by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 22, 2024 | About Writing, The Craft of Writing
As a reader I’ve tended to prefer science fiction to fantasy, with a few exceptions. The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books and I go to Middle Earth whenever life feels too stressful. But about a year ago I had this idea pop into my head and I can’t shake it. So now that my space opera, Imperials, is finished, and the Carolingian series about the war between science and rationality and superstition, religion and magic is also finished. (Those books will be going live in the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 17, 2024 | Blog
It will come as no surprise to anyone that I’m a Star Wars fan. Which means I tune into every new Disney Star Wars show hoping the next one will be as good as Andor. Sadly, none of them are, and I feel like one of the reasons is a lack of writer diversity as in — have a writers room so you can have other writers push back and question choices and decisions. The most recent glaring and annoying choice was in the finale of The Bad Batch where our heroes return to a planet where they...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 29, 2024 | About Writing
Yes, that is meant somewhat ironically because this is a long and tedious process. First you have to have the team who are able to prepare the covers properly, do all the interior layout and then someone to prepare the manuscript for all these different places. Thank the gods I have Jeffe Kennedy and her extraordinary team to assist me and Jeffe to teach me. The one really big wrinkle in all of this has been Bowker that sells ISBN numbers. Note that in Canada they are provided to authors for...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 26, 2024 | About Writing
I do outline my novels. Not in the same detail that I would outline a script, but it’s important to me to know the major beats ie the tent pole scenes that will carry me to the various act outs, but there are a few limited time where I let the flow of the story and the actions of the characters show me the way. It’s one of the reasons I can’t jump around when I write. I have to experience the events of the story along with the characters in a very linear fashion. I spent the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 30, 2023 | Blog
So here is a story. My aunt and uncle on my dad’s side had two Siamese cats — Tasha and Andy. And when I was a baby my mom (my dad was in Washington D.C. testifying to a congressional committee about organized crime in Los Angeles more on that another time) was staying with Judy and Ernie. Now, they were young and staying home with a baby so my aunt and uncle and my mom would put Tasha in my crib and tell her to “watch the baby” while they went off dancing for a couple...
