Cara N. Delaney's Blog

There’s a holiday every day of the year, probably. I haven’t looked it up, so don’t quote me on it, but it sure feels like it. A bunch of those holidays are about books, and the people who write them. And while there are dozens of those as well, there’s only one of me, so allow me to chat a bit about my favourite literary holidays!

1 – Towel Day
Set for May 25, Towel Day is a tribute to British sci-fi and comedy writer Douglas Adams, and more specifically his seminal work The Hitchhiker’s Guid...

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

Just in time for the spookiest of months, I started reading a new horror novel. Well, I say “just in time”, when I’ve been reading this (very slowly) since mid-September

If you’ve been here for a while, you know I love Chuck Tingle, have since the dawn of the Tingler, basically. A Tingler, for the uninitiated, is a piece of short-form erotica, usually featuring mythical creatures, living objects, or the physical manifestation of an abstract concept. They are ente...

There are a lot of ways to promote your books. If you’re reading this and have published any, you’ve probably tried a bunch of them. What I hope you haven’t tried are the following five ways in which people attempt to market their work that are at best ineffective and at worst tank your reputation with your peers, your readers, or both. Let’s dive in.

1 – The Spammer
This one’s pretty obvious. You make a social media account, dress it up with some pretty graphics, and then post ahoy! Post ...

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

Boy, do I wish this book had come out ten years earlier. Teenage Me would have been delighted.

To give you some context if you don’t know what a bullet journal is, or only have a vague idea of ‘notebook with a dot grid’: the bullet journal method is an actual system, broadly speaking a DIY planner system. It’s designed to allow you to organise your life, prioritise your tasks, and plan your days in a very easy to understand way. It’s also super fl...

I’ve been writing since I was a child. Many of us have, that’s not unusual. I knew fairly early on that I wanted to do that professionally though. I began to pursue that more seriously in my teenage years, which was also when I started digging more into the theory side of things. I then went on to major in creative writing at university, started self-publishing, and generally just… kept going.

But how doe...

I decided to start a new series of posts. They’ll go up at the start of the month, so we have a nice two-week rhythm going. They won’t be book reviews, I’ve explained before that I don’t do that on any of my author accounts. Rather, they’ll be my thoughts on reads in progress. We’re starting this series off with two classics, one fiction and one non-fiction.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I’m almost certain I heard of this one years ago, but it only really came on my radar a year or so b...

Chances are that, if you’re reading this, you know. We’ve all been there, with varying severity. Some of us power through, some of us wait it out, but beyond those polar opposites, there are also some simple strategies to try and get through your writer’s block both in a timely manner and with your sanity intact. Let’s check out a few.

Take a break
The first and most obvious solution is to take a break. Not the “however long it takes for the writer’s block to disappear on its own” kind. Rather...

Intergalactic Femicide and You

Some pretty god points here about the – let’s call a spade a spade – abject misogyny in many breeding-focused alien romances.

Last month, I wrote about the topic of self-help and organisation, and how there is no one-size-fits-all method. People are so different, we all need different things. The thorny bit is figuring out what works for us, and that can be a long journey.

This time, I figured I’d go through my own systems as I use them today. Not as a dogmatic method, but as an example. Maybe what I do is something you think would work for you, too. Maybe you find bits and pieces of it helpful. Either way, if you’v...

Last month, I wrote about the topic of self-help and organisation, and how there is no one-size-fits-all method. People are so different, we all need different things. The thorny bit is figuring out what works for us, and that can be a long journey.

This time, I figured I’d go through my own systems as I use them today. Not as a dogmatic method, but as an example. Maybe what I do is something you think would work for you, too. Maybe you find bits and pieces of it helpful. Either way, if you’v...