Anne R. Allen's Blog

by Alicia Street and Terence Stamp I was so sad to read of actor Terence Stamp’s death this week at age 87. Early in this blog’s history, we were honored to run this interview with Mr. Stamp, who had just launched his memoir, Rare Stamps. Our regular reader, Alicia Street, conducted the interview.  So here’s […]

The post Interview With the Great Terence Stamp, RIP appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

  by Anne R. Allen I wrote a post three weeks ago about the barrage of spam emails I’ve been getting from scammy publicists, bogus book marketers, and various other con-persons — sometimes 100 a day. I’m still getting them, but luckily a good chunk are captured by my anti-spam elves, now they know what […]

The post My Life as an AI Hallucination—Why AI isn’t Always a Scammer’s Best Friend. appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

by Anne R. Allen This week I’ve been hit hard by signs that publishing industry bloggers are disappearing into the Substack world of “become a paid subscriber to continue reading this article.” But it’s also obvious the publishing world still needs us! How do I know? This week, I’ve been buried in emails from book […]

The post Bloggers Are Still Important to the Publishing World, but They’re Disappearing appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

  by Debbie Burke Let’s assume most of us who follow Anne’s and Ruth’s blog are not kidnappers, rapists, or murderers. Since we’re not, it can be difficult for us to imagine the mindset of characters who commit heinous crimes. So how can we write multidimensional, memorable villains who have more depth than the cartoonish […]

The post How To Drill Inside Your Villain’s Head appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

Go ahead, write that first draft with a feather. It’s all good. by Anne R. Allen Recently I’ve been looking at comment threads on old posts. Five years ago, people were leaving a lot more comments. But commenting on blogs has faded along with the popularity of blogging, which a lot of people see as […]

The post Write Your First Draft for Yourself: there are no rules appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

  by Anne R. Allen I’ve been going through my blog archives, and I found one of the first pieces I wrote for the blog—15 years ago. This was before the “Kindle Revolution” had really taken hold, so almost all beginning writers were desperately trying to “land an agent.” (We seemed to treat agents like some […]

The post You’re Not Failing to Get Published. You’re Building Inventory appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

by Anne R. Allen This week I’m visiting the writing blog, Writers In the Storm, talking about “Chekhov’s Gun.” “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.”…Anton Chekhov Chekhov, the Russian playwright, also wrote short stories, […]

The post Chekhov’s Gun: Does Your Story Have a Forgotten “Gun”? appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

by Jenny Hansen Was your writing process a long and winding road for anyone else here? And by writing process, I mean “a reliable way you’ve been able to approach the page that allows you to finish books.” I struggled for decades to find my process. And I do mean struggled. I’d open a Word […]

The post The Non-Linear Writing Process: What, How, and Why appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

by Anne R. Allen This week I’ve had a record number of blog comments and emails from authors who have been victims or near-victims of publishing scammers. So I thought I should update my scam warnings. The Times Square Billboard Scam The most popular new con seems to be the Times Square Billboard scam. Rachel […]

The post Publishing Scammers are On the Prowl: the Latest Trends appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.

  This week I’m visiting the Sleuthsayers blog, with a blogpost about why murder mysteries are so popular in times of chaos and upheaval. Here’s the opener. Why Do We Read Murder Mysteries? By Anne R. Allen I once met an aspiring writer who been forced to move in with Mom after a year of […]

The post Why Do We Read Murder Mysteries? appeared first on Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris.