This post is entirely tongue-in-cheek and not actually a commentary on the likelihood of authors to commit heinous crimes against real, living people. This is a joke. A post devoted to the rather hilarious fact that we tend to research the most horrible things in our bid to get it right.

Murder is bad, mmkay?

Read the entire POST.

 

Enjoy!

 

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

 

 

We're a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

 

From the Backlist: "Writing the Story -- Just a Trip on the Open Road" by Pamela Palmer

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"Plotter or pantser" is one of the vital decisions all writers must make --- and also a question our Supernatural Underground authors get asked a lot. 

Here's Pamela Palmer's take in terms of her own writing. Enjoy!

Writing the Story -- Just a Trip on the Open Road

by Pamela Palmer

I used to think I was a plotter. Or maybe I just wanted to be a plotter since it appealed to my control freak side. The idea of sitting down to write with a thoroughly plotted outline at my fingertips enthralled me. I imagined that marvelous document, each chapter broken down into detailed scene-by-scene action, emotion, and descriptions, with character goals and conflicts spelled out in perfect clarity. Writing would be a snap, I thought. 

Then I tried it. And failed. Miserably.

I spent months creating that brilliant outline for one of my early books (a Scottish historical that will never see the light of day). But at the first critical turning point in the story, all that meticulous planning fell apart. The hero, who had come roaring to life in the first few chapters, simply refused to react to that pivotal moment the way I (and my beautiful outline) required him to. I could have forced him, of course. And he and anyone who read the book would have hated me for it. So I didn't. I let him react the way he needed to, which sent the story spinning in a direction I'd never foreseen. And all the meticulous planning I'd done from that point forward had to be scrapped.

So, I tried again, carefully plotting the rest of the story from that point on, convinced it would work now that I understood the hero better. Wrong. Within a few chapters, he was glaring at me, arms crossed, a mulish set to his chiseled jaw. No way in hell was he doing what I'd intended. Again.

I'd love to say that after two failures I'd learned my lesson. Nope. To paraphrase one of my favorite fictional characters (Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum), I try never to make the same mistake more than two or three times. Eventually, I figured it out. For me, traveling through a story is a lot like traveling by car along roads I've never visited before. Yes, I can grab a map and plan the route ahead of time, in detail, but all I'm doing is guessing the best way to go. We've all done it--chosen a route that appears to be quick, or short, or interesting, only to find the reality anything but. That 'straight shot' through the city has us caught in traffic so thick we haven't moved for an hour or that 'short cut' between two highways turns out to be little more than a track through the mountains where we can hardly tell the roads from the driveways.

Planning the trip ahead of time is all well and fine, but it's not until I get into the middle of it that I'm able to see where I really want to go.

I still plot, because my stories are too complicated to simply dive into without any plan. But my plotting these days looks more like a trip itinerary that reads: Atlanta to Cincinnati to Denver to Albuquerque. The highlights only. I refuse to plan the details of how I'll get from Cincinnati to Denver until I reach Cincinnati. At that point, I'll look at the situation (how much time I have, how much money, what the weather looks like, and how the traffic reports are stacking up), and make my decisions based on up-to-the-minute data. And even then, I'm okay with things changing. If a road looks good, I'll take it. If not, I won't. No commitments. No meticulous pre-planning. And if it starts to make more sense to switch Albuquerque with Denver, that's okay, too.

...

To read the full post, click here

Pamela's website is here

From the Backlist: Alone is not Lonely

 

Art by by_zhixorris_

Welcome to another post in the Supernatural Underground Backlist Series. Today's feature is from July 2015 by Amanda Arista. Here she talks about the essentials of writing 'alone' and what that might mean. 

Is alone always lonely? 

Let's explore this together! 

✍🏼 The Sup

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Alone is not Lonely

by Amanda Arista

Year of Living Authentically: A writer is never alone.

I was a kid who spent a lot of time alone, but looking back, there are very few times I felt lonely. Even as early as third grade, I would choose to be writing or reading, rather than socializing and that's probably why I don't have the suave social skill of my little brother who loved to be in the crowd. I had the people in my books and the people in my head and a family who took me to the library every week. 

As I grew up and life got decidedly less fun, I would retreat into the world in my books and the people in my head. While others were boozing away their Thursday nights in collage, I was curled up with a spiral notebook creating the world that would become Diaries of an Urban Panther. I have characters in my head who have been with me longer than some friends.

I teach as part of a writing program and we are always talking about building your writing tribe and finding others who speak your language. I talk about the synergy of writing with a group of people and the relief that comes when someone else gets a 'Call to Adventure' joke. How finding others who share your passion for writing is one of the best things a writer can do.

But fundamentally, writing is an alone process. It is you and your story and maybe a cup of coffee. Writing isn't lonely. You have characters who are making you as you are making them, but the process is not a communal one. You have experiences that you crafting for others to live, but you can not share in the creation because it is creating you as you go. The writer you on page one  is not the same writer you as the one who finishes the manuscript. You have been changed. You know more about yourself than you did on page one and that change is just as important as the one on the hero went through.

Writing is an intrinsic force that almost demands you shut yourself away from the outside world to focus on the internal one. Writers are stereotyped as hermits, because hermitting is a natural reaction to the need to form a cocoon around yourself so change can happen.  I haven't met a writer yet that doesn't fantasize about cabins in the woods or cabanas on the beach where they can just "be" with their stories.  

I advocate both. Find quite time. Find a ritual that takes you to that internal world and spend lots of time there. Get your story on the page before you share it. But then, find flesh-and-blood humans you can talk to this stuff about, who you can share this process with, who understand the desire to hide under a blanket because change is hard: writing is hard. Find those who understand that a first draft is a new creation, fragile and still hardening its wings, and will respect it as they do their own. 

So when you see that girl in the coffee shop with her over-the-ear headphones typing away at something, instead of making a big show of 'why does she even come here if she's just going to take up a table on a Saturday afternoon,' give her a knowing smile, so she doesn't feel lonely, but let her be alone. She's already got a table full of friends, and maybe an enemy, and there is magic happening right before your eyes. 

Until next time, YOLA!

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Amanda Arista

Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther

www.amandaarista.com

From the Backlist: NICE GUYS versus BAD BOYS

Heo Nam-jun and Lim Ji-yeon in My Royal Nemesis on Netflix

Welcome to another post in the Supernatural Underground Backlist Series. Today's feature is from June 2010 by the wonderful author Kimberly Derting. Here she talks about the essentials of nice guys and bad boys in our fiction, and real life!

Which do you prefer? 

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NICE GUYS versus BAD BOYS

by Kimberly Derting

... Today I’m talking about the Nice Guys vs. the Bad Boys (you know what I’m talkin’ about, ladies)!

In my YA novel, THE BODY FINDER, my main character Violet is in love with her best friend Jay…a very Nice Guy. But is he too nice? Of course not (says the author!), but I do see of a lot of debate over the Bad Boy vs. Nice Guy topic, especially in reviews. With Bad Boys, the concern is that we’re teaching girls that it’s okay to let someone treat them badly, to walk all over them. With Nice Guys, the problem is they don’t always make our hearts race or our pulse pound.

So which is better, the Bad Boy with his tough guy charm and bad-ass attitude? Or the Nice Guy who opens doors and brings his girl flowers?

As a writer, I have an opinion, a fairly strong one. We need them both. At least on paper. Because here’s the deal: how boring would it be if all the guys we read about were cut from the same cloth? How predictable would books be if all the men were just a cookie cutter mold of the last? Blech!

(Really, do they come any nicer than Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything?)

And let me just clarify, in real life I love my nice guy husband who carries in my groceries and makes sure my car has gas before I leave. I also like that he doesn’t let me walk all over him. Because, let's face it, there’s a HUGE difference between the Nice Guy and the Simpering Wimp.

But when I’m reading, I want to be surprised; I want the Bad Boys gone good, the Nice Guys turned bad, and everything in between. I don’t always want to know which is which... read the entire post HERE

 

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Find out more about Kimberly Derting and her award-winning young adult novels including The Body Finder Series. 

 

Happy reading, and be sure to let us know your preference - Nice Guy or Bad Boy - in the comments.

 

 

From the Backlist: The Art of the YES

 

Image by Sabrina Belle from Pixabay

Welcome to another post in the Supernatural Underground Backlist Series. Today's feature is from May 2014 by the wonderful author Amanda Arista. This journey may be about heroes, but we think it might apply to us all!

What have you said YES to recently? 

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I'll have what she's having: The Art of the YES

by Amanda Arista

 

Year of Living Heroically #4: Crossing the Threshold

I've been looking forward to writing this particular step of the Year of Living Heroically and I am so very glad that it fell in this month. 

In YLH #2- I talked about saying 'no' and why it was really all about fear. We refuse the call of adventure because it scares us or we don't feel that we are good enough. 

So this time, I get to talk about saying YES, and the power that it holds. 

When a hero crosses the threshold of their story, they are actively choosing to go on an adventure, do something completely new, or just face what they have been avoiding their whole lives. They have met a mentor who has empowered them or shown them that its not as scary as they think. So they say YES and they start on their adventure. Everything is new and shiny once they say YES. Like a baby starting off in the special world. 

I think we can think of Dorothy putting her first step on the yellow brick road as a good metaphor as to how to say YES. Saying yes is a first step in a longer journey, but your on the road now and you can't go back. 

Just saying YES is empowering. There a certain freedom that comes with shedding off that fear and embracing something totally and wholeheartedly. The saying YES changes you as well. 

Some little questions that change everything in a big way by just answering:

Wanna grab some coffee some time?

Would you like to come work for us?

Will you marry me?

Want to have a baby . . .

 

Read the entire post here:  I'll have what she's having: The Art of the YES 

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Find out more about Amanda Arista

Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther

www.amandaarista.com

 

 

From the Backlist - Streetwise Heroines

 

Arcane's Vi - Framed Poster

 
Welcome to another post in the Supernatural Underground Backlist Series. Today's feature is from the wonderful Helen Lowe who is currently bringing us insights and highlights of Heroines as she reflects on them and her Wall of Night Series.

We thought it would be fun to take a peak at her thoughts over a decade ago! 

This post come from February 2014 and offers an astute perspective on what makes  heroines streetwise. 

Let us know your favorite savvy heroine in the comments and be sure to follow Helen's new series on Heroines and WALL.

Good reading...

 

 

 

Streetwise Heroines

by Helen Lowe

Sookie Stackhouse

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I don't think we could have paranormal urban fantasy without the streetwise heroine – but of course that begs the question as to what makes a heroine "streetwise?"

For starters, even if she's not actually from the wrong side of the tracks, I think she has to be able to operate on that turf.

Mercy Thompson

A true streetwise heroine also has to be able to check the box for all three of the big S's: strong, savvy, and sassy.

'Sexy' may make a fourth in here, too, but I don't think it's actually required in the job description...What's the jargon: 'desirable but not essential', he-he.

Maybe just a little bit badass, as well. But with a heart that's in the right place, even if it's in a "tough love" kind of way...

Chess Putnam

Naturally, I have a line up of favorite streetwise heroines from my bookshelf: Sookie Stackhouse and Mercy Thompson are obvious choices, but Stacia Kane's Chess Putnam is also up there.

And if I go beyond paranormal urban stories, there's Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper, Midori Synder's Jobber, and Kristin Cashore's Katsa. 

 

Continue reading ... 

 

 

~*~

About Helen Lowe 

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.
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Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

 

From the Backlist: Writing Resolutions for the New Year

"Now What?" by Yaoyao Ma Van As

 

Welcome to the last post of 2025 where we highlight an insightful look at ways writers, and readers, can make a great start to 2026. 

Writing Resolutions for the New Year by T Frohock

Enjoy this addition of From the Backlist, and have a safe and wonderful celebration!

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Writing Resolutions for the New Year

by T. Frohock

 

Or the new month, or the new day, I'm pretty flexible about resolutions as a whole, because we all tend to slip off the wagon from time to time. However, there is nothing like having an outline of sorts for the year ahead ... or the month, or the day ...

You get the idea. Anyway, here are some of my plans for writing in 2016:

A Business Plan. My business plan will consist of more than eating collards on New Year's Day and hoping that means I will make a lot of money in the coming year. I will actually sit down and make dollar signs followed by actual figures as to how much I can afford to spend on promotional activities. I will analyze my writing, the markets I want to reach, and my readership. I will have a clear idea of the types of books I intend to write along with realistic timetables as to how long it will take me to produce each work.

Read More Books. I will read more books both in my genre and outside my genre. I want to read fiction and non-fiction, because reading broadens my skillset by constantly exposing me to new ideas. While I definitely read for enjoyment, I also read in order to study other authors' works for story structure and techniques that might improve my own writing.

Pace Myself Better. This is actually part of my business plan, too, but I wanted to list it separately, because self care is important. I pushed myself a little too hard in 2015. Keep in mind that I work a full-time job in addition to writing. Realistically, it takes me about five months to complete a 30,000 word novella. What I didn't account for in 2015 was a month of edits on a previous novella along with a month of promo on the opposite side. In 2016, I will be accounting for those extra two months. I also know that I can produce about 30,000 words of good fiction in a five month period (in addition to blog posts and other stories), so that I can better assess how long it will take me to write a novel. Add in reading, those little ups and downs of life, and family, and seven months for a finished novella is actually more realistic.

Take More Risks. Continue reading...

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T. Frohock has turned a love of history and dark fantasy into tales of deliciously creepy fiction. A real-life cyborg, T. has a cochlear implant, meaning she can turn you on or off with the flick of a switch. Make of that what you will. She currently lives in North Carolina, where she has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying.

Check out her latest releases HERE!

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Thanks for dropping by! Can't wait to see you all back in 2026!