Archive for June, 2010
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
I’m delighted to announce the electronic publication of my latest how-to primer. This time, I tackled electronic self-publishing with Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes!.
I jumped on the digital wagon last year by re-publishing my mysteries as e-books. Soon, I began instructing others—many had failed with traditional publishers or were wary of costly Print on Demand—at a Victoria, B.C., college.
Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes
I immediately found the demand far exceeded my eager students and concluded that a practical, simple and affordable how-to primer on electronic publishing was needed.
Thus, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes! was born.
It’s brief, practical and succinctly covers all the essentials of electronic publication, like formatting, uploading and marketing, and is available online at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for $0.99.
Tags: Electronic / Digital Publishing, ereaders, iPad, iPhone, kindle, kobo, non-fiction, Publishing, smashwords, writing how to
Posted in Ebooks, Electronic / Digital Publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Comments Off
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Come spend some time in my cottage garden along with my fellow crime writer, Anthony Bidulka.
Geordie enjoying blossoms
He’s got an unusually fun posting regime where he asks Canadian mystery writers to answer 10 silly questions.
I did and he very cleverly put it all together using pics from my cottage garden. The results are delightful!
Check it out today at Anthony Bidulka.
Thanks, Anthony.
Tags: anthony bidulka, cottage garden, crime fiction, crime writers of canada, detective fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, self-promotion
Posted in Epubbing General, Marketing, Writing | Comments Off
Sunday, June 27th, 2010
Am delighted to have my new podcast listing with PodcastAlley.com.
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-36ee8632873275dbd640afbf42b05186}
Posted in Epubbing General | Comments Off
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
The Novel Experience®: the podcast dedicated to the craft and art of fiction writing.
The Novel Experience Podcast
Mystery author Nicola Furlong interviews writers, publishers, agents and booksellers to discover tips and techniques that will help authors improve their writing skills and get their fiction published.
Episode 1: Footprints in the Butter
My guest is my good friend and funny gal Denise Dietz, best-selling mystery and historical romance author.
Discover some key elements to mystery writing, learn a terrific tip to improve your fiction writing and find out what happened to Deni at The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport…it’s every author’s dream! (Duration: ~14 minutes)
The Novel Experience Podcast Episode 1
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-36ee8632873275dbd640afbf42b05186}
Tags: author interview, crime fiction, detective fiction, fiction, genre fiction, literature, mystery, mystery novel, writing how to, writing skills, youdunit whodunit
Posted in Podcast, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Comments Off
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit: How to Write Mysteries.
Cover for mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 4)
LOOSE THE HOUNDS INTO THE MIDDLE
Writing riveting fiction is pretty simple if you remember one critical tenet: make sure one damn thing happens after another. This adds and increases suspense.
By quickly beginning the investigation, you unleash your characters and shift your plot into motion. The crime raises crucial questions about the main characters’ motivations.
Answering these will lead you into the middle ground of your book:
- Who was killed? What terrible crime was committed?
- Why does the murderer murder or commit serious crime?
- Who was affected by this death / crime?
- Who wants to solve it and why?
If you found this of interest, you may wish to read the previous posts.
…MORE how to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next post!
Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, Publishing, writing how to
Posted in Writing | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
How cool is this?
Just discovered a terrific review for my little how-to write a mystery primer on Amazon.com. Been there since end of April but somehow I missed it.
The reviewer, William Polm, gave it 5 out of 5 stars, calling Youdunit Whodunit! A good overview of mystery writing, with great tips included.
Cover for mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!
He goes on to say:
I enjoyed reading this short book. It is a brief but savvy overview of writing mysteries. It doesn’t go into a lot of examples or long explanations. But the text is written in and clear conversatiional and reader-friendly style. It should be good for those new to mystery writing and can serve, as well, for more experienced writers that would like a quick review.
And, besides covering the requisite need-to-know information, there are frequent helpful tips.
I would buy it again, if I lost it.
For those interested in this type of material, highly recommended.
Check the review out for yourself and perhaps buy the little gem here.
Thank you, Mr. Polm!
Posted in Ebooks, Electronic / Digital Publishing, Publishing, Writing | Comments Off
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Was recently interviewing my good friend and mystery writing colleague, Denise Dietz, for my new podcast called The Novel Experience.
The podcast’s goal is to provide tips, tricks and techniques for fiction writers. Deni offered a terrific idea to improve your fiction writing. After completing the first draft, temporarily change the name of your main character by doing a search and replace.
Re-read your manuscript. You’ll be amazed at how often the new name jumps out at you and could/should be changed to ‘him or her’ or ‘he or she’. Much less intrusive to the reader resulting in a better book.
Thanks, Deni!
More great tips like this coming soon in the premier podcast of The Novel Experience.
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, fiction, fiction writing tips, genre fiction, mystery novel, mystery writing, podcasting, writing how to
Posted in Writing | Comments Off
Monday, June 7th, 2010
UnnaturalStates
Just received a lovely wee review about my paranormal e-book and multimedia thriller,
Unnatural States.
It’s from Groovy Writer who’s posting on a mobileread forum.
Wow, impressive. Great job, Nicola. Interesting premise, too. You put a lot of work into the multimedia site. Bet it kept you busy through the long BC winter!
Thanks, Groovy Writer!
Tags: book review, ebook, fiction, genre fiction, mobileread, multimedia storytelling, mystery novel, paranormal, self-promotion, supernatural, thriller, unnaturalstates
Posted in Ebooks, Marketing, Writing | Comments Off
Friday, June 4th, 2010
One cannot ponder words all the time.
I’m fortunate to have a lovely cottage garden.
During the months of May and June, it explodes with orange and salmon poppies spires under a carpet of poached eggs.
Orange Poppy with Flox
Sun today for the first time in a while and I deadheaded over 60 poppies. What a lovely way to let one’s subconscious mind float freely.
Poached Eggs
Let’s hope some cool murder mystery plots percolate.
Until then, I’ll just revel in the incredible beauty in my own back yard.
Tags: cottage garden, deadhead, poached eggs, poppies
Posted in Epubbing General | Comments Off
