C. M. Skiera's Blog

In August 2012 (about 20 months ago), I self-published  my epic fantasy novel Crimson & Cream , first book in The Oxbow Kingdom Trilogy. Since then, I've written book two of the series; Mirrors & Mist. Because Crimson & Cream was originally edited in the late 1990s, I needed a new editor for Mirrors & Mist. Since it's the second book of the series, I asked my new editor (the talented +R.J. Blain ) to read Crimson & Cream in preparation for the second book. Not surprisingly, she had plenty of great suggestions for Crimson & Cream, which I decided to incorporate into a new edition of the novel. Although the core plot of Crimson & Cream remains the same, the way the story is told changed in many subtle, but significant ways. With the guidance of my editor, I addressed the following major weaknesses: Replaced the abundant 'head-hopping' with consistent point-of-view (POV) scenes.  Removed a large amount of information dumps. Improved imm...

In this post, I showcase indie author R.J. Blain , whose latest novel " Inquisitor " releases today, which also happens to be her birthday (Happy B-day!).  R.J. is the author of the novels The Eye of God and Storm Without End .  R.J. is also a mainstay on Google+ and hosts an excellent blog called " On Writing ," which is packed with great content.  Below, please enjoy the blurb, bio, and an excerpt from Inquisitor.  And then buy a copy for yourself! Inquisitor Book Blurb: When Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fiancee at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder on the same night. She has to find the killer and quick, or she'll be put to death for the crimes she didn't commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves. On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses. There's only one problem:...