General Books

Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel

Cathy Yardley

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: St. Martin's Griffin Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $3.67

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Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the hottest markets for new writers today, the women’s fiction genre called Chick Lit is attracting new authors daily. In Will Write for Shoes, veteran Chick Lit and romance author Cathy Yardley draws upon years of teaching about commercial women’s fiction to give aspiring novelists invaluable advice and step-by-step methods for writing and selling a successful Chick Lit novel. Features include:

 

• The history of Chick Lit
• A blueprint for writing a Chick Lit novel
• New trends in the genre
• Tips and tools for breaking into the market

Complete with a directory of agents and publishers who acquire Chick Lit, sample submission materials, and online resources, this fun and comprehensive manual is a must-have for all women who want to write a Chick Lit novel.

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

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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.

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

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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.

Come Dawn, Come Dusk Fifty Years a Gamekeeper

Norman Mursell

By: ST. MARTIN'S PRESS Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $0.24

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Subjects -> Outdoors & Nature -> Hunting & Fishing -> General & Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best guide yet 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

First off, I've never taken a writing course in my life, so even though I feel I have some great ideas I have struggled with how to put them together. This book has really helped start to change that. I've gone through over half of Damon Knight's exercises and already I start to feel some of the barriers in my mind start to give. I don't know if I'll ever become a writer of fiction, however, this book certainly opens you up to the right path.
The process helps develop a whole different way of observing what you experience and how to go about communicate it to others in a way more interesting than a police line up.
Very solid fundamental group of lessons on how persuade your mind to put it all together into a form that makes sense before you learn how to find your own style.
Highly recommended.

Almost Typical. 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

First let me say the author has some excellent advice about using and staying out of the way of your unconscious thought processes. Amen! Brother Knight. Here's a useful analogy: Let's say your brain is your FM radio. The conscious part can deal with one station at a time. The unconscious part deals with all the stations simultaneously. So get-over the idea that you know what's happening. You dont. Otherwise the book is the same stuff contained in every other how-to-write book, and it's written better than many of the others. Something none of the how-to-write books address is taste. Editors and publishers buy what they like, readers buy what they like, and critics give a hooray! to books they like. One man's treasure is another man's trash.

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

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The ultimate resource for Mystery Writing 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Mystery Writing is an art in itself. It requires a lot of planning and preparation in order for the mystery story to work. Planting 'red herrings' and false clues in a story is an art that novice writers will have trouble in achieving with their first attempt. That is the reason why this book is so good -- it brings together the creative geniuses in the field of Mystery writing -- and these writers tell you their secrets to producing mystery. Definitely worth the money.

Editorial Review:

Writing mystery fiction can be a special kind of puzzle. In this new, revised edition of the Mystery Writers of America classic, Sue Grafton weaves the experience of today's top mystery authors into a comprehensive mystery writing "how-to." Writers will learn how to piece a perfect mystery together and create realistic stories that are taut, immediate and fraught with tension.

The book's contributors include a "who's who" of the mystery writing elite: Faye and Jonathan Kellerman on conducting accurate research; Michael Connelly on mastering characterization; Tony Hillerman on writing without an outline; Lawrence Block on overcoming writer's block; Sara Paretsky on creating successful series characters; Tess Gerritson on writing the medical thriller; Ann Rule on the art of writing true crime. And many more!

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

Ursula K. Le Guin

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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

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

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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.

The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference

Writers Digest

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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.

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries

David W. Page

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Behler Publications Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $11.30

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Subjects -> Medicine -> Specialties -> Emergency Medicine

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From murder/mystery to medical fiction - from trauma, mass casualties, or blunt trauma, surgeon and trauma expert Dr. David W. Page is a writer's best friend. Whether a writer's fictional character is a detective investigating a crime or a doctor racing down the hallways toward an emergency - it's a given that someone is hurt. Credible storytelling is the key to plausibility, and Dr. Page offers the perfect prescription.

Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Learn about what goes on in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts and bring a new realism to stories and novels.

Here you'll find graphic explorations of serious bodily damage. You'll be able to work backward, deciding how severe a character's wounds should be and then writing the action that causes the pain. You'll put your characters in harm's way and mistreat them-believability-to within an inch of their fictional lives.

On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells

Leigh Michaels

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Writers Digest Books Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $8.84

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An okay manual for beginners 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

While this book contained excellent information, I believe the writer intended her audience to be beginning writers. If you've been writing seriously for any given period of time, the information conveyed here is repetitive. In fact, most of the information could be found on the Internet. If you're an intermediate or advanced writer searching for perspective, I'd suggest looking for another manual.

Editorial Review:

This book gives comprehensive how-to information for novice romance writers. For those new to the genre and/or to writing, this book provides a starting point for developing the skill set essential to writing a best-selling romance novel. "On Writing Romance" is a thorough reference that will provide readers with detailed descriptions of more than 20 sub-categories within the romance genre, tips for avoiding cliches, specific instruction for creating the perfect romantic couple, guidelines for drafting those all-important love scene, submission information for breaking into the genre, and much, much more.