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The Knight of the Trove
THE KNIGHT OF THE TROVE will be published on October 8, 2024 Cover reveal: September 2, 2024 Preorder information coming soon! Book 1 in the Knights of Mellora adult fantasy romance series What if the princess didn’t want to be rescued from the dragon? As the well-trained knight of a dragon’s trove, former princess Nesrin would rather fight off suitors than invite one in. Twelve years ago, Nesrin’s uncle murdered her mother and stole her deceased father’s throne. Nesrin lived under her uncle’s brutal thumb for years until she was rescued by a benevolent dragon. Now a grown woman, she protects herself and the dragon trove from the interloping…
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18 Ways to “Write Every Day” (Without Losing Your Mind)
I hate being told to write every day. Even Ray Bradbury once wrote, “You must write every single day of your life.” And as someone who is hungry to find success with my words, I used to take that to heart and berate myself when I hadn’t gotten words on the page at the end of the day. But who am I to argue with Ray Bradbury? Absolutely nobody. Yet I’m still gonna do it. (I’m also hoping the quote is taken out of context, but I haven’t done the research.) My friend Dorie is the first writing friend I ever made. Besides being a lovely person, she’s very wise.…
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One of My Favorite Resources: Rachael Herron’s Udemy Course: How to Stop Stalling and Write Your Book
One of My Favorite Resources: Rachael Herron’s Udemy Course: How to Stop Stalling and Write Your Book When I first decided to be Serious about finishing my first book, it was hard, confusing, and pretty darn scary. I’d spent around 20 years convincing myself that I couldn’t do the #1 thing I had always wanted to do with my life, and I needed a good bit of hand-holding to get through it. And that’s when I took a chance on Rachael Herron’s Udemy course, “How to Stop Stalling and Write Your Book.” I’m not exaggerating when I say that this $15 course (as of today 9/5/23) is a huge percentage of why…
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Why Versioning Your Writing Stuff Rocks and Why You Can Start Now
Versioning is a lifesaver Hello lovelies, My goal today is to seduce you with organization (which you would think is hilarious if you ever saw the state of my house). This post is for those of us writing in Word, Google Docs, and any variation thereof, and who are still keeping things in folders. (I assume that fancier apps like Scrivener do this kind of thing for you, but I’ve honestly never used it.) If you’re like this too, you might want to try versioning: I’m a digital hoarder. When I’m about to start a new draft/revision of a book, I make a copy of the current draft and squirrel…
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Character Work: It’s in the (Tarot) Cards
Behold: A Character Appeareth! Does this happen to you? Sometimes characters appear in my head like I’m their long-term therapist. I know who they are, what they want and need, what they want to say, and how they’ll say it. Other times, other elements of the story emerge earlier and in more detail than the characters. In the book I’m drafting now, the setting is a Super Cool Thing that I’ve been geeking out about for almost a year. But even though I know who the main character and love interest are on paper, they still feel like acquaintances, and they’re constantly being upstaged by a charismatic side character who…
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Color Contrast For Authors: An Important Element of Accessible Content
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it Look at the image above. The left side is difficult, maybe even impossible to read. Why? In each box, the color of the text doesn’t stand out enough from the color of its background. Content like this can prevent users with low vision and color-blindness from accessing the content you create. Now look at the right side of the image: this text stands out from the background colors enough to make it fairly easy to read. Once you start looking for color contrast fails, you’ll see them everywhere—just scroll through Instagram or look at the dates on all my posts (I promise…
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Welcome, First Draft Love
Welcome to No Write or Wrong! I’m Holly Rose, author of Until the Stars Fall (releasing January 16, 2024), an adult speculative romance from Mystic Owl. I’ve been a writer and editor for, um, let’s just say a lot of years, and my mission is to bring you pithy, helpful content that improves your writing life. A First (and Last) Introduction In the future, these posts will be a lot shorter. But to start, it’s important to me that you know the inspiration behind the title, No Write or Wrong. I struggle with anxiety. And one of the many brilliant things my therapist has said to me over the years…
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Until the Stars Fall
UNTIL THE STARS FALL is available in paperback wherever books are sold and as an ebook at Amazon and on KU. Falling in love on an interstellar road trip wasn’t part of Gemma’s plans… Hurtling away from Earth is definitely the worst time to learn that your ship’s being held together with duct tape and spells, but astroengineer Gemma Abadie is a witch with a bigger problem—and no, it’s not the whole-Earth evacuation thing. It’s the pent-up, hidden magic buzzing through her veins that she believes caused her parents’ death years ago. She’s hidden it from her family ever since, and now she’s hellbent on getting to her shady contact…
