Genre Fiction Books

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

Orson Scott Card

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Writers Digest Books Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $6.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Reference -> Dictionaries & Thesauruses -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Don't buy this book 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Honestly, buying and reading the book isn't worth the money or effort.

By all means, buy this book if you:
- want to hear accounts of the author's problems related to writing
- want to see his obviously opinion-based views of the publishing aspects of SF&F writing
- want to be reminded of the obvious topics that you should know already [as an aspiring writer]

Overall, the book gives more out-of-date examples and opinion-based reasoning than it's worth. Throughout the book, there are perhaps no more than a handful of useful bits of information presented, that you didn't already know. If you know almost nothing about writing, then perhaps this book will be good for you to read. For most people, however, the money and time spent on this book are just not worth it overall.

Simply reading through this book makes you want to throw it across the room. The author's perception of the publishing aspects of writing are blatant bull****, and are obviously based solely on his opinionated views. The entire book screams of undertones of his opinions and ideas. Once you get through the oppressive first chapter, you're then bombarded with constant reiterations of obvious common-knowledge topics. How does he explain many of the [commonly known] topics portrayed in the book? Examples of his own writing and editorial experiences, of course! The author's opinionated views seem to permeate every page of the book, which is already common knowledge, or quite close to it.

I simply do not understand why this book has received so many good reviews. Overall, I feel that this book was not well written. It doesn't give you much insight into SF&F writing at all, aside from a few useful tidbits of information. My advice to anyone considering buying this book would be: don't.

Editorial Review:

Finally, Orson Scott Card's Hugo award-winning classic on the art and craft of writing science fiction and fantasy is available in paperback! Card provides invaluable advice for every science fiction and fantasy writer interested in constructing stories about people, worlds and events that stretch the boundaries of the possible...and the magical. They'll learn: * what is and isn't science fiction and fantasy, and where their story fits in the mix * how to build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world readers will want to explore * how to use the MICE quotient--milieu, idea, character and event--to structure a successful story * where the markets are, how to reach them and get published There's no better source of information for writers working in these genres. This book will help them effectively produce exciting stories that are both fascinating and market-ready.

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2008: The Essential Reference Tool for the Christian Writer (Christian Writers' Market Guide)

Sally Stuart

Amazon Price: $23.09 List Price: $34.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: WaterBrook Press Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $21.31

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Publishing & Books -> Authorship
Subjects -> Reference -> Publishing & Books -> General
Subjects -> Reference -> Publishing & Books -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Resource Guide to Getting Published
A unique guide to publishing for Christian readers, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2008 offers the most proven and comprehensive collection of ideas, resources, and contact information to the industry.
For more than twenty years, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide has delivered indispensable help to Christian writers, from a CD-ROM of the full text of the book so you can easily search for topics, publishers, and other specific names; to up-to-date listings of more than 1,200 markets for books, articles, stories, poetry, and greeting cards, including forty-three new book publishers, fifty-one new periodicals, and fifteen new literary agencies. Perfect for writers in every phase, this is the resource you need to get noticed–and published.

“An indispensable tool. The reference you have to buy.”
Writers’ Journal

“Essential for anyone seeking to be published in the Christian community.”
The Midwest Book Review

“Stands out from the rest with its wealth of information and helpful hints.”
Book Reviews for Church Librarians

Completely updated and revised the Guide features more than…
1,200 markets for the written word * 675 periodicals * 405 book publishers * 240 poetry markets * 114 card and specialty markets * 37 e-book publishers * 120 literary agents * 332 photography markets * 98 foreign markets * 98 newspapers * 53 print-on-demand publishers * writers’ conferences and groups * pay rates and submission guidelines * more resources and tools for all types of writing and related topics.

20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

Ronald Tobias

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Writers Digest Books Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $6.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book shows the reader how to take timeless storytelling structures and make them immediate, now, for fiction that's universal in how it speaks to the reader's heart and contemporary in detail and impact.

Each chapter includes brief excerpts and descriptions of fiction from many times, many genres - myth and fairy tale, genre and mainstream fiction, film plots of all types, short story and novel.

Find 20 fundamental plots that recur through all fiction - with analysis and examples - that outline benefits and warnings, for writers to adapt and elaborate in their own fiction. Ronald B. Tobias has spent his career as a writer moving from genre to genre, first as a short story writer, then as an author of fiction and nonfiction books and finally as a writer and producer of documentaries for public television. He is currently a professor in the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University and the author of The Insider's Guide to Writing for Screen and Television. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Writing Mysteries

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Writers Digest Books Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $1.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The mystery, like other stories, relies on believable characters, a strong narrative, and crisp prose. But it is also "a way of examining the dark side of human nature," says Writing Mysteries editor Sue Grafton. The book's 37 contributors ponder everything from brainstorming ideas to dealing with editors. Jeremiah Healy jump-starts the book with a piece that considers the unwritten "rules" of mystery writing. Stuart Kaminsky discusses research--experts, it turns out, are just waiting for you to contact them--and Sandra Scoppettone discusses vivid villains. Sara Paretsky contemplates the pitfalls of using a recurring hero, and Michael Connelly contributes a fine piece on characterization. "The best crime novels," Connelly says, "are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective." Other chapters focus on amateur sleuths, convincing dialogue, depiction of violence, and specialty genres. The book's short chapters form a sort of mystery writer's antipasti plate. Some won't resonate, while others will leave you wishing you had a larger serving. An ideal primer for mystery writers. --Jane Steinberg

Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama

David Mamet

Amazon Price: $8.80 List Price: $11.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $1.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General AAS
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Performing Arts -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Playwright David Mamet's three lectures at Columbia University are ostensibly about issues of dramatic structure, but as they unfold, and Mamet continually explores the relationship between dramatic structure and the lives we live, much broader concerns are revealed. Here, for example, is Mamet on political propaganda:

It is ... essential to the healthy political campaign that the issues be largely or perhaps totally symbolic--i.e., non-quantifiable. Peace With Honor, Communists in the State Department, Supply Side Economics, Recapture the Dream, Bring Back the Pride--these are the stuff of pageant. They are not social goals; they are, as Alfred Hitchcock told us, the MacGuffin.... The less specific the qualities of the MacGuffin are, the more interested the audience will be.... A loose abstraction allows audience members to project their own desires onto an essentially featureless goal.

Although occasionally academic, the overall tone of the lectures is consistent with Mamet's no-nonsense manner of speech. He has no time for obfuscation and little time for repetition, save when he must absolutely employ it for emphasis. He is passionate about good theater, and passionate about the truth. 3 Uses of the Knife makes an excellent companion piece to his True and False, which addressed similar philosophical matters in the form of advice on the actor's craft.

Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

Ursula K. Le Guin

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: The Eighth Mountain Press Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $4.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> British -> 20th Century
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ursula K. Le Guin's extraordinary writing primer is full of charm, wit, and opinion. Le Guin likens writing to "steering a craft," and as one reads through this volume, one has the sense of floating down a river, with the waves of Le Guin's words lapping at one's craft. Le Guin veers sharply from the mainstream of contemporary writing manuals by challenging their very definition of story. While it is common to "conflate story with conflict," Le Guin writes, she finds that limiting. "Story is change," she says. While that change may be the result of conflict, it is just as likely to evolve from "relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, [or] parting." Le Guin demonstrates this complexity with well-hewn excerpts from the works of such writers as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlotte Brontë, and especially Virginia Woolf. The many aspects of fine fiction writing Le Guin addresses here include the role of the narrative sentence (its "chief duty [is] to lead to the next sentence--to keep the story going"); avoiding exposition doldrums ("break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with"); and the concept of "crowding and leaping." While prose should be "crowded with sensations, meanings, and implications," don't forget that "what you leave out is infinitely more than what you leave in."

Accompanying Le Guin's text is a handful of clever writing exercises, each as enticing as its name. Among them are "I am García Márquez," which requires writing with no punctuation; "Chastity," which challenges one to write without adjectives or adverbs; and "A Terrible Thing to Do," which proposes taking an earlier exercise and cutting it--by half. --Jane Steinberg

How to Write a Damn Good Mystery: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript

James N. Frey

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: St. Martin's Press Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $4.06

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Fiction
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Genre Fiction -> Mystery
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Writing Skills

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Edgar award nominee James N. Frey, author of the internationally best-selling books on the craft of writing, How to Write a Damn Good Novel, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, and The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, has now written what is certain to become the standard "how to" book for mystery writing, How to Write a Damn Good Mystery.Frey urges writers to aim high-not to try to write a good-enough-to-get-published mystery, but a damn good mystery. A damn good mystery is first a dramatic novel, Frey insists-a dramatic novel with living, breathing characters-and he shows his readers how to create a living, breathing, believable character who will be clever and resourceful, willful and resolute, and will be what Frey calls "the author of the plot behind the plot."Frey then shows, in his well-known, entertaining, and accessible (and often humorous) style , how the characters-the entire ensemble, including the murderer, the detective, the authorities, the victims, the suspects, the witnesses and the bystanders-create a complete and coherent world.Exploring both the on-stage action and the behind-the-scenes intrigue, Frey shows prospective writers how to build a fleshed-out, believable, and logical world. He shows them exactly which parts of that world show up in the pages of a damn good mystery-and which parts are held back just long enough to keep the reader guessing.This is an indispensable step-by-step guide for anyone who's ever dreamed of writing a damn good mystery.

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2009 (Christian Writers' Market Guide)

Sally Stuart

Amazon Price: $23.09 List Price: $34.99 Not yet published By: WaterBrook Press

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Publishing & Books -> General
Subjects -> Reference -> Publishing & Books -> General AAS
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Genre Fiction -> General

Editorial Review:

For 24 years running, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide has remained the most comprehensive, complete, essential, and highly-recommended resource for Christian writers, agents, editors, publishers, publicists, and those teaching writing classes. And it’s the tool for both for beginners and industry veterans.
This perennial guide contains a variety of indexes–listed by topic, alphabetical listing of publishing houses and agents, and more–to more than 1,200 markets. Those markets include greeting cards and specialty writing, e-book and traditional book publishing (32 new listings), and periodicals (52 new). Also listed are 96 literary agents, more than 100 new writing resource listings, and 166 contests (29 new).

As with the guide for the last couple years, a CD-Rom is included and contains the text of the book for simple, electronic searches. But the 2009 Guide is handier–a more reder-friendly page count with 100 pages or so of traditional content (like indexes and contest listings) now exclusively on the CD-Rom.

Readers will get the same trusted content, though, as in years past. In fact, the latest information on more than 100 editors and publishers, conferences, writers’ groups, and more are not only listed and indexed in the book, but this year, readers will get a code in the book and on the CD-Rom for accessing more updates through the year on author Sally Stuart’s web site, www.stuartmarket.com.

Emmanuel's Book II: The Choice for Love (New Age)

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bantam Books, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 141 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Genre Fiction -> Romance
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( D ) -> Dass, Ram

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another Opinion 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

For what it's worth I have spent most of my life looking for spiritual understanding and experience. And this is one of the best books I have found. I picked it up and was captured by it's wisdom, beauty and Love. For me it was like a letter from home... a very dear home where those who love me, watch and wait for my eventual return.

This book touched my heart and brightened my life. I write this in hopes that it will do the same for you.

I love you, and look forward to our reunion. --FCB

Just try it. 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

All the Emmanuel books are gentle, sweet reminders of who we really are. They will set you free. Just read one...try it and see.

Strip fear of Loves clothing to be naked in truth 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

All three of these books have helped me in my life. The choice of love is the one that hit hard in my heart. Emmanual's Books are the only(that I have read) spiritual religious type books that don't contridict with the truth of it all.Any person or spirit talking against these books are just evil and have a blackend heart.I would recommend Emmanual to any troubled soul looking for some truth.

Editorial Review:

A beautifully written sequel to the inspirational Emmanuel's Book, with an introduction by Ram Dass. The Choice For Love offers insight into difficult relationships, aging, illness and healing, learning from AIDS and much more.

The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference

Writers Digest

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Writers Digest Books Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> General
Subjects -> Reference -> Encyclopedias -> Mythology & Folklore

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A decent reference, but doesn't live up to the claims 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I'm not saying "don't" buy this book. I'm saying buy it used at a considerable discount. It's got some useful information and and few 'exercises' that are helpful, but overall it's kind of flaccid. It's worth a read or two.

My son loves this 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

My son likes to write fantasy stories and plays D&D with his friends. He was thrilled with this book! It gives backgrounds and historical facts as well as advice and tips. The one feature I think is helpful is the vocabulary in reference to castles and costumes of the time periods often found in fantasy stories. Celebrated authors write essays on several subjects, so the information is not without merit. After all, they sold their stories. I am not the one reading this book, but I will say that my son is 16, and teenagers don't get excited over much, so if he was thrilled, you know it must be good!

Good reference for beginners 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If your young, or new to fantasy writing this is a good reference book. It details many subjects that you cant find in normal reference material or that would be hard to find. Clothing, nobility, ancient forms of magic and their use, dark age life ect. Many people have given this book a bad rating but I found it very interesting and helpful. It is not complete, true; but finding a book with everything you need to know about fantasy and ancient times would be impossible to find. This is the basics and I think it was worth every penny. Get it at a discount here on amazon. I love this site !

Editorial Review:

Featuring an introduction by Terry Brooks, The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference is an A to Z coverage of the realm of the fantastic.