Book Snob: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

A while back I mentioned I wanted to share great book covers with you since I'm basically a big, fat, judgemental, book cover snob. So, here's a beauty: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. This cover is simple, yet vibrant and the picture along with the title font can't help but create a sense of mystery and build intrigue. Flip the book over and the back is just as suited for the fantastic: solid black with electric blue feathering on the top and bottom with a strong pitch for the book. The back reads: She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil's lair. She wasn't innocent now..." and that's all. No kudos from editors/writers/critics. Just the pitch in blue text. Great stuff and I can't wait to dive in.

Jacket design is by Dave Caplan and Alison Impey.

Getting Trapped in the Gap

Like a lot of people, I go through spurts of heavy creativity followed by plateaus of blahdom. Either I'm terribly intensive, slaving away on my story and annoyingly stuck in my own head, focused on the world I'm building for Elsbeth and Burning Spirit,...or I'm not. I'm either the crazy chick from The Craft, or I'm the girl next door: someone calm and fun.

The problem is that you can't really get any work done in either situation. If you're girl-next-door (GND), then you're out having coffee and not working at all, and if you're crazy-bitch-from-the-craft (CBFC) you can't be objective about your work and you, my lovely readers, get left behind.

Embracing the Fantasy Genre

There's something I've been trying to wrap my head around for going on a year now, and that is the Fantasy genre and how I come to greet it. The second I think of Fantasy I picture dragons, fairies, knights, princesses in thick gowns, goblins, days of old, and a bunch of fresh bread baking in open flame ovens. This is clearly a stereotype of the genre since so many fantastic books are Fantasy without containing any of that, and a lot of books with those features are also great and engaging.

Burning Spirit - The Pitch

February, so far, has been a busy month. Between housesitting and just about everyone coming down with some kind of temporary sickness, it's been hard to keep up with the blog and talk to you. However, when things get busy, I keep writing. I keep working on my witch novel, A Burning Spirit, editing, cutting, adding, etc.. But, to be honest, when the squeeze of time happens, I'm sorry, I choose the novel over the blog. If I didn't, then I wouldn't have anything to submit to agents/publishers down the road but an idea, a first draft, and a lot of blog entries.

The Name Change

In case you've been here before and suddenly your world has been turned upside down and you think you're losing your mind because this lady won't use commas fear not! It's okay. You're in the same place you used to be in when you recognized everything but now it's all very different and somehow smells better.

What am I talking about? (I don'tknow, I'munder the weather andmy spacebar is still actingup.)

Actually, I do know, I've changed the name of my blog from Confessions of a Fiction Writer to, simply put, Margaret Telsch-Williams' Blog.

While I love to write about writing, and talk about writing, and sing about writing, and dream about critiquing writing (true story), I think the old title was restricting all of the wonderful things I wanted to say to you fantastic readers all because the title of the blog told me not to. Not about writing somehow equalled, don't share.

So, tah-dah, here's the new shebang blog, just like the old one, but with more me.

Whatdya think?