Tag Archive | music
Tales of Ever After – “Being Seen” Inspiration
The blog tour for Tales of Ever After is over, but I’m doing a little bonus, some of the inspiration behind my short story “Being Seen.” H.L. Burke is one of my favorite authors, so I jumped on the chance to write a fairy tale themed story for her Fellowship of Fantasy’s fourth anthology. My […]
Handel’s Messiah: Kind of a Bore
Am I allowed to say that? We’re all familiar, I think, with the “Halleluiah Chorus,” which is no doubt one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. But there’s a reason it’s usually the one part of Messiah that gets sung. And the reason is that the rest of the program is dull […]
Admiration Is Not Idolatry
I have been a Billy Joel fan since I was young, probably fifth grade since that coincides with the release of An Innocent Man. The first album I bought was The Bridge. If memory my serves me correctly, $9.99 at Record Bar at Honey Creek Square in Terre Haute, IN. It might have been Disk […]
Themes and Playlists
Forged Steel is done! Well, my final draft is, anyway. Yay! So that’s why I’ve been missing for a couple of weeks. I finished Forged Steel in a flurry of several days writing a long time (four hours per day, in fact…my hubby very nicely spent his days off taking care of Toby and a […]
WIP Report April 2014
Kristen Stieffel: WIP Title: Boh’s Abdication Current Word Count: 104,848 Expected Word Count: 100,000 Goal Finish Date: March 1 Draft 1, 2, Editing etc?: First Draft Biggest Struggle: I finally figured out how to reach the expected conclusion of the book…but it requires writing another 30 scenes. And I’m already behind deadline and over word […]
Video Killed the Radio Star . . . And Shot Itself in the Foot
Music, like poetry or prose, tells a story. It paints a portrait of a a person or a situation or an ideal. As writers, one of our hardest tasks is engaging the reader right from the first page. There are entire seminars on writing that first line to hook your reader. Musicians have no less […]
Observations on being a “New Generation Writer”
I was a struggling author trying to land an agent or publisher for several years. Now I’ve been published by a small indie press for five months, with plans for a book to be released November 2012 and another book to be released as a serial in an online magazine starting January 2012. During all […]
What’s Your Theme Song?
The other day, my banter buddy Morgan Shamy a.k.a. Morgs. a.k.a The Red Pen, asked us to vote on a “catchphrase” or a sign-off for her to use. It was brilliant. Really. She included two examples: Leigh Fallon’s Talk Soon and mine, Word. Thank you, Red Pen. Many of you, well pretty much all of you who “know” me, know that, yes, I say word. A […]
The New Authors Fellowship 