Indie writers like myself have a huge problem. That problem is obscurity.

We combat it via promotion. But there's only so much promotion one can do without coming across as bossy, spammy, or just plain desperate. Also, whenever a message is received from a person with a financial interest in the success of that message, then there are going to be skeptics. I don't blame them. No matter how great I may tell readers my books are, it means a lot more coming from an independent third party.

Independent third parties being, of course, readers.

Below are some ways readers can help all authors out, but especially indie authors. These methods are not entirely selfish as I think the reader/author relationship is a symbiotic one. By helping your favorite author and contributing to his or her success, you're increasing the possibility that he or she will continue writing the kind of books you enjoy. While making a living from writing isn't feasible for most of us, it helps a lot just knowing so... [More]

I'm not an artist in the visual sense. I can imagine what my characters should look like. I can see scenery in my mind. I can play out a scene as if it were a movie. I can even relay these things to other people via the written word. But there's no way I can represent them via an illustration. A visual artist I am most certainly not.

While my desire to write came from reading, artwork has always been an inspiration as well. Fantastic artwork is part of what attracted me to, well, fantasy. The work of such luminaries as Boris Vallejo, Keith Parkinson (who unfortunately died of leukemia in 2005; he was always one of my favorites), Frank Frazetta, Larry Elmore, and others fed my imagination in ways mere words never could.

While I still look to those individuals for creative inspiration, the Internet has opened the field to a truly vast scale. Much like authors have been freed of the traditional publishing gatekeepers, anyone can upload a sketch or illustration to their blog, web site, or... [More]

There are a lot of online reference resources out there. In this short series, I'm going to highlight just some of them. Here are the primary types I'll take a look at:

1. Dictionaries
2. Thesauri
3. Quotations
4. Style & Grammar (this post)
5. Word of the Day
6. Fun With Words

Web Sites

APA Style
APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online
Not free, but one of the de facto standards.

Common Errors in English Usage
Lots and lots of common errors.

Daily Grammar
Daily Grammar is a fun, convenient way to learn grammar.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.
The book we all know and love, online.

Grammar Girl
One of the best resources for “qu... [More]

There are a lot of online reference resources out there. In this short series, I'm going to highlight just some of them. Here are the primary types I'll take a look at:

1. Dictionaries
2. Thesauri
3. Quotations (this post)
4. Style & Grammar
5. Word of the Day
6. Fun With Words

Ancient Greek Quotes
Quotes from Ancient Greece.

Bartleby Dictionary of Quotations
From Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources.

Bartleby Familiar Quotations
A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature.

BrainyQuote
Nicely indexed site for quotes.

Dictionary.com Quotes
Organized by subject and author.

FamousQuotes.com
A one quote per page sort of deal.

Goodreads Popular Quotes
Popular quotes based on member input.

LitQuotes
Quotes from literature.

The Quotations Page
Name kind of says it all.

QuotesDaddy.com
Kinda ... [More]

There are a lot of online reference resources out there. In this short series, I'm going to highlight just some of them. Here are the primary types I'll take a look at:

1. Dictionaries
2. Thesauri (this post)
3. Quotations
4. Style & Grammar
5. Word of the Day
6. Fun With Words

Big Huge Thesaurus
Hey, they can call it whatever they want.

The Cook's Thesaurus
Yeah, you're seeing that right. The Cook's Thesaurus is a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools.

Merriam-Webster
You have to click on the 'Thesaurus' tab. Don't like the extra step.

The Synonym Finder
The Synonym Finder reads like a dictionary, except instead of word definitions it's chock full of synonyms.

Thesaurus.com
The one I use most often.

Urban Thesaurus
Because an Urban Dictionary just isn't enough.

Visual Thesaurus
Makes finding synonyms fun!

Your Dicti... [More]

There are a lot of online reference resources out there. In this short series, I'm going to highlight just some of them. Here are the primary types I'll take a look at:

1. Dictionaries (this post)
2. Thesauri
3. Quotations
4. Style & Grammar
5. Word of the Day
6. Fun With Words
   

The American Heritage Dictionary
Online but also available as an iOS or Android app.

Cambridge Dictionaries
Cambridge University Press publishes a range of dictionaries for learners of English all around the world.

Dictionary.com
The world's largest free online dictionary with definitions, spell check, word origins, example sentences, pronunciations, and a Word of the Day service.

Google
Type "define < your word goes here>" in any Google search box and Google will bring up the definition as the first search result.

Merriam-Webster.com
For more than 150 years, Merriam-Webster has been America's leading and most... [More]

Worldbuilding is something most writers have to think about to some degree. But none so much as a fantasy writer. In fantasy, everything is "made up". Content might be based on elements of reality, but the finished product is always fictitious. The dilemma is how far to take it. When John Scalzi wrote Old Man's War he made up only what he needed to tell the story. He might have mentioned such and such place, but unless that place was actually visited by his characters he didn't do anything more than create the name. The other side of the pendulum is someone like Tolkien who spent his lifetime developing the world of Middle-earth and only wrote a handful of novels as a result.

The solution to this dilemma is to find some middle ground. Create enough to make the world believable but not so much the writing itself never gets done.

Which brings me to my point of including the cover for Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon above. Gardens of the Moon is... [More]