Welcome to my Publishing Tips Blog Tour. I’ve put together ten short, easy tips that have been invaluable
on my journey to publication. Follow my tour to see them all. Tour stops will
be posted on my website: http://booksbymsk.com/?page_id=428
Stop 2: Write stories for which you feel passion.
It’s
very difficult to write a truly compelling story unless you’re obsessed with
the idea. Yes, obsessed. Your characters should chase after you screaming the
plot or murmuring in your ear as you sleep. If they’re not, you don’t have your
story yet, or maybe you haven’t dug into it enough. Maybe it’s one small
thing—the opening hook, a twist in the plot, a character’s secret—or maybe it’s
the basic premise. Whatever it is, find it and hold on! Don’t write to have
written—write because you have to see how the story turns out.
Strong
as Death
Book
one of the Born from Death series
Ilona runs from her sheltering mother in order
to find the truth, why she’s seeing people who are invisible to everyone else.
A mysterious boy named Archer guides her through Brooklyn and introduces her to
Hendrick, the man who claims to be her father—though he died in 1890. Ilona must
discover not only what she must do to rid the city of Soll, a sadistic and
powerful spirit, but also what it means to be half ghost. She proves what her
mother told her—love is stronger than death.
Buy
Links:
Excerpt:
Another twenty yards and
she’d be out of the darkness of the trees and almost to the sidewalk, within
reach of the light from the streetlamps.
A figure stepped out
from behind a large oak, directly into Ilona’s path.
Ilona stopped and
searched for a way around.
“What are you doing?” a
rough voice growled.
Ilona recognized it
immediately, even before she registered Archer’s face.
“It’s none of your
business what I’m doing,” she said.
He moved closer. “You’re
making it goddamned impossible to protect you.”
“You can’t protect me.”
His jaw tightened, and
he glared. “What in the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”
“I’m honestly not sure.”
His voice rose. “You’d
be lying frozen dead in a gutter right now if it wasn’t for me. You saw what
happened in the shelter—you’d have been attacked by now if I hadn’t been
around.”
Her tone was quiet,
calm. “I know how you scared them away.”
“I told you I have a
talent for creating fear. It comes in useful.”
“But you don’t like it.”
He said nothing.
“And I know you’ve been
around,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows
as if she was being slow.
“Before you asked me if
I was lost,” she said. “You were there—when the car hit me.”
His expression sobered.
She waited for a
response.
Finally, he said, “I’ve
been around.”
“Will you answer one
question? And be honest?”
“I give as much honesty
as I can.”
Her lips curved a
little. That was perhaps the most honest response he had yet given.
She moved closer, and he
backed away.
“No,” she said.
He stopped.
“When you turned the
corner and asked if I was lost,” she said, “you leaned your shoulder on the
wall. How did you do that?”
His eyebrows pulled
together.
“You’re really good at
it,” she said. “It took me awhile to realize you never actually touch anything,
that you stay out of the light, that you don’t get cold, your breath doesn’t
come out in puffs in the cold like everyone else’s, you never let anyone close,
near enough to realize you have no scent, to feel the static when you get too
close.”
He took a step back, as
if in self-defense.
“Don’t try to lie anymore,” she said. “I know what you are.”
Author Bio:
M.S. Kaye has several published books under her black belt. A transplant from Ohio, she resides with her husband Corey in Jacksonville, Florida, where she tries not to melt in the sun. Find suspense and the unusual at www.BooksByMSK.com.
Contact M. S. Kaye at:
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/MSKosciuszko (Yes, that’s my real last name. See why I use a pen name?)
Thank you for having me!
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