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Very, very, very bad advice

Yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek with my title because I’m writing today about adjectives and adverbs.

On Twitter, the fabulous Manda Collins — a historical romance writer who I know and love — posted something that at first made me laugh, then made me cringe. Under the caption “This is terrible advice” she posted a screenshot of, well, some terrible advice. I’ve removed the advice-givers name — partly because I don’t think anyone should be personally attacked for their opinion (and I don’t want her to get hate mail!) but also partly because she removed the post. However, because I have heard this so-called advice, and the original post was posted by an agent, I thought I would blog about it.

I’m sure the poster of this poor advice has reasons for spreading it — because we all know there are some people who toss adjectives and adverbs around like Mardi Gras beads on Fat Tuesday. But to delete ALL adjectives and adverbs? REALLY?

Just … no.

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Tagged with: adjectives, adverbs, Allison Brennan, editing, Manda Collins, self editing, writing, writing advice
Posted in Allison Brennan, Writing & Publishing, Writing Life

Articles, Books and Blogs

Hi gang — first, if your comment doesn’t show up it’s because it’s in moderation. I’ve had a huge problem with spam and am trying to find a way to have legit comments just come up, without all the spam. When I woke up and saw 66,000 comments in moderation I realized EVERYTHING was thrown to “pending” not just the spammy links. Argh! Anyway, I’ll see it … just might take a day 🙂

I wanted to share some things with you all …

First, I contributed a novella, MIRROR, MIRROR to a charity anthology benefitting domestic violence shelters. It’s a FABULOUS anthology — I helped edit it and am very proud of these stories. In MIRROR, MIRROR, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Detective Jackie Regan fears that her sister is going down the same path as their mother. They were raised in an abusive home, and now Melissa is continuing the cycle. Jackie risks everything — her career and her life — to save her sister and nephew before the unthinkable happens.

ALL PROFITS go to charity, so I hope you’ll consider supporting this worthy cause AND you’ll get 22 amazing stories to boot! It’s a win-win!

All links are up on my website here. Right now it’s available in ebook only, and shortly it’ll be available in print.

I wrote an article for Career Authors that I think would resonate with anyone–readers and writers–but it’s about a turning point I had in my writing career when I nearly lost everything. I’ve had some great feedback on it, and I hope it helps anyone at any point in their writing career get over a hurdle and reclaim the joy of writing: Write What You Love. And all writers should really sign up for Career Author’s weekly newsletter. My former editor Dana Isaacson is one of the contributors and he is a smart cookie. Plus Hank Phillipi Ryan, other editors, agents, writers and social media experts contribute regularly. Go here, and sign up!

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Tagged with: Abandoned, Allison Brennan, anthology, betrayed, Breaking Point, charity, domestic violence, Lucy Kincaid, Maxine Revere, Mirror Mirror, short stories, writing, writing advice
Posted in Allison Brennan, Books, Books, Books!, Writing & Publishing

Notes and Thoughts about SHATTERED

This weekend, I finished editing my copy edits for SHATTERED, the 4th Maxine Revere cold case mystery (on sale 8.22.17.) I received them on Monday the 9th, but didn’t sit down to work on them until Thursday … and finished them in three days. Trust me when I say I never get through copy edits so quickly. I was worried, so I spent Sunday and Monday morning going through them a second time because for certain I had missed something. I made a few more tweaks, but in the end, I’m very, very happy with this book and will be sending it back to NYC tomorrow … early. (Well, my editor won’t get them that early because I’m going to send them 2-day rather than overnight and save me about $40!)

The first thing I thought when I finished reading this book was how much I loved the story … and then I panicked. What if I love it but no one else does? How can I judge my own work? I already have a hard enough time judging my own stories.

Case in point: I wrote a book and sent it to my agent. I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but I loved the story and the characters. My agent read it and while he liked it (sort of) there were several problems. One big problem and several little problems. I spent ten weeks on and off working on revisions … and the story is SO much better than the original. I changed one seemingly small plot point, but it had a ripple effect through the story and the ending rocked.

But I thought the original was really good, too — and now I’m biting my fingernails waiting for notes on the revised book.

What if my concept of good and bad is flawed?

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Tagged with: Allison Brennan, cold case mystery, copy edits, editing, fear, Justin Stanton, Lucy Kincaid, Mariah Stewart, Maxine Revere, publishing, SHATTERED, writing, writing advice
Posted in Allison Brennan, Books, Books, Books!, Writing & Publishing

Great Writing Advice

I saw this on Brad Thor’s Facebook page and wanted to share, because I could have written this myself (except, of course, for having a wife and going on my Honeymoon in Paris part …)

Writer’s write.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re an outliner or someone who is more organic, whether you work on a PC or a Mac or if you’re better writing in the morning or the afternoon/night (I’m the latter on all three counts). All that matters is that you write. You must put words on online casino in canada paper (or on a screen) every day and keep moving forward.”

If you need a kick in the pants, read Brad’s advice.

More soon!

Tagged with: Brad Thor, writing, writing advice
Posted in Uncategorized

What I Wish I’d Known

With graduations upon us, I’ve been thinking what advice I would give if I could go back 25 years and and give advice to myself as a newly minted college graduate. I’d like to share the top 10:

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Tagged with: business advice, life advice, sliderpost, Stephanie Bond, writing advice
Posted in Stephanie Bond, Writing Life

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