C. M. Skiera's Blog

I finished reading  Showing and Telling in Fiction by by Marcy Kennedy a few months ago, and have been meaning to review this excellent how-to guide since I put it down. Eliminating 'telling' is an issue I needed a lot of help with to fully understand and overcome in my own writing, and this book has helped set me in the right direction. In a nutshell, the classic argument states that writing that shows the reader what is happening is more compelling, engaging, and descriptive than writing that tells the reader what is happening (or has already happened). "Chapter One defines showing and telling and explains why showing is normally better." Showing and Telling in Fiction  begins by clearly explaining what defines showing and telling, the differences between them, and why showing is (usually) the preferred choice for exciting, engaging prose. If you like to know the reason behind the rule, you'll find this part satisfying. "Chapter Two gives you eig...

Due to the fact that my 90-day KDP Select period was expiring soon, and my day job exploded with excess demands on my time, I ran a KDP Select giveaway for my epic fantasy adventure Mirrors & Mist on June 2, 2015. Because I was so swamped at work, I didn't do any promotion for this event. Zero. Zip. Nada. If you recall, I posted results from my first Amazon giveaway for  Mirrors & Mist  on May 14 and 15, where I promoted the event on my blog, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and two dozen websites . My first-day results for my promoted event were 129 units on Amazon. So how did the un -promoted giveaway do? On June 2, the no-fanfare giveaway totaled 130 books, or one more than the giveaway I spent several hours (possibly more) promoting. So does this mean I wasted my time filling out all those online forms and posting and tweeting like crazy? I'm afraid it might. Other than the day of the week the event was held (Thursday versus Tuesday), all other factors are the sam...

I ran my first KDP Select free giveaway for Mirrors & Mist on May 14 and 15, 2015. I thought I'd share the statistics I collected to try and get some idea on what worked and what didn't. On May 14 (Day 1), 139 copies of Mirrors & Mist were claimed on Amazon and 6 copies of Crimson & Cream were downloaded off Smashwords in my coinciding giveaway of Book I of The Oxbow Kingdom Trilogy. On May 15 (Day 2), 40 copies of Mirrors & Mist were claimed on Amazon and 3 copies of Crimson & Cream were downloaded off Smashwords. In the days following the giveaway, two copies of Mirrors & Mist and one copy of Crimson & Cream were purchased on Amazon, along with two Kindle Unlimited selections. So, in total, 188 e-books were given away and three follow-up sales occurred. Obviously, those were not the kind of sales numbers I was hoping for. But,  Mirrors & Mist  did peak at #31 on Amazon's 100 Free Best Sellers in Epic Fantasy and hover...

My avid comic-book reading years are far behind me, and although Batman: The Dark Night Returns and Watchmen are two of my favorite books, I'm by no means an expert on 21st century comics. That being said, I like to feature speculative indie fiction on this blog, so when I was asked if I'd be interested in featuring the indie comic book Biowars , it piqued my interest.  I checked out the Biowars website and was impressed by the professional presentation and phenomenal artwork, so I proceeded to read the first issue of Biowars-The Battle Rages Within titled Infection . Two things immediately jumped out at me. First, the artwork was top-notch; bold, colorful, vibrant, and bursting off the page.  Second, the premise of an entire world full of characters and action set  inside  the main character's body struck me as unique and intriguing. I found the writing succinct and the dialogue crisp and realistic, and the characters possessed individual, developed p...