No. No googling. Tell your story and when you are done you're done.

Re: fact checking. Got home from a short trip to the tournament. In the mail was (for reasons I can't explain) a copy of the Epoch Times.

Apparently, fact checking not required to be a 'professional' writer.

I feel a little out of touch. I had to Google this. But yikes!

This shows up every now and then. I think they just send them randomly to all addresses in a zip code. Isn't it also owned by the Chinese government?


Length of a novel - To me, 100k words barely gets it into the interesting range. But I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy where it seems the good ones are just warming up at 150k and make it a million-word series.



I remember reading about a well-known author that was having trouble cutting down a book to what he thought was a reasonable length. He gave it to his editor who told him the story was too big. The author said he didn't know where to cut any more. The editor said that he meant the story was too big for the current length. The take away was that the story goes on as long as it takes. Finish the story and then see if anything can be cut.

Favorites?

I don't want to clog up the thread, but this may be of interest to biggerboat.

Most of what I read now I get from Kindle Unlimited. It's a pretty good mix of: entertaining but nothing special, mind candy, bad enough that I don't feel bad dumping it because I pay by the month, and really good stuff that just never made the big-time. There's also occasionally NYT best seller stuff. Like Hugo Award winner Arkady Martine's - A Memory Called Empire (this one is great).

I'm not sure how these authors get paid. But it must be worth it for so many to be in the program and keep putting out books.


As for what I currently look for, anything by: Will Wight, Philip C Quaintrell, AC Cobble, Glynn Stewart, Skyler Ramirez, Rachel Aaron. It's pretty eclectic group as far as content and style.

In books I pay for - Brandon Sanderson is probably top of the list.

epoch times is owned by the fa lun gong cult who believe they can fly, cure cancer with their minds, transport themselves to the astral plane, and communicate with aliens

also watch out for Washington times, that one is owned by the moonie church

asian cults own a good dozen or so print publications in America, it's embarrassing we do nothing to regulate it

Thanks. Sanderson's one of my favorites too. Never heard of any of those other authors. If you don't use the Libby app, that's a good source too, assuming you have a library card somewhere.