MGR: Lessons from Other Genres

I was at a loss for how to approach this month's topic, but I gave it the old "college try." Read what I came up with here.

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: What have I learned from other story-telling genres?

I'm an eclectic writer. While I love SciFi and write in that genre often, I don't limit myself to just that form. What that means is, I need to be consciously aware of the tropes, the expectations, if you will, of every genre I write in.

A good example is my latest book, Mystery at the Fair. I've been reading mysteries and thrillers since I was a teen, right along with my SciFi and Fantasy. But I was never conscious of what it was about those stories that made them a mystery, rather than a SciFi or a Fantasy.

Of course, there's the mystery. That much is obvious. But what makes it a mystery? See more at ConniesRandomThoughts.com.

Mystery at the Fair released July 15th! I'm pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com, Books tab. If you've read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it. It's a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara

Lessons Learned from Other Storytelling Genres: 2015 Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour

The topic for this month is lessons learned from other storytelling genres. This is a strong one for me because I didn't come to storytelling through writing. I came to it from an oral tradition that I later tried to translate into written form. I never did finish that project, but have since moved on to new ones.

I feel I've already given a strong example in a post I made all the way back in 2012 (which you can read about here) where I compared two television shows that on the surface are completely different and yet share at least two character arcs (one I discuss and the other mentioned in the comments). The two shows are Chuck and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Read more on Tales to Tide You Over

Robecca Austin - Midyear check in 2015

I find time passing more quickly than previous years which is laughable since they are exactly twelve months annually year after year.

I wrote new words for most of this year 2015. I’m also working of editing and finishing a few older pieces. It’s also the last stretch for the novel writing class I’m taking. Blacksmith’s Wife, a short fiction is being edited before going out to my first readers.

Read more on The Literary Hub

 

 

Mid-Year Checkin (yes I'm late)

One of the January goals I’m doing the worst on is keeping up with my blog posts :p But I haven’t been great with many of the others. Not terrible, either, for the most part. How am I doing with the rest? Check it out at https://bonniers.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/mgr-mid-year-checkin/

MGR Tour: Mid-Year Check-In

Howdy, MGRers. We're avoiding the mid-summer heat and staying cool while we check on our progress for the year so far. Here's mine -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: July - Mid-Year Check-In - how you're doing on your January goals

Picture is Goal by oscarsnapshotter via www.DeviantArt.com

I haven't checked on my annual goals for awhile so this is a great chance for me to check out where I am!

1. Upgrade my blog site to a real website: I've been poking at this for awhile but at the end of June I went into WordPress and poked around until I figured out I needed to do a domain mapping to make everything work correctly. This $13 dollar per year fix seems to have been the final step. Yay. Up to this point I'd been double posting my posts on both the Wordpress site and the GoDaddy site. Not convenient at all. I'm so happy!

2. Research the pros and cons of selling my books from my own website. If it seems good, get that page set up: Umm, nope. Nothing done on that but, to be honest, just got the website going. I still have some time before the end of the year.

Click here to read the rest!

Margaret McGaffey Fisk - Mid-Year Check-In 2015

It can be easy when looking forward to see everything you have still to do and despair. It's one of the reasons I do monthly goals on Forward Motion. The goals matter less than the review at the end of the month which gives me a glimmer of just how much I've accomplished...whether directly related to those goals or not.

So, here we are halfway through the year. I know I have a lot more to do before the annual clock ticks over, but what have I accomplished?

On the writing front:

1. I wrote the How Beer Saved the World, Book 2 story in January.
2. I finished writing Uncommon Lords and Ladies, Book 3 in January (started in November).
3. I wrote The Steamship Chronicles, Book 4 from March to June.
4. I am now writing Apprentice (Seeds Among the Stars, Book 3).

Read more on Tales to Tide You Over

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: June - Beach reads (aka, what's on your TBR pile?)

Photo: Books by Connie Cockrell

So I had this written but for some reason it wasn't posted. Well, June isn't over yet so here it is. A little late, OK, ten days late, but better late than never. 

I'll have to admit. My To Be Read (TBR) pile is full of adventure stories. I like adventure, always have. These are the easy Clive Cussler, James Patterson, stories that just take you from scene to scene, leaving you breathless at the end. Then there's the pile of cozy mysteries by Nevada Barr. I've read the first one and loved it. They're as much research into the current cozy mystery scene as they are pleasure reading.

To read more, click here.

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara

MGR Tour: Beach Reads!

What a fun topic. Unfortunately, I'm not spending time at the beach this summer, but that doesn't mean I'm not reading.  Come find out what over at the blog.

What’s on My TBR Pile? 2015 Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour

This month’s topic depends on which to-be-read pile you’re talking about. Since it doesn’t specify, I’ll look at the top four books of each in turn.

I’m a reviewer for NetGalley as some of you might remember me mentioning. This means I end up with a good stack of books I’ve asked for but haven’t finished. And more get offered all the time–interesting ones that are hard to turn down.

The top four on the NetGalley list right now are:
Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution by Peter Ackroyd
In The Air Tonight by Lori Handeland (Paranormal Romance)
Read more on Tales to Tide You Over

MGR Tour: In Memorium - Monica Jackson

Welcome, riders! This month I'm memorializing Monica Jackson. Please come read about her.

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: May - In Memoriam or My Favorite Books

I was a pre-teen when I discovered science fiction. I was a reader before then and not the easy stuff either. I read Gone With the Wind when I was twelve. I wonder now what the librarian who checked out the book for me thought but she never said a word about the appropriateness of that title for a 12-year-old.

My first SciFi authors? E.E. "Doc" Smith, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, all sadly gone now. No one told me that those books were for boys. I read through them avidly and reread them over and over. If you haven't read Doc Smith's the Lensman, it can be kind of dated but the last book in the series really shows women in a strong light and the ultimate conclusion must have been controversial at the time. Probably still is. No spoilers, read the series.

Read more here.

Note: I'm transferring from this wordpress site to an actual website address. It's www.conniesrandomthoughts.com. Check out the new web site and follow that because in the near future, this page will be going away. Don't miss out on stories and publishing updates. Go follow the new site today!

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara

Margaret McGaffey Fisk - In Memoriam - Desmond O'Grady, Poet and Friend

There are people in your life that are pivotal to how you perceive the world, even if you don't know their full story, even if it was a fragment of your existence.

Desmond O'Grady was one of those people for me. I met him when I was about six years old. I had no idea how old he was beyond "adult" and didn't learn until last year when he died that he was an internationally known poet. I knew he had some measure of fame from how my family visited him in Boston when he was doing a reading, but I saw my Desmond with little understanding of the bigger picture.

So while his bios and tributes talk about what schools he taught at, the places he'd been and who he met, I'm going to talk about the adult who didn't care about age, who wasn't perfect, had some bizarre quirks, and created strong communities of fascinating people.
Read more on Tales to Tide You Over

Thoughts on Pratchett

Sometimes, reading an author's earlier work can leave a reader disappointed. Come check out my blog to see why I don't think that's true of Terry Pratchett.

Readers' Sites

I don't hang out in reader communities much these days. I did for a while, trying to be friendly and take part in conversations but I quickly learned one important fact: readers are not like writers.

Here

MGR Tour: Online Reader Communities

This month I'm discussing online reader communities.  Come see what I have to say.