Archive for the ‘Information Center’ Category

Building Worlds with SFWA

by Jeffe Kennedy

It’s apropos that “Lonen’s War,” book one in my Fantasy Romance series, “Sorcerous Moons,” is featured in the first SFWA Fantasy StoryBundle. That’s because the fantastically smart and helpful folks in SFWA helped me out with a worldbuilding challenge.

The Voodoo of Research

by Tim Susman

Since it’s fall and ghosts are in the air, I thought it might be a good time to talk about my research into vodou/voodoo, the religion and spiritual practices that coalesced on Haiti among the African slaves there and spread to America, most commonly and famously in New Orleans (for the purposes of this article, I use “vodou” to refer to the Haitian religion and “voodoo” to refer to the New Orleans practices).

On Writing of a Different Culture

by Douglas Smith

Eventually, I came to understand these stories were transcribed from versions people remembered being told when they were young or used to tell their children. Story telling was an oral tradition.

Dear Editor

By Anatoly Belilovsky

Dear Editor,

Submitted herewith for your kind consideration is “My Little Tale,” a flash piece of 750 words. The author, a SFWA member, hopes you find it suitable for publication in “Awesome Stories.”

Difference of Mind

by Erica Satifka

According to the World Health Organization, one out of every four people will be affected by mental illness at some point in their lives. Considering this, it’s important to not only feature characters with mental illness prominently in one’s writing, but to treat the subject with sensitivity and accuracy.

Guest Post: Instagram For Authors

by Mary Rosenblum

How can I advertise my book with photos?
I hear that all the time when I suggest Instagram to author clients, followed by the sound of the exit door slamming on the author’s heels… 

But Instagram is a huge and well established social media platform, and if you’re writing for teens through mid-twenties readers, this is the social media you want to master.  Even Forbes Magazine has taken note of Instagram’s role with an article Can Instagram Keep People Reading Books?

Tools for Online Collaboration

by Stewart C Baker

In the past decade, web-based applications have really come into their own. This is great for authors, because it makes collaborating much easier, especially when your co-author doesn’t live nearby. The tools in this list run the gamut from online chat software to fully-fledged cloud-based authoring software. And, of course, many of them can be wonderful productivity boosters for solo authors, too.

How to Write with a Co-author

by Stewart C Baker

Fiction writing is often presented as an intensely solitary pursuit, but look at the end of a published novel some time and you’ll see the author thank at least a dozen people for their help. And then there’s co-authoring…