The other day in a conversation with other writers, I said something about wanting likable characters. Seriously. If I'm taking time out of my life to spend with people, fictional or otherwise, then I want to like them. This may sound hopelessly uncool or naïve or whatever, but as the conversation continued, I realized that …
A home that caught my eye in Salem. Definitely not the house I grew up in. In grad school, I had a final exam with a one word question. We had to write about this one word. (For the life of me, I can't remember how much time were were given, but it was at …
Last night I worked on a story for Story-a-Day. When the story began, I was sure a particular character was dead. As I came to the ending though, I brought her back to life. It wasn't because I loved her so much I couldn't let her go. Instead, I couldn't put her best friend through …
Look at all those pages. They contain time-travelers, demons, wayward teens, psychopaths, dragons, and other mad adventurers. They're all clamoring for their stories to be finished. I've made this commitment to them before and then been lured off the path by even more shiny tales of the heartbroken, the daring, and the wicked. So here …
If you're going to name a group the Hermiones, you obviously need the first Hermione (apologies to all the good souls out there named Hermione before the Harry Potter onslaught). In my Hermione series, I've decided to include real and fictional individuals. Furthermore, while it would be grand if I could designate a Tarot card …
If I could, I’d design my own deck of Tarot cards. I’d make several decks, in fact. I’d do one more in line with the traditional Rider-Waite deck. Another deck would be for writing. And another would be for women I admire. Hermione is a favorite heroine of mine. She's smart and brave and loyal. …
Soon, I will have an actual physical copy of my book, The Blue Jar, in my hand. That's going to be amazing and unbelievable. There's the feeling of finishing something. Then there's the feeling of putting that something out into the world. I started this novel as a writing prompt on a Tuesday afternoon in …
One problem about writing about a girl in high school is that I haven't been in high school since 1986. In the manuscript I've been working on, my main character pulls a fire alarm at school. She does so on impulse, in one of those it seemed like a good idea at the time impulses. …
When I write, I sometimes listen to music. The music fits either the mood of the story or the personality of the characters. The other day, I had the chance to collaborate on a music show with London DJ Claudio Fiore and with my publisher, Plum Tree Books, that tells the story of the music …
Nodding, Fran stepped into the circle. She took a deep breath and lay down in its center. Staring up at the stars, she thought about the dirt pressing into her hair and the bugs that might be nearby. She didn’t believe in Milla’s ideas, her rituals, or chants, and she sometimes thought Milla was close …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 