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Simon & Schuster authors speak out on the topics that inspire them

A gossip queen dissecting politics? A political pundit musing about sports? A romance novelist waxing poetic on music? You read it here first... see what your favorite literary personalities have to say about life beyond books.

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Fido in Love and Mark's Mother, Too

By Marion Dane Bauer - July 6, 2012

I mentioned in my blog last week that in gathering ideas for another story set in Erthly, the home of Little Dog, Lost, I decided that the cat Fido would be an important character in the new story. And if he is to be an important character, then he needs both to go on being the dog-dominating cat we already know and, at the same time, to grow more richer, more complex. And what...

Writers Need Other Writers

By Marion Dane Bauer - July 6, 2012

Writers need other writers. It is such a solitary occupation, this sitting in front of a computer—or a typewriter or a pad of paper—and building stories out of the deepest recesses of our minds, that we need from time to time to be with others who share our compulsion for wandering off into worlds of our own creation. The conversation that occurs when we come together gives...

Back to Ideas ... Where Do They Come From?

By Marion Dane Bauer - July 6, 2012

Usually ideas for a novel grow slowly, gathering over a period of weeks or months from bits and pieces that cling to a central idea. I have such a novel idea gathering now, even while I'm deeply immersed in writing another. And because I'm writing this blog I've been more intentional than usual lately in noting the way that gathering process works. I have known from the moment...

An Imitation of Life?

By Marion Dane Bauer - July 6, 2012

I once had a friend who made a point of not telling me about the more dramatic events in her life because she was convinced that if she did she would find herself one day in one of my stories. The fact that she had never found herself—or anyone else she knew in my stories never assuaged her fears. If she had only known, stories are not—as is often assumed—an imitation of...

The Man who Turned Both Cheeks has a cover design

By Gillian Royes - June 27, 2012

Writing a mystery series has been a huge learning experience, the curve greater than I'd ever anticipated. As a middle-aged friend of mine says, "We have to do these things while we're still young." Grappling with being a writer of fiction for the first time has made me aware of how much we all have to learn every day and I'm loving every minute of it. One of the thrills of...

Booknotes: The Blue Castle

By Melissa Wiley - June 22, 2012

I didn’t mean to reread The Blue Castle again, but then I never do plan it; I just seem to tumble into it on a regular basis. Somehow it gets better, richer, every time. I feel like I could walk out my back door and be in Muskoka, watching the moon over the lake. You wouldn’t think it possible Montgomery could make any place sound as lovely as Prince Edward Island, but oh,...

The solstice - and The Island House

By Posie Graeme-Evans - June 21, 2012

June 21st, Tasmania. A day of sharp, settled cold but I'm warm sitting here - cosy, writing, looking out across fields and hills to water and, in the distance, snow on the mountains.And in America, in four days time, in the dazzle of your June, my new book The Island House comes out. Life feels schizophrenic, right now!So this is our longest night, and your longest day. Going to...

Event! August 25 in West Chester, PA

By Jessica Burkhart - June 11, 2012

What: PAYA 2012 Where: Pennsylvania's Leadership Charter School Advanced Learning Center; 1585 Paoli Pike, West Chester, PA 19380 When: Saturday, August 25, 2012 (time TBA) Books will be sold to raise money for PA libraries and I'll be signing along with a fab, growing list of authors! Check out the official PAYA page here:...

REFLECTIONS ON A TRILOGY TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING

By Mary Alice Monroe - June 7, 2012

It was a tender moment on book tour when a reader came up and nervously asked if I would sign her old book--a copy of the original THE BEACH HOUSE. Remember the paperback with the team picture on the back? I smiled to see it again. I don’t have a copy! She told me she’d never part with it. That’s high praise from a reader and it gave me pause. It’s been ten...

By Marion Dane Bauer - June 5, 2012

I love revising. Revising is so much more fun than facing the terror of the blank page/computer screen. And that's the most important piece of advice I have for writers coming along after me. Learn to see revision as the best part of writing. Learn even to love revising. The key is never to think of revising as fixing something that went wrong the first time around. Think of it...

Dipping Even Farther into Nostalgia–the Typewriter!

By Marion Dane Bauer - June 5, 2012

I was born wanting to write. Or at least I was born with my head full of stories. (My elementary school teachers used to write on my report card in the category then called deportment, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment.) I didn't begin actually putting words on the page, though, until I was released from the drudgery of pencil on paper by learning to type. What magic! It...

What about the Other Characters?

By Marion Dane Bauer - June 5, 2012

Most readers, I suspect, assume that a story’s perceiving character will come from the writer’s own psyche, at least to some degree. Not that authors must commit murder to write from the perspective of a murderer, but to do so we must be able to get in touch with the part of ourselves that might, given the right circumstances, be capable of such an act. What about the side...

Computers I Have Known

By Marion Dane Bauer - June 5, 2012

I've been thinking lately about computers I have worked with. I don't usually have much of a relationship with machines. The cars I drive are only practical necessities, something to move me farther and faster than my feet can manage on their own. I have strong opinions about stoves, hate the electric ones, love the instant-on/instant-off of a gas flame. And I find a stick...

Comic: Interviewing Potatoes For I'M BORED

By Debbie Ridpath Ohi - June 4, 2012

Picking the right Potato character for I'M BORED was a challenge, so I decided to conduct some in-depth interviews:http://debbieohi.com/im-bored-scrapbook/2012/3/28/im-bored-comic-the-interviews.html

Book news, book events, and book releases

By Mary Alice Monroe - May 18, 2012

What a spring season! A lot is happening and I'm excited to share all the great news with you- book releases, signing events, book recognitions and so much more. Here we go--- THE BUTTERFLY'S DAUGHTER, just released last month in trade paperback, and has been selected as a 2012 SIBA Book Award Finalist for the year's Best Book. (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance). I'm...

Notes from the Road

By Mary Alice Monroe - May 18, 2012

It's the second week of the BEACH HOUSE MEMORIES book tour, and so far it has been a memorable and exhilarating adventure. One of the most amazing moments happened Monday afternoon during the "Moveable Feast" literary luncheon in Pawleys Island, hosted by Litchfield Books. It filled my eyes with tears. Before I explain why, let me share a little background first. ...

By Jessica Burkhart - May 16, 2012

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've been on the Author Portal. *hides head in shame* It's got some supercool upgrades and I'll be checking in and updating my info more frequently. I'm eagerly anticipating the release of INITIATION (Canterwood Crest #13). Hurry, January 3! xoxo

By Sarah Alderson - May 14, 2012

Download a copy of my short story CATCHING SUKI. It’s FREE for a limited time AND you’ll be helping support an amazing charity that supports girl changemakers across the globe! Here’s the blurb… The Unit are closing in and Demos needs one of his team to go deep cover. Enter Suki. Fashion obsessed, boy-crazy and more than a little kooky, Suki is a mind reader with a...

Small Impossibilities

By Mark Griffiths - May 14, 2012

How do you achieve the impossible? Surely in fantasy fiction it's easy? Anything can happen, can't it? Perhaps. But if your story is to be appear real and not the febrile outpourings of an overheated brain (yes, I'm looking at you, the film Avatar), it pays to keep two factors in mind. The first is to place your fantasy within a believable setting. Jaws works so well...

Space Lizards in Church

By Mark Griffiths - May 14, 2012

It was one of those Monday mornings when you find yourself in a church talking to 300 children about space lizards. It was the first event of my author mini-tour for Space Lizards Stole My Brain! Three hundred kids from 9 different schools had squeezed into Christ Church in Wesham, Lancashire to hear me read from my novel and talk about writing comedy. I could tell it was...

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