Aspiring Novelists

After all the hype about Dan Brown's books I finally decided to read one. Since I'd already seen The Da Vinci Code at the movies, I opted for Angels and Demons, a story I knew nothing about. I was totally engaged in the plot and the characters until I got to the end. When Robert Langdon jumped from a moving helicopter using only his coat as a parachute, and landed unharmed on a river bank, I set the book to the side and didn't finish it. This got me to thinking about my novel. I asked myself if the world I created was cogent. After all, my plot is complex and there's a lot of otherworldly stuff going on. The world I construct around my characters will play an important role in the overall believability of the story. I needed to be sure I'd done everything in my power to weave a tightly knitted plot, sooooo, I went into Google and did some reading. During my research I came across two very interesting articles. The first, titled: The Importance of Setting by ...

Hello Everyone, I hope life is treating you well. Things are good here in my neck of the woods. The last month has been devoted to catching up on my novel. The plot is finally coming together and hopefully, the second draft will be completed by the end of October, if not sooner. The main reason for rushing to finish my project (if two years is rushing) is I plan to attend the James River Writer Conference in Richmond, Virginia this October. While there, I will have the opportunity to pitch my novel to a literary agent. Now, I'm not expecting much my first time out of the gate, but in the infinitesimal chance she's interested, I would like to be prepared. There are also lots of other interesting events which include: • Pitchapalooza, offers authors the opportunity to sharpen their pitching skills with national book marketing experts David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut. • Workshops designed to help writers compose query letters and poetry. • One-on-one meetings with li...