Strong writing craft is the foundation of a good book. Punctuation, grammar, writing technique, and preparing for publication are all part of writing craft. This compilation of Mellanie Szereto’s Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts addresses these topics and encourages writers to learn and improve their craft along the road to publication. From commas to hyphens and active vs. passive sentence structure to misplaced modifiers, review proper punctuation and grammar for clean narrative and dialogue. From character arc to POV and self-editing to identifying genre, learn writing technique and how to prepare a solid manuscript for any publishing path.

A writing career consists of much more than the simple sit-in-the-chair-and-write approach. Knowing the ins and outs of contracts, social media, and author branding is vital to getting, being, and staying published, no matter the chosen path to publication. Education, writers’ block, and fear of failure—and success—all contribute to the delicate balance, along with the business aspects of writing and dealing with reviews and piracy. This compilation of Mellanie Szereto’s Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts addresses these and many other topics related to creating, growing, and maintaining a healthy writing career.

Several years ago, after many years of writing nonfiction, I decided to write a novel-a medical thriller in the mold of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, and Michael Palmer. The problem was that, although I knew how to write and had received a number of awards for nonfiction works, I didn't know the how to write fiction. So, before putting fingers to keyboard I did a thorough search of the literature, which included reading numerous books and hundreds of website articles. What I discovered was that there simply wasn't one good source from which to learn the craft of writing genre fiction. "Writing Genre Fiction: A Guide to the Craft" is the book I was looking for when I set out on my quest to learn how to write fiction. It is an attempt to share what I learned from my research. It covers the six key elements of genre fiction; the various genres and subgenres; a large number of genre-fiction writing techniques; plot, subplots, and parallel plots; structure; scene and sequel; characterization; dialogue; emotions; and body language. It also covers additional information about copyrighting and plagiarism, where to get ideas, manuscript formatting and revision, and query letters and synopses. In addition, an appendix covers a large number of grammar tips.

Writing Tip Wednesday: The Writing Craft Handbook Strong writing craft is the foundation of a good book. Punctuation, grammar, writing technique, and preparing for publication are all part of writing craft. This compilation of Mellanie Szereto’s Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts addresses these topics and encourages writers to learn and improve their craft along the road to publication. From commas to hyphens and active vs. passive sentence structure to misplaced modifiers, review proper punctuation and grammar for clean narrative and dialogue. From character arc to POV and self-editing to identifying genre, learn writing technique and how to prepare a solid manuscript for any publishing path. Writing Tip Wednesday: The Writing Career Handbook A writing career consists of much more than the simple sit-in-the-chair-and-write approach. Knowing the ins and outs of contracts, social media, and author branding is vital to getting, being, and staying published, no matter the chosen path to publication. Education, writers’ block, and fear of failure—and success—all contribute to the delicate balance, along with the business aspects of writing and dealing with reviews and piracy. This compilation of Mellanie Szereto’s Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts addresses these and many other topics related to creating, growing, and maintaining a healthy writing career. Writing Tip Wednesday: The Self-Publishing Handbook With all the choices in the publishing world today, many authors are self-publishing, either as the sole means of getting their work to readers or as hybrid authors with more than one publishing avenue. Writing books comes first and last, making it an ongoing and vital part of a successful career path. While self-publishing offers writers another choice on the road to publication, it requires hard work and knowledge about topics like covers, ISBNs, and metadata. Education is essential for a creating a professional product. This compilation of Mellanie Szereto’s Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts on self-publishing guides authors through a comprehensive to-do list, including step-by-step instructions and images for formatting and conversion software.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series Everything in Texas is bigger . . . even murder. Meet Tres Navarre—tequila drinker, Tai Chi master, and unlicensed P.I., with a penchant for Texas-size trouble. Jackson “Tres” Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull into San Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre left town and the memory of his father’s murder behind him. Now he’s back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, the fresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians’ games all conspire to ruin his homecoming. It’s obvious Tres has stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird—and his old girlfriend, the one he wants back, is missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father’s murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catches up to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo. “Riordan writes so well about the people and topography of his Texas hometown that he quickly marks the territory as his own.”—Chicago Tribune Don’t miss any of these hotter-than-Texas-chili Tres Navarre novels: BIG RED TEQUILA • THE WIDOWER’S TWO-STEP • THE LAST KING OF TEXAS • THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO AUSTIN • SOUTHTOWN • MISSION ROAD • REBEL ISLAND

More complex than Dan Brown. More thrilling than Le Carr�. Closer to the truth than either. Counter-terrorism expert Helen Gale has one job: to protect world leaders at a summit in the Berlin Reichstag. But terrorists take hostage presidents, prime ministers, one hundred innocent children - and Helen's journalist husband. Then the executions start. Helen's life implodes. Yet she alone can see the truth. As special forces plan a deadly assault, she must enter the shattered hulk of the Reichstag to stop a bloodbath. "Blood Summit is a cracker. Pimm has hit the ground running" - Matthew Parris "A scintillating take on tradecraft and statecraft" - Tom Fletcher "A rip-roaring romp of a thriller" - Sir Christopher Mallaby, former British Ambassador to Germany and France

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."

"Charming, fun and fast-paced, Seven Hotel Stories brings Pimm's wit and vigour to that most difficult of literary forms, the short story" - Matthew Parris You'll never make a fuss at a hotel again Glamorous, petite Ms N is the world's deadliest hotel manager. Do you think "men will be men"? Ms N and her ally, the beautiful but naive Tatiana, won't tolerate misbehaviour. Whether they use a giant cake, a posse of alligators, an enraged sushi chef, the Russian mafia or three metres of concrete, Ms N and Tatiana will always get their man. 'Ms N is good at solving problems. One day, I want to be like her' - Tatiana "Utterly gripping: I devoured it" - Edmund de Waal on Robert Pimm's thriller Blood Summit

Richard, last-born son of the Duke of York, was seven months short of his nineteenth birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his legendary reputation as a battle commander and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. He was also a devoted brother, an ardent suitor, a patron of the arts, an indulgent father, a generous friend. Above all, he was a man of fierce loyalties, great courage and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward's court.

A writing career consists of much more than the simple sit-in-the-chair-and-write approach. Knowing the ins and outs of contracts, social media, and author branding is vital to getting, being, and staying published, no matter the chosen path to publication. Education, writers' block, and fear of failure--and success--all contribute to the delicate balance, along with the business aspects of writing and dealing with reviews and piracy.This compilation of Mellanie Szereto's Writing Tip Wednesday blog posts addresses these and many other topics related to creating, growing, and maintaining a healthy writing career.