PIMP MY WRITE

I LOVE this week's topic.
The reason I love this topic is that it gives me the chance to pass on the word of some books and resources that I use and find indispensable.

I'm not going to yank your chain here. This first book is the ABSOLUTE TOTAL FREAKING BEST BOOK ON WRITING EVER WRITTEN EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.

Seriously. I wrote my first book, BLOOD AND BULLETS and thought it rocked. I was gonna set the world on FIRE. I was querying it, getting requests for pages.....and a ton of rejections. My wife picked this book up at the local library. She flipped through it and said it was pretty good. I picked it up and read the first couple of pages.
The book then ate my brain for 3 days.
I read it cover to cover and when I put it down I realized one very important thing. The most important thing I had ever realized in my life.
My book sucked ass.
It's true. My book was awful. But I wasn't depressed or sad about it because Jessica Page Morrell had told me that I could fix it.
I took her advice, written in easy to read format, applied it, overhauled the book and then turned around and sold it in a 3-book deal from Kensington.

So go right now and order THANKS BUT THIS ISN'T FOR US by Jessica Page Morrell.

Next up is THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

I know, I hear you saying "but James, that isn't a writing book."
No it's not, but it IS a book chock full with some of the most breath-taking language I have ever read. This book touches my soul with its use of the english language. I read it right before making my revision pass on a novel. Just filling my mind with this heavenly wordsmithing makes me write better.

I also highly recommend Lilith Saintcrow's blog. Her posts on how to write made me realize that I could write a novel. Me. A guy who hadn't ever written more than some crap in high school and a TERRIBLE sword and sorcery thing during a late night gig being security at a downtown Atlanta jack shack. After reading her stuff I could and did write a novel that sold.

CLICK HERE FOR WORDS OF WISDOM FROM LILITH SAINTCROW.

So those are my fave writing tools.