Tara Maya's Tales

Dindi and Umbral have an uneasy truce, forced to work together to defeat a greater enemy: the Bone Whistler. The Bone Whistler’s scheme to sacrifice humanity and resurrect the Aelfae will culminate during an eclipse on the spring equinox…in three days. Their fragile alliance may not withstand the terrors they face. Dindi hides as a clown, but even disguised, her dancing draws the eye of the Bone Whistler himself. She will have to defy him alone, for Umbral has  his own troubles. Finnadro, who has hunted Umbral for a year, finally catches up with him… determined to punish Umbral for all his black deeds. Life and death, spring and autumn, human and faery, are all reeling out of balance, and these three days will determine the fate of all Faearth. Take a peek inside with this excerpt: 

Hey everyone! It's Tara's assistant, Katie, here to let you know that Tara has some big news to share about The Unfinished Song (Book 6) Blood tomorrow to all of the newsletter subscribers. Everyone else will have to wait until Thursday. Subscribe today if you want to be among the first to find out! Click here to sign up.   (Of course we will not sell your email address (No matter how much we're offered!) or use them for shady purposes. In addition to information about new releases, we're working on a regular monthly newsletter, so it shouldn't be too much extra coming to your inbox.) 

Now, we always give advice on how to crit, but, as we discussed 
earlier, perhaps it is more important to discuss how to receive 
crits. Personally, if one receives a crit that tells you, "Your basic 
idea is all wrong," how should you take this? image: xkcd

One of the first novels I wrote, 
when I was, ye gods, twelve or thirteen, I don't remember (or I have 
thankfully blanked the memory from my brain) was Star Trek 
fanfic. On the first draft, the dialogue looked something like this: "Maybe the attacker was a Klingon," said Kirk. "That is not logical, Captain," said Spock. "But he looked like a Klingon," said Kirk. "But then he turned into a furry white snow monster," said Spock.
 "That's what puzzles me," said Kirk. And so on. image: Marc Wathieu Well, neophyte though I was, even I could tell that was 
terrible dialogue. (And it tended to go on for three pages). But why, WHY did it suck rocks? That's what I needed to pin down. Probably 
because so much was wrong, I settled on the most obvious (to me) 
problem, the boring repetition of "said."

I have a son who is learning to read. I want to write stories that will be of 
interest and value to him. I know the 
values that I believe are universal to sentient beings, but are there elements which are particularly attractive 
to the little boy goobers out there? image: Pink Sherbert Photography

Rayne Hall   has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include   Storm Dancer  (dark epic fantasy novel),  Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3   (mild horror stories),   Six Historical Tales   (short stories),   Six Quirky Tales   (humorous fantasy stories),   Writing Fight Scenes   and   Writing Scary Scenes   (instructions for authors). She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the  Ten Tales  series of multi-author short story anthologies:  Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic  and more.   Her short  online classes for writers ...

In April 1667, an  signed an agreement with Samuel Simmons, a London bookseller, to publish 1,500 copies of his book. The author earned five pounds. He later earned another five pounds for the sequel, which he sold in 1669. After his death, the author's wife granted the rights to both works, in perpetuity, to the publisher for a whooping... eight pounds. The book? Paradise Lost .

Rayne Hall   has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include   Storm Dancer  (dark epic fantasy novel),  Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3   (mild horror stories),   Six Historical Tales   (short stories),   Six Quirky Tales   (humorous fantasy stories),   Writing Fight Scenes   and   Writing Scary Scenes   (instructions for authors). She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the  Ten Tales  series of multi-author short story anthologies:  Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic  and more.   Her short  online classes for writer...

Kickass heroines are all the rage. But it's tricky to do right. I've read some books that do a terrific job... and others that aren't convincing. 1. Less Talk, More Action The first time we meet Katsa in Graceling , she is knocking out guards, breaking into a dungeon and rescuing a prince. A quick flashback shows her accidentally killing a child-molester with one blow when she was only eight years old--the first time her Grace showed up. Since we have seen her amazing martial arts skills and innate ability to defend herself in action, her position as Utterly Badass is secure. However, I've read other books where characters keep talking about what a badass the heroine is... without much evidence. They mention that she trains or that she "could beat any guy here" but when we finally see her in action, she's sick at the sight of blood, or doesn't want to kill. Huh? 2.  Morality is Relative A badass heroine needs to be strong, even ruthless, ...