Bashful Blagger
A blagger is bold and gets what they want by brashly saying things that are not always true. A bashful blagger is the same, but shy with it. Sounds weird? Well, yes: but that’s me, both a bold extravert and a shy introvert, only I tend to tell the truth, even in fiction. Here in the Bashful Blagger blog, I post boldly on my life as a sapphic author writing for a universal audience—anything to do with writing and publishing —and rather more shyly on my real life. Happy reading!
The author with her inhouse editor, Chino
But Is It Artemis?
Were you one of those little kids who couldn’t wait for it to be your turn to do a show & tell at school? Well, I was, but for me it was more a case of show-off & tell. I just loved the attention. Usually I showed the pictures in the book I was reading and...
How to Write Good
Were you one of those nerdy birds who loved doing grammar at school? In Form 4 (think St. Trinian’s), I loved parsing lines under the lead of our English mistress, “Creepy” (Mrs Crawley). I’ll never forget how Creepy had us girls chanting “subject-verb-object”...
Valerie Fuqua on How to Organize Your Novel’s Resources
Writing a novel can be daunting. Novels are big. Really big! If you’ve never written one before, it can be easy to lose track of all the information you keep in your head, or worse, saved in multiple locations, both virtual and physical. Here Valerie Fuqua shares...
Anne R. Allen on How to Sell Your Book
Anne R. Allen and Ruth Harris are publishing industry veterans. On their popular blog for authors, "Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris" (Writing about writing. Mostly.) they publish articles on how to avoid the pitfalls of this ever-more complex business....
How to beat the Русский bots
Isn’t it great when a new comment comes in on your lovingly crafted blog? But when you look closer, what a sad disappointment it is to see it's in Cyrillic, crammed with links, and clearly dumped there by a Russian bot. So, how do you counter the spam bots flooding...
Cover Story
When MJ Buckman (Em) was thinking of what to put on the cover of her new book, she consulted a graphic designer. When he had several drafts ready, Em asked her social media followers which one they liked best. A while later, Em revealed this result. The...
Becoming a Globetrotter
When your publisher is in Canada and you're in the Netherlands, there’s lots of logical to-ing and fro-ing across the Gulf of Greenland while your book is in production. Back then, did I realize that Becoming Janice would also be trotting over the entire globe? No...
Two top sites for writers
There is *so* much advice out there for writers! When you’re looking for tips on writing, the massive amount available is overwhelming. Whose tips should you follow? How do you tell the junk from genuine wisdom? Try my two favorite sites, both truly helpful...
Dr. Claire Bacon on how to avoid dangling your reader
Don't keep your reader dangling… wanting to find out who says or does what in the sentence you’re writing. That excellent piece of advice comes from science editor Dr. Claire Bacon, this week’s guest blogger. Here she discusses how to avoid ‘dangling modifiers’...
Valerie Fuqua on book marketing for beginners
For people starting out in the self-publishing business, Valerie Fuqua, author/artist and regular contributor to the Bashful Blagger, shares her thoughts on marketing. Valerie says, “I'm still new to this thing, too, but I'd like to warn you of a few things that...
