All posts in category Writing & Promotion Tips

Modern-Day Good Fridays 6/4/2021

by Staci Stallings Sometimes timing becomes important. This is one of those times. Right now, as you read this Easter Sunday has passed, and we have entered fully into the Easter Season. By the time you get to Easter, it’s sometimes easy to forget about Good Friday.  Good Friday, the day Jesus hung […]

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The Gap 5/21/2021

by Staci Stallings So the other night my 16-year-old son, the light guy, sat in his chair in the living room perplexed beyond measure. His quandary?  He’d been working for a couple of weeks on a prototype for a new light design for the Christmas light show at our house in our yard.  […]

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Nothing Like a Challenge 5/7/2021

by Staci Stallings Okay, so you might not know this as a reader.  It’s one of those first obstacles most writers have. It goes something like this: “There’s this song I want to use in my book.  It’s a really popular song, and it will fit really well with this story. So, what […]

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What’s Your Superpower? 4/30/2021

by: Staci Stallings I’m elbow-deep in The Imagination Series—writing Book 8 now.  Book 7 is on preorder.  Book 6 just released. So I’ve been thinking a lot about superpowers. In the series, there are six main-ish characters. They are friends from high school. Each one has a superpower, and the idea of the series […]

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Backstory 4/23/2021

by Staci Stallings Many, many moons ago on a writing loop I was on at the time, there was a massive discussion about backstory. For those who don’t know, “backstory” refers to a character’s story that happened before the current story starts. Basically, where did this person come from and how did they […]

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The Truth about Lamp Lighting

by Staci Stallings The Bible says that God’s Word is a lamp at my feet. My dad always said that God put the lamp at our feet and not on our head. That means we’re supposed to focus on the next step, not how we’re getting all the way down the tunnel. I’ve […]

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The Challenging Art of Weaving a Story 3/26/2021

by Staci Stallings Every book is a challenge. Some are more challenging than others, and some are challenging in different ways than others. For example, when I wrote a book about a dancer, I had to do lots of research about dance. I had to learn terms and how to put specific movements […]

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Finding Flow 2/12/2021

by: Staci Stallings For the past couple of years I’ve been intensely interested in the concept of flow or flow state. Some call it optimal performance state. Basically, it’s when you go from System 2 thinking (consciously thinking about something) to System 1 thinking (automatic thinking or subconscious thinking). A good way of […]

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Get Up and Get Out: Find Your Research Gems in Conversation

by Carmen Peone “Just to let you know, I wouldn’t marry her!” said my working cattle ranch-owning contact.   His words made my chest clench. Yet, his profound statement changed the course of my first romantic suspense story’s attitude.  I didn’t want another weak woman saved by a macho man. I wanted real characters facing and overcoming trauma—like […]

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The Publishers that Prey – A word of caution about vanity presses

by Parker J. Cole Earlier this month, I received a call from a vanity press.  I’m not sure how they got my name, but I figure they’re another arm of Westbow Press which I published my first book under. At that time, I spent about three thousand dollars on them listing my book on different websites.   Nothing else. I KNOW […]

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