Category Archives: writing

My next book review

As anyone who has seen me on GoodReads.com knows, I’m currently reading through the highly entertaining novel, NOT WHAT SHE SEEMS by Victorine Lieske. It’s generally categorized as a romantic suspense novel and since I love suspense and mystery and such, it was high on my reading list. I’ve nearly two-thirds done with it, so …

October 12, 2010 – 11:17 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Starting to grow attached to new cast

After spending over two years building up the cast of characters in my aborted mystery novel, THIRTY MINUTES OR LESS, putting that project on the back burner has been difficult, like moving away from an old, familiar neighborhood. Or like giving up my old, loved Sony Vega TV for a new Samsung HDTV. Even when …

September 4, 2010 – 9:16 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Finally rolling on my novel and more

I’m finally making progress on my new novel; not Thirty Minutes or Less, my long-suffering, re-started many times because of hard drive crashes supernatural mystery, but my newer one. It’s starting to flow, which is good. Plus I have all my material pulled together for my theological books on the Messianic movement. It was a …

August 26, 2010 – 11:52 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Kindle, writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Stray thoughts on ePublishing

I recently became a member of KindleBoards. They have a nice area for writers there called Writer’s Cafe. I’m learning a lot and I know that by being active there and on Amazon’s boards, I’ll increase my exposure and therefore my chance to do well once I release my books on Kindle. However, it takes …

August 12, 2010 – 10:33 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

New author interview in the works

Last year, I was thrilled to land an exclusive, extensive interview with Sookie Stackhouse creator Charlaine Harris. While I generally don’t do a lot of interviews here, it was an extremely popular series of posts and very well received as Harris opened up on her craft in ways I haven’t read in many other interviews …

August 3, 2010 – 12:01 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Charlaine Harris, writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Getting more excited about the eBook opportunity

One of the things that can really energize a writer to write is finding a market. With the Kindle self-publishing route and the opportunity there, I believe I’ve found one such market, sans apidexin. But the nice motivational part beyond just finding this opportunity is in discovering writers who are doing high-quality work in this …

July 27, 2010 – 12:22 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Barnes and Noble: a new eBook market?

Barnes and Noble recently launched the Nook device and are also launching, this summer, a new competitor to Amazon.com’s Digital Text Platform, called PubIt. I’m hoping the two outlets won’t differ too much from each other, as figuring out the finer points of all this takes a bit of time; but the potential for adding …

July 16, 2010 – 1:36 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

More digital thoughts

Generally, I regard self-publishing to be as foolish as giving prenatal vitamins to five-year-olds. But that’s when it’s print self-publishing and it means money out of the author’s pocket that might never be replaced. The difference with Amazon’s Digital Text Platform for Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s forthcoming PubIt for Nook is that there is …

July 12, 2010 – 2:30 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Digital self-publishing thoughts

I’ve been thinking a lot about digital self-publishing lately. I’ve been impressed by the success some folks are having with Amazon’s Kindle device, and the model they have for self-publishing. Unlike print self-publishing, there’s no cash-up-front stuff to deal with; you can just write, edit, prepare and publish, and then enjoy a royalty payment far …

July 12, 2010 – 2:24 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Introducing Things

One novelist once said that you needed to introduce character and conflict as early in the novel as possible to gain your reader’s trust to stick through the length of a novel with you. While I can’t quite put a digital frame on it, I can say that I’ve been thinking a lot about how …

June 25, 2010 – 2:00 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

In Search of a Catchy Title

Readers of this blog know by now that I’m working on a new novel project. Well, I started a new one, that is, after I found out someone in Hollywood had already created their own concept called “30 Minutes Or Less.” Oh well… The problem now is this: I’ve vowed not to share the title …

June 25, 2010 – 1:55 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Main character questions

Everyone loves a strong main character, but does that mean he should be completely lovable? I don’t think so. Too often “heroes” are so idealized that readers end up empathizing with the more relatable villains than they do with the person doing the right things. There are so many questions when crafting a main character, …

May 28, 2010 – 2:29 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)