C. M. Skiera's Blog

Before I start, I want to thank everyone who responded to my last post . Four kind souls volunteered to beta read Crimson & Cream , and two of them already finished (thanks +Lee Lyte  &  +Dominique Goodall !). I also received valuable feedback on the three potential book covers. If anyone else is interested in beta reading some epic fantasy, please let me know. Thank you! Now, on to our regularly-scheduled program . . . Mind mapping  (aka concept or mental mapping) is a process designed to organize ideas into a visual outline format. Mind mapping is a way to capture and organize your concepts on a chart that can be expanded, modified, prioritized, and rearranged as you need. Mind mapping is conducive to: Organized Brainstorming Radiant Thinking Dynamic visual diagramming Why would mind mapping be a useful tool for an indie author? For the following reasons, and more: Mind mapping is what you make it; there is no rigorous right or wrong with mind maps. ...

There are probably millions of books offering advice to writers. That's both a blessing and a curse. How do you sort the good from the bad, and find writing guides applicable to your needs? If you're looking for helpful free resources (outside of your local library), here are a few free e-books that are pre-screened (by me) and well-rated (on Amazon and or/Smashwords) with helpful information for writers. These ebooks are brief and concise, and include descriptive examples, which are three of the main characteristics I look for in guidance documents. I'm not an expert writer, so I'm not looking for super-advanced or theoretical help, just guidance with fundamentals and basic concepts of writing and self-publishing. I've read each of the books below and found each of them valuable: Smashwords Titles Smashwords Book Marketing Guide  By Mark Coker An easy-to-implement guide on how to market ebooks.  My rating; 5 stars. The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success...

One of my goals for this blog was to help showcase fellow indie authors of speculative fiction.  However, it's been a while since my last feature, so today I get back on track by presenting Angeline Trevena, whose latest short story "I'll Watch Over You" is included in the the anthology titled A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court , published by Seventh Star Press and edited by Scott M. Sandridge. The anthology is available as paperback or ebook from Amazon http://authl.it/B00IAHTVSC Angeline is one of the many authors in the wonderful Google+ Community Fantasy Writers that I'm a member of, and I'm happy to present a glimpse of the author, her short story "I'll Watch Over You" and the book where it can be found;  A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court. The Fey have been with us since the beginning, sometimes to our great joy but often to our detriment. Usually divided (at least by us silly humans) into two courts, the se...

yWriter5 is a free word processor that allows you to build your novel in scenes, which can then be arranged (and re-arranged) into chapters. I began using yWriter5 last year, during the re-write of my second novel, Mirrors & Mist. I turned to yWriter because my story had multiple POV characters and flashbacks to different time periods. Though I understood the story I wanted to tell, the order in which to present it was unclear. I was cutting and pasting in Word, using multiple files, cross-referencing with Excel, reading and re-reading, and feeling adrift. I'd heard of both Scrivener and yWriter5 , and they sounded similar in what they offered. Since yWriter5 was a free download (with options to donate), I tried it first. Because I haven't yet tried Scriviner, I can't do a comparison, but I can tell you that yWriter5 is an excellent tool at an unbeatable price. It definitely helped me organize my novel and I plan on using it for my next book. What is yWriter5? yW...