A Writer's Blog

I recently came across a great community for fantasy and science fiction writers, Necrotania. Here's a bit about them: The World of Necrotania is a long running writing community with a heavy focus in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres. We offer a dedicated and easily searchable story archive with over 500 works ranging from poetry to multi-story series and novels. Every author gets there own personal portfolio page and web link for easy sharing of your works. New to the site is the phot . . .

If you're a writer in the UK and you want to share experiences and information with other writer's I suggest you join WriteWords. As well as advice from other writers on the forum you can join writing groups, read interviews, search for jobs and competitions or browse their directory. Membership is £35 per year and is well worth it. Join here: http://www.writewords.org.uk/members/ www.writewords.org.uk . . .

I stumbled across Dictionary.app in the Applications folder of OS X the other day and immediately added it to my dock. It's a very simple, very useful little application that acts as a dictionary. As you type it suggests words; if you slightly misspell something it will correct it too. It also shows origin and usage. As with all Apple programs, it's fast and very easy to use. Before finding this I used to run a definition: query in Google; Dictionary.app is much faster and produces more . . .

While I'm not a fan of Koontz's "silly" novels, such as The Face and Odd Thomas, I think he is exceptionally good at writing psychological thrillers. The first book I ever read by him was Chase (one of his first books) and I thought it was excellent. Simple yet gripping. Velocity is the same. Billy Wiles, a bartender and wood carver with a comatosed wife, one afternoon finds a note under the windshield wiper of his SUV that asks him to make a life or death decision (other people' . . .

Proven ways to get the creative juices going: Go for a walk Go for a work out at the gym Do an activity that is in no way related to your writing Pick three words at random from a dictionary and write a short story about them Spend time with friends Get an early night Write down all the current roadblocks in your writing project in bullet point format on a piece of paper; put that paper away somewhere and forget about it (let your subcons . . .

Prey is the latest tech thriller from legend Michael Crichton. Prey follows, in first person, the exploits of scientist Jack Forman, an unemployed software engineer. Forman suspects foul play when his wife, the vice-president of Xymos Corporation starts acting strangely. They ask for Jack's help as they've lost control of some of the nano-particle swarms that they were working on and they need him to help bring them under control. Without giving to much of the plot away, Jack and some othe . . .

Do you need a little more scientific credibility in your fiction? Have you ever wanted free advice from experts in their field? Help is here: SciTalk. Sci-Talk allows users to get in touch with and get free advice from scientists. With hundreds of scientists and disciplines to choose from you'll never be short of advice. Simplly go to the website, find the scientist you want by browsing the many, many subjects, and ask them a question. You can converse with them by email, phone or e . . .

I read this book because the synopsis on the back sounded good and it was also given a good review by Stephen King. Two couples on holiday in Mexico, accompanied by two foreign friends they'd met on their travels, go in search of a group of archaeologists in the Mexican jungle. Despite the warning they receive from the ominous locals they step onto a vine covered mound. Once on there they find the locals will not let them off. As they make it to the top of the mound the find the remains of th . . .

Because of their short length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action. As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning-point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a mo . . .

If you want to write novels and short stories on your Mac I suggest you purchase a copy of CopyWrite for OS X. CopyWrite isn't about loads of fancy tools - it doesn't try to do too much for you. And that's what I love about it. If you're after an easy way to manage your project documents and create versions and backups of your work then this is the product for you! In my opinion CopyWrite is a must for any writer using OS X and you can have it for the bargain price of $24.99 (roughly &pou . . .

Well, this is my writer's blog. This is just a playground to share my experience as a writer / aspiring writer. As mentioned on the about page: "These are the ramblings of an aspiring writer. These include book reviews from a writer's point-of-view, how to use computers to improve your writing workflow and general tidbits regarding the trade. Take them with a pinch of salt though; they are only one person's opinion." If you think you'll find this if any use them please subscr . . .