The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
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Shaking It Up
So my wife and I used the last of our groupons for the year. We’re fortunate that she acquired so many earlier this year because with our current financial hardships, none of this would have been possible. A year ago for my birthday, I drove up to the North Country. I had the day off…
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On Beta Reading
I have finished the second draft of my middle grade fantasy, PRINCE OF CATS. To make sure I’m reaching my target readership appropriately, I have enlisted many of my nieces and nephews (and a few friends who are of the appropriate age) to read the draft and give me feedback. Now, since most of them…
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Words to Delete
I used to be a podcaster. That’s like public speaking except in private and with a record that people can reference years later. For that reason, there are certain words one needs to eliminate from one’s vocabulary to improve at public speaking. The biggest culprit is “ummmm” and “uhhhh” which we tend to default to…
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It’s the little details
I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: To help your reader believe the fantastic, make sure they recognize the mundane. It’s an easy (lazy) hand-wave to excuse inconsistencies in fantasy by saying “this isn’t the real world” when so much of the book mirrors the real world. Rarely do we create…
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Music to My Eyes
So one of the exhibits at Old Sturbridge Village is a building full of firearms and textiles. It is interesting to see the evolution of muskets and eventually rifles over the course of two centuries, but what I really found interesting was a few items in the textiles section of the building. There used to…
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Good Ken is Good
My friend Good Ken1 Braun is in town. We are leaving for Canada today for he has never been out of the United States and I will pop his international cherry. We go to Montreal for a couple days and then Quebec City. This is the first vacation I’ve had in years. While money is…
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Secret Passages
There are few things I like better in adventure storytelling than secret passages. In fact, the two middle grade novels I have in mind (one written, one started a few times but never finished) both are heavily reliant on secret passages. I think that’s a dream of a lot of kids, to live in a…
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A New Adventure!
Groupon Queen discovered that we lived near the nation’s third largest living history museum, Old Sturbridge Village. This is a village as you would have found it in 1835 New England, and many of the buildings are actually from that period transplanted from one of the various states. Actors/educators are in period dress and conduct…
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Damn You Robbie Coltrane!
Aside from the theme song, I don’t think there’s a line I identify more with the Harry Potter franchise than Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid saying “You’re a wizard, Harry!” It was used in so much promotional content. I heard it over and over again. And it’s a great line. I tells a new audience to…
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Food in the Future!
I’m from the Midwest. A historian might argue I’m from the South. Either way, I’m from the land of cows and pigs and chicken. Fish came in two varieties, cat or sticks. I cannot stand catfish. It is the most bland, boring, flimsy fish known to man and it looks pretty disgusting beforehand (my fish…
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When it’s not epic
I’ve participated in a couple of Writer’s Digest online seminars, one featuring Kristin Nelson and one feature Sara Megibow both from the Nelson Agency. During Kristin’s presentation, she mentioned that the main plot of your book, that first serious hook, should occur within the first 30-50 manuscript pages. Now this took me back. Having come…