S.K. Waters's Blog

Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book by Allison K. Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is now my favorite book on writing and self-editing. Williams takes the author, step-by-step, from the first Vomit Draft to the seventh Editor Draft, with detailed instructions and examples using easy-to-recognize works like The Hunger Games or the Harry Potter series. I've got so many Post-Its marking key points that I'd like to be able to quickly refer to that the book almost...

Under a Broken Sky by Kris Calvin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I could have endured all the scares and thrills that Emma Lawson withstood in this book, so let's hear it for strong female protagonists!

Superb pacing; the short chapters, each ending at precisely the right spot, kept me turning pages, anxious to discover what happens next.

And who doesn't love a story with a dog (actually, there were two...)?

I almost couldn't get enough of the supporting cast - even the retired lan...

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first, I didn't think I would enjoy the book because it started out with a lot of world-building and backstory, but three hours into it I found I was thoroughly enjoying El's quirky voice and the superimposition of the life of a high school outsider/loser/nerd on top of this magical school (and this particular high school outsider/loser/nerd adored that). Read deep into the night until my eyes started to feel "gummy" (like El'...

Or, Falling out of love with a character

“What on earth did you do to Nick?”

The question came from a friend who’d read early drafts of my first novel, Death and the Informant*, a cozy murder mystery on the edgier side of cozy. Back in the early drafts, my sleuth, Abbie Adams, a disgraced historical researcher, catches the eye of the newest cop in town, super-sexy Nick Preston (of course, he had to be super sexy, and of course he had to be a cop). Abbie’s and Nick’s paths cross when a ...

I confess. I’m a compulsive binge-watcher. Once I find a show I like, I pretty much can’t stop watching it until I get to the end. This has wreaked havoc with my sleep (there was that little devil on my shoulder saying, ‘It’s four a.m. – surely you can watch one more episode?’). Food, too – the other night, the Doordash delivery guy texted me to tell me my lunch was still on the porch. And my dog still hasn’t forgiven me for that especially long stint a couple of weeks ago when I refuse...

Or, 3 things I learned when interviewing myself.

Dear Future Fan: If you’ve found this page, I’m pretty sure it was an accident. To be sure, there have been far worse accidents in the history of the universe. New Coke comes to mind. So, please don’t do anything drastic yet, like leaving. Give this post a chance.

It was time to launch my author website, to build up that platform that everyone talks about. All the podcasts and blogs and posts and tweets and how-to books said an author w...