How's that title grab you? We are getting closer and closer to that reality. How many subscription services have you signed up for? Nextflix, Spotify, Audible, the list is long, and they all promise you tons of content. The important part is don't get too attached to it. What happened to me recently is I …
Author: Vincent A. Alascia
Vincent is the author of, "In the Presence of Gods," "Xristos: Chosen of God," "UNdead Heart," "The Hole in Your Mind," and coming soon, "The Fourth Prometheus," available on Kindle and paperback, as well as works that have appeared in anthologies and online. Originally an East Coast native, he makes his home in the Portland area with his wife and three attention grabbing felines.
Scammy Scammers and How They Scam
So a little over a month ago I had an ad come across my Facebook feed for a mechanical Bluetooth keyboard. I had seen these before and knew they usually go for over $200. This one was only $59.99 minus a $3 discount so $56.99. Shipping was another $7.79 bringing the total up to $64.74. …
I’ve Dropped Facebook
It feels so freeing to say that. As of today, Friday August 13th I have deactivated and deleted my Facebook account. Facebook lately has just become a den of racism and misinformation. Not to mention scams. I’ve been stung three times. The first two were for small amounts, items I never received. The last one …
(Not) Writing In a Pandemic
I originally was going to call this post, "Writing In a Pandemic." Unfortunately I haven't been doing much of that. At first I was really down on myself for letting all this free time go to waste, but as I talked to more writers I found that this seems to be the situation for many. …
I’m a Terrible Writer
There, I said it. Though I feel I may need to clarify things. My writing is not terrible, I'm just very bad at sitting down to write. If anything these last few weeks inside have made me realize all the excuses I've made for not finishing this or starting that are just excuses. Time is …
File This Under: Are You Kidding Me
I heard about a little Twitter dust-up from Nathan Bransford's blog: One of the Fastest Paths to Rejection: Implying You Don't Read Much. There isn't much that I can add other than, Are you kidding me? I know the urge on Twitter is to rev up those couple of hundred characters and voice an opinion, …
Only You Can Prevent Rejections
While perusing my RSS feed I came upon a post I'd like to share with you from Anne R. Allen's wonderful blog. It's title is Don’t Give Your Readers a Reason to Reject your Novel and if some of you are like me you'll need to hear this again. We've all been guilty of one …
The Key to Great Character Introductions
I spotted this gem on the interwebs. It comes from Nathan Bransford's awesome blog. https://blog.nathanbransford.com/2020/01/nail-every-characters-first-impression This has some great advice for introducing characters and is something I know I fumble a bit with. It's really important to make everything a part of the story. Nobody wants to read through pages of stuff that the writer …
That New Novel Smell
It's NaNoWriMo again. Man that came up fast, didn't we just do this last year? Actually I have never done a NaNoWriMo challenge. I guess I am this month. I had a unique idea come to me in my sleep and figured I'd give a crack at getting it all down. Along with that, I …
The Fourth Prometheus Edits
My editor returned the manuscript to me, and included with it was a thirteen page assessment of the work covering, characters, setting, plot, POV, and voice. It is quite thorough and at first a shot to the ego. This is the most challenging part of the writing process. Your work is laid bare and dissected. …
