N.B. The summit is FREE for the first 24 hours after each speaker session goes live and the conference and registration is now OPEN.

More About the Romance Writing Craft Conference

Before you scream you’re not a romance author at me, fear not, you don’t have to be a romance author to benefit from the conference.

 There are over 20 expert interviews and presentations on a variety of writing topics like:

• Building Worlds & Characters (Award-Winning Author Rebecca Roanhorse)
• How to Add More Suspense & Thrills to Your Story (International Bestseller Brad Parks)
• Six Myths About Plotting that Keep Writers Stuck
• How To Grab Your Reader on Page One
• Crafting Memorable Characters
• Story by the Beats AND Adapting Your Novel to a Screenplay
• And many more!

And as a bonus they’ve got a free ebook download for writers called THREE KEYS TO WRITING POWERFUL ROMANCE.

As well as my presentation, I’m giving a huge bonus away to every single conference attendee, my entire villains workbook for FREE.

Click here to register for the summit and get my session — as well as all the other ones — free each day. For the first 24-hours each session goes live, it’s 100% free to watch. But hurry because today is day one.

You can view the full line-up of speakers & topics here.

I think this summit offers fantastic value, I’m personally going to hunker down, grab a pen and watch some of the sessions. Who’s joining me?

Here’s that registration link one more time.

CALLING ALL WRITERS: Romance #Writing Craft Summit Hosted by the amazing @KrisKennedy LIVE today! #selfpublishing #IARTG #ASMRG #amwriting #writingcommunity #writetip
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Create Killer Villains: Lessons From Villainelle

The post FREE Romance Writing Craft Conference LIVE Today appeared first on Sacha Black.

I spent two days there and frankly, I think they have to be the best two days of my entire writing career to date. I learnt so much, mostly unexpected things. But also things about myself, things about the industry, and things I didn’t even know I didn’t know.

But all that’s led me to one stark conclusion and one that’s resulted in me taking quite surprising action.

THE LONDON BOOK FAIR

I’d been more militant about preparing for the fair than a bra burning protester. I planned everything down to what break I should get my lunch in, to circling locations of the seminars on my maps. I was determined to get as much out of the fair as possible.

I was on my own the first day, several blogging buddies joined on weds.

Being on my own was not cool. There was no part of me that was okay with knowing I HAD to speak to total strangers. My insides rocked themselves rhythmically in dark corners of my mind while my stomach curled into a million knots.

The seminars were good, but I realised they were pitched at beginners. I learnt fast that the benefit of the LBF was not the seminars, but the networking and opportunity to meet others. So I tossed my  itinerary in the bin, sucked up my inner introvert and said fuck it. Off I trotted to talking to people… LOTS of people. I’m pretty sure I’ve used my quota of meeting new people for the rest of my life!

I met my absolute idol, Joanna Penn and tried very hard not to fangirl the shit out of her – I failed miserably and if it weren’t for BlondeWriteMore holding me upright, I’d have thrown up in her lap.

There’s too much to break down into one post and I’ll share things over the next few months but here are some quick tips I learnt from the fair:

1. The Two C’s – Book fairs, conferences and any other event with real writing cyborgs in attendance isn’t really about the content, it’s about the connect with other writerly cyborgs. I learnt more talking to other authors than I did from anything else I’ve done… Period.

2. Connection means support. Authors are amazingly generous creatures, and often, asking… just putting it out there that you’d love to connect, or guest post, or pick their brains is actually as satisfying to them, as it is helpful to you.

3. Every author’s journey is different, but the guiding principles are the same.

By that, I mean if you want to sell books, you better make damn sure you have a business mindset, be unscrupulous about priorities/time management, and get a fucking subscriber list! But none of those things are new, I say them all the time. But it was nice to have them reaffirmed at the show.

4. Take business cards. TAKE ALLLLLL THE BUSINESS CARDS you have to any event you go to. I was shocked at how many I used.

5. Planning is everything and nothing. I’d planned every last second, but my plan got torn in two in favour of an ad lib one. But if I hadn’t planned I wouldn’t have been in the right place to bump into people, nor would I have known who they were or what burning questions I wanted to ask. Know who’s going, know what you want to ask, then give them your business card!

6. Smile. Be friendly. Grab yourself by the balls and just say hello, it’s amazing but people don’t actually bite… Okay. I do bite. But only on the weekend.

If you haven’t been to the book fair you should. The two days I spent there have permanently changed my life. I’m still trying to consolidate everything that happened.

Which leads me to my announcement…

There were a lot of conversations at the seminar. I learnt so much from all the amazing authors, and I’ve been given some pretty awesome opportunities to help with my book launch… but those opportunities have pretty finite deadlines. SO…

With a huge amount of reluctance… I am stopping blogging… completely. Well. Until I finish my current manuscripts and send them off to the editor at any rate. I fannyied around attempting to cut down blogging before Christmas with the help of some amazing guest posters (thank you my wonderful blogging buddies), but I need more time. I’ve sacrficied pretty much everything I can without stopping sleep completely, and much as I like to think I am the robotic version of wonder woman, I’m not. Realistically, there’s only one thing left I can give up… The ultimate sacrifice… The blog. The blog has got to go.

I know. Don’t fall over.

Watch me rip my Tarzan t-shirt and roar in my best Schwarznegger voice,”I’ll be back.”

But things are too tight, too close, and frankly, I am desperate to just finish the bastard books. As a result of the networking I’ve got the opportunity to do some pretty spectacular things but now I HAVE to hit my deadlines (cool shit to be revealed when I’m back).

But for now, no more Monday posts. Writespirations will be posted, but I will close the comments – ping backs will work but I won’t be publishing the entries until I hand my manuscript over to the editor. The only other posts you’ll see are pre-scheduled ones for the Bash.

I hope this hiatus won’t be long, hopefully, it might not even last a month… but it could last two. I have to stay strong. I have to have a clear head, and I really need to tick some shit off my triple-figure to do list. Wish me luck, send me coffee or wine, or a shotgun for even considering writing a book in the first place. This isn’t goodbye, so I won’t bullshit you with that. Instead, let me say:

It’s been emotional.

Sign up for publishing news, writing comps and writing tips galore here.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post The London Book Fair, Decisions & The Ultimate Sacrifice #MondayBlogs appeared first on Sacha Black.

It has taken me an inexplicably long time to read just one book. I am actually a reasonably fast reader I can sink a few books in a week if I have the time. Alas, baby Black has prevented this from happening, and shamefully, not only is this the first book I’ve finished this year, but worse this particular book has taken me way over six months to read. Tut. But huzzah I have finally finished it.

I have only (from memory) written one other book review, for A Disturbed Girl’s Guide to Curing Boredom, because I loved it so much I felt compelled to write about it on amazon and goodreads and such like.

But having read a few posts recently, about the benefits of book reviews, and the difficulty people face getting genuine ones; I figured it was my duty (as a budding writer) to review every book I read henceforth. So I will, and I will post them here, because where better? I will also reference them on my Reading for leisure list. But more importantly, I am going to try and sway the percentage of books I read towards the indie end, there are a couple of traditionally published books out this year, I have been waiting for, but otherwise, I am going to take a leaf out of Dylan’s book and ‘Pay It Forward‘

I’m caveating this review because I have no idea if I will say the right things… feel free to tell me if I have missed anything that should be covered in a review…?

To the book – Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld can be found on Amazon if you are interested in buying it.

The Amazon Book Blurb:

Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases all your flaws, transforming you from an ‘Ugly’ into a ‘Pretty’. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen – but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn’t sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest – the Rusty Ruins – where Uglies go to escape ‘ turning’. Tally won’t be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she’s ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent to the Ruins anyway – against her will. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she could ever imagine: find her friend Shay and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. What she discovers in the Ruins reveals that there is nothing ‘pretty’ about the transformations… And the choice Tally makes will change her world forever.

MY REVIEW:

I was originally drawn to Uglies, because it is comes from my favourite genre. YA Fantasy/Dystopian fiction. But also that’s what I am trying to write so I have been consuming everything I can get my hands on! Most (not all) books in this genre are written in the first person. Anyone who has read this blog for a while would know, I have a strong distaste for third person novels… unless they are written so well I can’t tell. I’ve even ranted about the third person POV, in the third person POV! So when I started reading Uglies, I did struggle to get passed the POv. I found myself annoyed by the protagonists name being littered across every page, and multiple ‘Tally felt this, or that,’ made the character’s emotions seem dubious at best.

That being said the concept of this dystopian setting was fantastic. I think it’s highly relevant to the model and surgery obsessed teens of today. What a pertinent and timely reminder to readers of the YA genre of the dangerous surgery and looks obsessions pose. For it’s appropriateness as a moral and ethical centrepiece for its targeted age group, I salute it. I would happily go under the knife, and It made me stop and think.

This book was painfully slow to start, I nearly gave up on a number of occasions. But several friends who have read it to the end encouraged me to persist because it ‘gets better’ as do the sequels (so they say). So I persisted, and to a certain extent they were right.

The book speeds up, eventually, but not until precisely 64% of the way through. I say 64% ‘exactly’ because, judge me not, I read the thing on my iPad kindle app. The point is I actually took note of when I started to enjoy the story. 64% is too far in to have kept me captive under normal circumstances, if it wasn’t for my friends I would have given up at 30%. I am a fan of speed, pace and action, this book does not give that until two thirds of the way through. And yes, I get that theres a story arc and most of the tension and climax comes at the end. But the world setting and history filling in, was too long, and too slow. I can’t for the life of me even remember what happened before 64%.

Sadly I didn’t feel much of anything for the protagonist either,ok, I did, a bit. But I didn’t cry, or get worried and feel bereft when I finished the book, and believe me, some books definitely do that to me.

By the end of the book, I was reasonably satisfied because it had action and was pacey. But, in the last couple of chapters, there were long paragraphs of description, it felt like the author was running out of words, and couldn’t afford the dialogue. The ending itself was not overly satisfying. It ended, and some storylines were closed. However, it was left wide open for the sequels, so much so, I didn’t really feel like I got closure on anything. I know that series are meant to be left open, (we have to make money somehow) but shouldn’t a book also give closure inself? I think so.

Would I recommend this book? If you read this genre regularly, then you will probably love it. At the moment, I expect the spectacular, I want to be wowed and inspired to write, not feel like I could do better. But, if you like YA fantasy/dystopian fiction then I would say, give it a go. If you don’t, don’t waste your time.

At a push, 3 out of 5.

The post Book Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld appeared first on Sacha Black.

But first a quick update –

I’m now at 27… and something weeks…. how did that happen!? I think that puts me firmly in the third trimester?

I have no idea what has happened in all the blogs I read, so forgive me I will spend the next week catching up on everyones.

BUT I have finished my dissertation! YAY. I still can’t quite get my head around the freedom yet! I still feel like I am meant to be doing something and I am still clock watching like I am under pressure! Except I’m not!!

We had a car accident a couple of weeks ago, were all fine, there were a few hospital trips, the teeniest of ruptures which meant blood passed between me and the baby but it was soooo small no one was worried.

So, now I just waddle more than I was waddling because of the SPD!!

So I am free now, to do whatever I want… So I have created a pile of books to read the height of me! and I have got my novel back out finally after what feels like a life time… and all things creative… I have been making wallets – duct tape wallets – pics below.

and now my problem…

The Creative / Artistic Problem… HELP…

I have been collecting images and such like on Pinterest and google as inspiration for different aspects of my novel. I want to do mood/picture/inspiration boards of some variety… I feel like I need to write notes in/around them, but the other part of me thinks I should have notes and images separately… I cant really decide how to do it or what they should look like… I have 670 images that need cutting out in preparation for this, and they will make several different boards, but I would love some suggestions as to how I should do it…

The post Creative help needed… Enquire within. appeared first on Sacha Black.