The Book Goblin with Verna McKinnon

A Loss of Sanity & Cookie Madness We need to review what it costs to write a book. Hence, my title for this entry to my novel quest series is A Loss of Sanity & Cookie Madness. It has been a while since my last post, but as you must know, I'm often busy writing. Currently it is my new novel in progress, The Bastard Sorceress . I have also been promoting my new novel, The Bardess of Rhulon, on social media. Plus I have a day job, a patient husband, and two petulant cats. Needless to say, my time is spread thin. This is the life of a writer. Our current culture does not allow us to fall off the grid like Hemingway, live in a dump, drink coffee in a cafe, and type out a manuscript on an old typewriter. Life is not so simple. We are all poor of course, unless we are lucky enough to have an income from other sources which allows us a luxury to write whenever, wherever. In reality, most of us do not. So we must contend with the slings and arrows of everyday li...

The Trouble With Plots Hello fellow friends & writers. I have finally recovered from the holidays, so now back to work! My first post in 2019 is about plots. Plots are a baseboard. A basic foundation to your story. The trouble with plots is there is a finite number of the plots in the universe. Maybe nine. Or less. Anyway, people twists themselves into a frenzy trying to come up with an original plot no one has heard of before.  I have one word of advice: RELAX. Plots are simply a way to organize your story. It is the springboard from which your character's journey jumps off. It is how you can structure your novel. So relax. worry about creating exciting characters and dialogue. More to come in novel quest. So, keep writing and reading! Cheers, Verna McKinnon

  How Many Characters Before Chaos? Here's the problem all writers face. Often when we are creating our tales, we create great characters which we love. You adore them (or love to hate them) and formulate their looks, history, loves, food choices, fashion, and everything important. But you can have too much of a good thing. One caution I would share is to define your story early on and determine if you have too many characters to keep track of. Sometimes it can be confusing for the reader.  I will admit I have been guilty of this in the past. I love my characters, but they can get lost in the story of you have so many in a tale. When I was a novice writer, and especially for those of us who create epic fantasy series, it so tempting to have a cast of multiple characters in the novel. That is fine, but you need to review if you have too many. I have learned over my years of writing sometimes you need to step back and seriously consider if you need to take out som...

Novel Quest: The Importance of Characters! When creating any story, the most important thing to me are my characters. Great dialogue is key too, but that is another post. A great character can pull you into a story, making the journey a wonderful experience. They drive the story. You can write tons of battle scenes, create an elaborate plot, and threaten the world, but without wonderful characters, you're screwed. The creation of great characters is an individual thing for most writers. My characters, like my tales, are fully developed entities with a soundtrack and wardrobe detail.  Often when writing a scene after doing painstaking outlines and chapter setups, a minor character will spring to life and demand to be in the tale. This happened to me with  my Familiar's Tale series. Both Darcus and Princess Opaline were drafted as minor characters, but they became integral to the story. It worked. With my new novel in progress, The Bastard Sorceress , Sabi...

Novel Quest #1 The Coffee, Chocolate, &Insanity Equation By Verna McKinnon Okay, I'm going to try to do more blog posts about writing-specifically the process of writing a novel in progress and share my process with you. It will be as I create a specific novel in fact: The Bastard Sorceress. I will share the frustrations and glories as I create my newest novel and lead heroine. Yes, because in my writing universe, heroines rule. I do have heroic men in my tales, but the central character in most of my novels are female. In fantasy and science fiction, I feel I can break free of the tropes given to women in traditional novels. Good storytelling is also key. Make them interesting and toss out stereotypes. Experiment. Write. And write some more. The Bastard Sorceress is a fantasy novel about a young woman named Sabine Fable. Yes, she is a bastard, but that is only the tip of the wand for my heroine's story arc. She has many troubles and is hopele...

Hi All: As I am learning about doing supplemental ads for my novels, I find it can be fun. This is my promo for Tree of Bones, A Familiar's Tale, Book 2. Not perfect, but I think it fits the mood.

Hello Familiar Friends! I have been learning the daunting task of creating my own promos for my books. I did another new ad for Bardess of Rhulon and one for my Gate of Souls! Feel free to share these! What do you think? I swear, this is harder than writing a novel!