Everyone needs to experience Russian literature at some time… so why not now? 👻 #1 Nikolai Gogol and his awesome Viy – a horror novella, published in 1835. The title is also the name of the demonic creature, the main hero of the plot. Every summer, a large procession of students moving around the area as they travel home. However, the group...
Continue reading...“The Story Grid”, Shawn Coyne #takeawaykeys
What your characters say they are is NOT who they are… What they do is the key. Shawn Coyne 1. Think in 5 principles, the bricks for any successful story: TIME, SUBSTANCE, STYLE, STRUCTURE, CONTENT. 2. Learn your genre – there’s a great collection (with examples) of differences between each genre. I can’t mention them all (only some), but read...
Continue reading...The anatomy of a thriller
Dan Brown’s masterclass #takeawaykeys 1. The most important stones to build a perfect thriller are: world the sole dramatic question a hero a goal obstacles a moment when a hero concurred a villain 2. Think 3 C’s First C – The Contract That promise you are making with the reader (do NOT break it!) Second C – The crucible Something...
Continue reading...Book Review “Fields of lies”, Sabina Gabrielli Carrara
Writing a book is always a hard job. One is always tempted to limit oneself to dreaming it. Gaston Bachelard But she did it. From dream to reality is only ONE jump, but it is a damn hard one. Well done, Sabina! The idea of the book: Cheat – Kill – Repeat… Just kidding. Here it is: Some people are...
Continue reading...Book Review “In the Calyx”, Libre Paley
“I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin.” Sara Gruen 1. From Stefan (aka all male readers): Wow, this story had me glued to my wife like never before! Wonderfully written storyline and very detailed characters! All...
Continue reading...Book Review “The Contract: between heaven and earth,” John W. Howell, Gwen M. Plano
“Like flowers we grow, bloom, and whither – each day and each life. But although we blossom more grandiose in each new life, all our lives are perfect in their own way.” Stefan Emunds Unpredictable Mysterious Intriguing On the surface it looks like the usual thriller, but if you look deeper inside, you’ll find a kick-ass paranormal fantasy. Just imagine...
Continue reading...Book Review “Colder: A Collection of Poetry & Prose”, River Dixon
Winter. Somewhere in North Dakota. River: Do you know what I’d ask Santa if I’d ever met him? Dixon: Hot babe? River: I’d say “I want COLDER”… Dixon: Are you mad, it is already -16,6 F! Why do some young kids dislike poetry? Why do so many people unsatisfied with modern poetry? When Marianne Moore wrote a poem titled “Poetry,”...
Continue reading...Book Review “The Donkey King and Other Stories”, Christopher Lindsay
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” Neil Gaiman I love fairytales. And I still read them and probably, just like Audrey Hepburn, I like them best of all. Not because they are so fascinating and wizardly wonderful, but because they are teaching...
Continue reading...“Write. Publish. Repeat.” by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, David Wright #takeaways
A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.”Andrei Tarkovsky In the book “Write. Publish. Repeat” authors Sean Platt, David Wright and Johnny B. Truant explained how to build a thriving international publishing empire with no luck required… In two words – you have to work your ass off, never give up and see your “writing” as...
Continue reading...“How to grow a novel”, Sol Stein #takeaways
Be the first to see what you see as you see it. Robert Bresson (french filmmaker) Readers value and remember extraordinary CHARACTERS. Plot might be forgotten with a time, but never a hero. The goal is to involve the reader’s emotion, in this case a feeling of warmth for the central character. What the reader is experiencing in each scene...
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