Bello is Pan Macmillan’s digital andprint-on-demand (POD) imprint,
established to revive classic and out of
print titles as both ebooks and large
format paperbacks.
(via bookloversthoughts)
New today! Our gorgeous new cover for Natasha Cooper’s Bloody Roses, part of the Willow King series.
How to end your novel
The Dos and Don’ts By James V. Smith Jr.
Don’ts
- Don’t introduce any new characters or subplots. Any appearances within the last 50 pages should have been foreshadowed earlier, even if mysteriously.
- Don’t describe, muse, explain or philosophize. Keep description to a minimum, but maximize action and conflict. You have placed all your charges. Now, light the fuse and run.
- Don’t change voice, tone or attitude. An ending will feel tacked on if the voice of the narrator suddenly sounds alien to the voice that’s been consistent for the previous 80,000 words.
- Don’t resort to gimmicks. No quirky twists or trick endings. The final impression you want to create is a positive one. Don’t leave your reader feeling tricked or cheated.
Dos
- Do create that sense of Oh, wow! Your best novelties and biggest surprises should go here. Readers love it when some early, trivial detail plays a part in the finale.
- Do enmesh your reader deeply in the outcome. Get her so involved that she cannot put down your novel to go to bed, to work or even to the bathroom until she sees how it turns out.
- Do resolve the central conflict. You don’t have to provide a happily-ever-after ending, but do try to uplift. Readers want to be uplifted, and editors try to give readers what they want.
- Do afford redemption to your heroic character. No matter how many mistakes she has made along the way, allow the reader—and the character—to realize that, in the end, she has done the right thing.
- Do tie up loose ends of significance. Every question you planted in a reader’s mind should be addressed, even if the answer is to say that a character will address that issue later, after the book ends.
- Do mirror your final words to events in your opener. When you reach the ending, go back to ensure some element in each of your complications will point to the beginning. It’s the tie-back tactic. Merely create a feeling that the final words hearken to an earlier moment in the story.
By James V. Smith Jr.
Source for Dos and Don’ts. Visit Writers Digest for more.
(via theitchofliterature)
I spotted Ali reading - and enjoying - Francis Durbridge a little while ago, and I remembered that my parents used to have his books on their shelves. I trust their judgement, I trust Ali’s, and so…
I don’t have any excuse for not knowing about Alfred Duggan before last month. He seems to have been a prolific author of historical fiction based in ancient times. And not just from the winner’s perspective either and that’s what’s so intriguing about Winter Quarters.
All in all, an entertaining and relaxing read, although a bit scary at times (but this is good, right? :)). It was really nice to take a trip to the world of vintage mystery, without computers, cell phones, etc. I’ll definitely be looking out for some more of Vicker’s mysteries.
Jo Bannister’s new novel Deadly Virtues is out now and you can read an extract over at criminalelement.com
You may be a book addict if...
- 1: You spend a lot of money on books. Even at thrift stores and used book stores. You can never get enough.
- 2: You have bookcases, shelves, or stacks of books EVERYWHERE.
- 3: Most of those shelves are warped from the weight of all of your books.
- 4: You can never pass a bookstore or a store with a selection of books without having just. one. glimpse. inside. ("Just one, I swear!")
- 5: People give you books or giftcards to bookstores as gifts for special events.
- 6: You ALWAYS have a book with you. Even if it is a huge hardcover edition.
- 7: You can never stop talking about books. Ever.
- 8: You occasionally say, "Oh, that movie looks interesting! Better read the book first, since it's probably even better!" Or some variation of that.
- 9: You proudly show off the fact that you read an incredibly difficult book that not a lot of people have read. Be proud!
- 10: Your parents have told you to do something social... maybe go outside, see the sun, smell fresh air.
- 11: You have mastered the "don't-talk-to-me-or-else-you're-dead-to-me" look for people who have boundary issues when you're reading.
- 12: Sarcasm is occasionally your friend when people say obnoxious things about you reading so much.
- 13: You salivate over pictures of books. It's okay, we all do it.
- 14: You can't browse the deals section of a cheap book website because you know you can't really afford it, but you'll shop anyway.
- 15: One of your goals in life is to have a personal library in your home when you have your own house.
- 16: The smell of new books, or old books, is something you look forward to.
- 17: You always take a step back after putting your book haul away and stare at your growing book collection.
- 18: You basically live at the library, bookstore, or secondhand bookstore closest to your home.
- 19: You want to marry a book lover, too.
- 20: You occasionally break into emotional hysterics when reading a really intense book in public.
- 21: You ask yourself: physical books or ebooks?
- 22: You need to place a book buying ban on yourself.
- 23: You know your favorite bookstore better than some of the employees.
- Have any more? Feel free to add!
You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. - Ray Bradbury
(via theheroinenextdoor)
View Gerald Durrell’s Travels in a larger map
Gerald Durrell travelled the world in his mission to observe and preserve wildlife, as well as founding the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey. We’ve gone through all fifteen books that were republished last year and plotted his journeys onto one convenient map - complete with extracts to give you a taste of each location.
So, if you want to know which books to read to find out about his time in Madagascar or what he was doing in America, just click and find out!
