Lauren Leach-Steffens,
Author

Today I submit Apocalypse to Pitch Wars. Pitch Wars is a yearly contest whereas writers submit what is basically a query package -- query...

I now officially have a secret double-life. Now that I'm self-publishing a novel (I understand my genre is called geek romance) I have to...

Someone in a romance novel group on Facebook asked if I had a promotion plan for my new book. I hemmed and hawed, and pointed out that I...

My work can be found online at the following places: Thirty Years (2020). Sad Girls Pub Lit: https://www.sadgirlsclublit.com/post/thirty-...

Writers speak about planning and writing, especially novels, in terms of "planning" and "pantsing". When pantsing, the writer goes by the...

I use psychology to help my characters to sneak into the reader's mind at a subliminal level. Here's a partial list: 1) The character who...

Hi, my name is Marcie, and I am eight years old. I had my birthday two -- no, two months and seven days ago, and I'm counting down to the...

Suppose you were the hero of your own novel: Give a brief introductory description. What are your most important qualities for your...

Our fairy tales can destroy us. If you think of it, fairy tales are usually not about fairies per se, but about magical thinking: "If...

Autumn is not for you, my misty faun — The primroses long dead, sunflowers gone. I walk alone on the last fair autumn night, With...

Hey, I'm Buddy. I'm a cat, as you may have gathered from the title. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and accept that you're reading a...

When I'm not writing, I am a family economist/behavioral economist. The philosophy behind both of those is that I study the use of time,...

Last night I learned about author mills. Author mills, sometimes known as vanity presses, are publishers that publish small runs of books...

It's six-fifteen in the morning and it still looks like night. We are in the midst of thunderstorms, although I think we're between...

It's August first, and I can feel the season change even though it's warm outside. That's because I base my seasons on the academic...

Cells expire, Molecules cleave, Life departs. Your atoms scatter, We breathe them in, We breathe your love in, We breathe your magic in,...

Writing is like performing magic in a way -- Writing utilizes misdirection -- sometimes a misinterpretation of facts, or an unreliable...

When I went to Archon, a conference for writers in St. Louis, a few people advised me to start submitting shorter items, poetry and short...