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writing

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021 JES HaysThe Birth of a Novel

Action from a Publisher

Remember when I had a nibble from that UK publisher? I finally had my Zoom meeting (cameras off) with the guy. He likes my writing style but says he likes […]

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 JES HaysOn Writing

Historical Fiction 101

The technical definition of historical fiction is “a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past.” That’s pretty vague, but then again, the […]

January 22, 2021January 22, 2021 JES HaysOn Writing

What I Would Like to Write: Mystery

I saw a list of interview questions for authors the other day and one of the questions was “What genre do you secretly wish you could write and why don’t […]

January 16, 2021January 16, 2021 JES HaysThe Birth of a Novel

A Little Action

A writing pal of mine suggested I submit the novels to a newish publisher. I asked the agent if she wanted to approach them, but she said I could do […]

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 JES HaysCharacters

Writing Secondary Characters

Elizabeth Boyle’s webinar on Secondary Characters was quite informative. Here are some of her points. First, what do you need secondary characters for? Lesson or Role? Your secondary character will […]

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 JES HaysTips and Tricks

Query Letter Elements

So what exactly should be in your query letter? In Angie Hodapp’s Query Letter Boot Camp, we talked about the three (or four) parts of a query letter: (Polite) Greeting: […]

November 7, 2020November 7, 2020 JES HaysThe Birth of a Novel

Elements of a Solid Query Pitch

Here’s some more great information from the Women Writing the West Conference and the Query Letter Boot Camp. According to Angie Hodapp, there are six signal words you need to […]

October 31, 2020October 31, 2020 JES HaysTips and Tricks

Query Letter Tips

This is from our Query Letter Boot Camp by Angie Hodapp. Here are 8 Tips for writing a query letter: Shorter query letters tend to get better responses than long […]

October 18, 2020October 18, 2020 JES HaysInspiration

Women Writing the West Conference

Yesterday was the last day of the Women Writing the West Conference. This was a great little conference — lots to do and plenty of classes for every type of […]

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 JES HaysThe Birth of a Novel

Under Western Stars Paperback!

The anthology is out in paperback now — proceeds go to support the Western Fictioneers so we don’t have to pay so much for our conferences and such — we’ve […]

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