In this new edition, author Theodore Cheney offers 39 targeted ways you can improve your writing, including how to:create smooth transitions between paragraphscorrect the invisible faults of inconsistency, incoherence, and imbalanceovercome problems of shifting point of view and styleexpress your ideas clearly by trimming away weak or extra wordsYou'll strengthen existing pieces and every future work by applying the three simple principles--reduce, rearrange, and reword. Once the secrets of revision are yours, you'll be able to follow Hemingway's lead--and get the words right!

    After years of enduring her grandfather's sexual abuse, 14-year-old Samantha Hart runs away from her Pennsylvania family farm in search of her estranged father in Arizona.After a troubling reunion, she flees to the promising lights of La-La Land. Desperate to forget the past, she immerses herself in a spectacle of drugs, decadence, and money in Hollywood.But when a wealthy playboy mistakes her Pittsburgh accent for British, a new spiral of white lies begins, and a new identity is born. Swept to Europe, Samantha floats through champagne parties, sexual adventures, and a whirlwind of international escapades. With a portfolio of nude photos under her arm, she is determined to make something of herself.Will her young, broken spirit find the strength to persevere, to survive the unsurvivable? Will she transcend the temptation to give up in a world that seems so set against her?BLIND PONY: AS TRUE A STORY AS I CAN TELL is the tale of one young woman's unwillingness to accept the circumstances life dealt her, and instead, takes the reins to find success beyond her wildest dreams.

    The author "discovered" the feline world's best-kept secret in a file hidden on his mother's computer by her cat, Cleo, and now shares it with humanity for the first time. Topics covered range from avoiding visits to the vet, to the artful display of captured prey, to getting in the way of a human trying to read anything, including this paragraph. Upon publication, Cleo denied authorship and hired a team of lawyers, all of whom have their claws out, but despite her best efforts the word is spreading: The Cat Manual is hilarious for cat-lovers of all ages. From the author of Cave Passages and Dark Life.

     Charles I is one of the most instantly recognizable of the English monarchs. During his reign the relationship between king and Parliament changed radically, with revolutionary results. A man of deeply held convictions whose refusal to compromise brought about conflict and civil war, King Charles I almost destroyed the English monarchy forever. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Sickly Prince ✓ The King and the Queen ✓ The Eleven Years’ Tyranny ✓ The Bishops’ Wars ✓ The Country Divides ✓ Civil War and the King's Execution And much more! When considering the 24-year reign of Charles I, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that he may have made a much better Duke of York (the title historically given to the second son of the royal family) than King of England. And perhaps Charles, too, would have been much happier had his older brother taken the throne instead.

    It’s the harmful debris of your education—a mixture of half-truths, myths, and false assumptions that prevents you from writing well. Drawing on years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an approach to writing that will change the way you work and think. There is no gospel, no orthodoxy, no dogma in this book. What you’ll find here isn’t the way to write. Instead, you’ll find a way to clear your mind of illusions about writing and discover how you write. Several Short Sentences About Writing is a book of first steps and experiments. They will revolutionize the way you think and perceive, and they will change forever the sense of your own authority as a writer. This is a book full of learning, but it’s also a book full of unlearning—a way to recover the vivid, rhythmic, poetic sense of language you once possessed. An indispensable and unique book that will give you a clear understanding of how to think about what you do when you write and how to improve the quality of your writing.

    Now this critically acclaimed author and writing instructor offers an inspiring, practical handbook on the joys, challenges, and creative possibilities inherent in the writing life.Both autobiography and primer, Escaping into the Open interweaves Elizabeth Berg's story of her own journey from working mother to published novelist with encouraging advice on how to create stories that spring from deep within the heart.With wit and honesty, Elizabeth Berg provides numerous exercises that will unleash individual creativity and access and utilize all of the senses. Most important, she tells how to fire passion -- emotion -- into writing itself; to break through personal barriers and reach one's own outer limits and beyond.

    That place is called Fantasyland. The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is your travel guide, a handbook to everything you might find: Evil, the Dark Lord, Stew, Boots (but not Socks), and what passes for Economics and Ecology. Both a hilarious send-up of the cliches of the genre and an indispensable guide for writers, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland has been nearly impossible to find for years. Now this cult classic is back, and readers can experience Diana Wynne Jones at her very best: incisive, funny, and wildly imaginative. This is the definitive edition of The Tough Guide, featuring a new map, an entirely new design, and additional material written for it by Diana Wynne Jones.World Fantasy Award FinalistA Hugo Award Finalist (Nonfiction)

    Brande believed passionately that although people have varying amounts of talent, anyone can write. It's just a question of finding the "writer's magic"--a degree of which is in us all. She also insists that writing can be both taught and learned. So she is enraged by the pessimistic authors of so many writing books who rejoice in trying to put off the aspiring writer by constantly stressing how difficult it all is.With close reference to the great writers of her day--Wolfe, Forster, Wharton and so on--Brande gives practical but inspirational advice about finding the right time of day to write and being very self disciplined about it--"You have decided to write at four o'clock, and at four o'clock you must write." She's strong on confidence building and there's a lot about cheating your unconscious which will constantly try to stop you writing by coming up with excuses. Then there are exercises to help you get into the right frame of mind and to build up writing stamina. She also shows how to harness the unconscious, how to fall into the "artistic coma," then how to re-emerge and be your own critic.This is Dorothea Brande's legacy to all those who have ever wanted to express their ideas in written form. A sound, practical, inspirational and charming approach to writing, it fulfills on finding "the writer's magic."

    If you're ready to make some serious changes around here, You Are a Badass will help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want, blast past your fears so you can take big exciting risks, figure out how to make some damn money already, learn to love yourself and others, set big goals and reach them - it will basically show you how to create a life you totally love, and how to create it now.By the end of You Are a Badass, you'll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can't change, how to change what you don't love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.

    The stories she loves most follow other organic patterns found in nature―spirals, meanders, and explosions, among others. Alison’s manifesto for new modes of narrative will appeal to serious readers and writers alike. As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel―one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides. . . . But: something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculo-sexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?”W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc―or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Gabriel García Márquez, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison.Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

    It just gave me the validation as a writer that I've never had before. Seldom do I run across other writers in person and so reading Mark's book really was a confidence booster. I recommend this book to all writers especially those who are new. It's the added boost we all need to see our little "babies" rise from the literary crib to adulthood."~ 5-star Review by: Kathleen Morris on Sep. 27, 2012 at SmashwordsLearn the 30 secrets of the bestselling self-published ebook authors. Learn how to make your book more discoverable and more desirable to readers. Learn how to reach readers around the globe at Amazon and other major retailers.This updated 2013 edition of The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success has already helped tens of thousands of self-published ebook authors publish more professionally and with greater success.This ebook is a must-read for every writer, author, publisher and literary agent. Whether you're considering publishing a book for the first time, or you're a long-time veteran, this book will help you take your self-publishing to the next level.Includes a comprehensive glossary of e-publishing terms. No technical experience necessary!A great companion to Mark Coker's other popular e-publishing guides, The Smashwords Style Guide (how to format and publish an ebook) and The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any book for free).Share the secrets. Enjoy!Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionThe SecretsSecret 1: Write a great bookSecret 2: Pinch your penniesSecret 3: Create a great ebook coverSecret 4: Practice metadata magicSecret 5: Write another great bookSecret 6: Build reader trustSecret 7: Embrace your obscuritySecret 8: Spend your time wiselySecret 9: Maximize distributionSecret 10: Avoid exclusivitySecret 11: Give (some of) your books away for FREESecret 12: Understand the algorithmSecret 13: How retailers select titles for feature promotionSecret 14: Patience paysSecret 15: How books develop (the four behaviors)Secret 16: Trust your customers and supply chain partnersSecret 17: Platform building starts yesterdaySecret 18: Architect for viralitySecret 19: Tweak your viral catalystsSecret 20: Optimize discovery touch pointsSecret 21: Practice the never-ending book launchSecret 22: Think globallySecret 23: Study the bestsellersSecret 24: Develop a thick skinSecret 25: Think beyond priceSecret 26: Pricing Strategy: Unit volume is a lever for successSecret 27: Ebook publishing is easy, writing is difficultSecret 28: Define your own successSecret 29: Leverage preorders to increase salesSecret 30: Share your secretsAppendix I – Glossary of E-Publishing TermsAppendix II – Special acknowledgements for beta readersAppendix III – CreditsAppendix IV – Reproduction rights (how to distribute this book freely)

    Inside you'll find a concise compilation of the world's thirty-five most notorious murderers, including an in-depth look at their crimes and the lives that turned them into monsters. This is the perfect gift for any true crime buff or psychology enthusiast.Sprinkled throughout the book are Q&A, quizzes, quotes, photos, and odd facts about serial killers and their true stories to test your knowledge and make you shudder in horrified delight, along with recommended reading to dig even deeper into their sordid lives.Learn more about notorious serial killers like: Ted Bundy Jack the Ripper Jeffrey Dahmer Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer John Wayne Gacy Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka Dennis Rader, the Bind, Torture, Kill (BTK) Killer Béla Kiss David Berkowitz, the Son of SamWith many more shocking tales and tidbits about serial killers that will keep you up at night!

    The next morning, things take a sharp turn as she’s led from work to the emergency room. By the end of the week, a neurologist delivers a devastating prognosis: Sarah suffered a traumatic brain injury that has caused her IQ to plummet, with no hope of recovery. Her brain has irrevocably changed.Afraid of judgment and deemed no longer fit for work, Sarah isolates herself from the outside world. She spends months at home, with her dogs as her only source of companionship, battling a personality she no longer recognizes and her shock and rage over losing simple functions she’d taken for granted. Her life is consumed by fear and shame until a chance encounter gives Sarah hope that her brain can heal. That conversation lights a small flame of determination, and Sarah begins to push back, painstakingly reteaching herself to read and write, and eventually reentering the workforce and a new, if unpredictable, life.In this highly intimate account of devastation and renewal, Sarah pulls back the curtain on life with traumatic brain injury, an affliction where the wounds are invisible and the lasting effects are often misunderstood. Over years of frustrating setbacks and uncertain triumphs, Sarah comes to terms with her disability and finds love with a woman who helps her embrace a new, accepting sense of self.

    Using charts, examples, and movies, the author breaks these key elements down into understandable components and walks the reader through the process of laying this foundation in his or her own work.Learn what causes sagging middles and how to fix them, which goals are important, which aren’t and why, how to get your characters to do what they need for your plot in a believable manner, and how to use conflict to create a good story. GMC can be used not only in plotting, but in character development, sharpening scenes, pitching ideas to an editor, and evaluating whether an idea will work.Be confident your ideas will work before you write 200 pages.Plan a road map to keep your story on track.Discovery why your scenes aren’t working and what to do about it.Create characters that editors and readers will care about.

    Overwhelmed as his condition tragically worsened, she had to believe that while Joel’s loss was permanent, so was their love.Left to raise their young daughter on her own, and to act as if she could resume life without her beloved husband by her side, Melissa found that she didn’t fit the typical idea of widowhood or meet the expectations of mourning. She didn’t look like a widow or act like a widow, but she felt like one. Melissa was widowish.Melissa’s personal journey through grief and beyond includes unlikely inspiration from an evangelical preacher, the calming presence of some Real Housewives, and the unexpected attention of a charismatic musician. A modern take on loss, Widowish illuminates the twists of fate that break our world, the determination that keeps us moving forward, and the surprises in life we never see coming.