Elizabeth Fisher's Blog (28)

After publishing my urban fantasy novel, Curse Me Not, which is about a woman who can cleanse curses off people’s auras, I was surprised by readers asking me about aura health. My novel was, by definition, fiction, so I turned to real world experts and was surprised that generally the answer doesn’t involve as much New Age mumbo-jumbo as I’d imagined. (Yep, I was…

Let me guess. When you hear “Appalachia” you picture moonshine, clan feuds, illiterate hillbillies living up “hollers,” shotguns at every door jamb, and maybe banjo music playing in the background.

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Have you noticed how stereotypes are invariably wrong but they live on because there’s a kernel of truth hidden inside the b*******?

Where I live…

Fictional writing should offer a rhythm, a pattern, and a sound. Together these elements create what’s needed for any decent narrative: flow. Without flow, readers will soon find themselves disinterested in what you’ve written and, frankly, perturbed at you.

Here’s an example of what I mean from my novel, Curse Me Not. Read this passage, not for…

My Knoxville writers’ group has been at it again with more flash fiction. This time we used Seventh Sanctum to give us individual prompts. Seventh Sanctum is a website that provides randomly generated ideas that inspire writers. The following is what came out of my random prompt, “A Jew on the River Styx.” Since I’m Jewish, it seemed a random bit of fate!

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On one of my earliest trips abroad, I happened to strike up a conversation with a fellow backpacker over expressos at some student café in Paris. One topic led to another, and she ended up telling me about a strange decision made by a friend of hers. Now, many years later, the backpacker’s tale came to mind when I was challenged to create a piece of flash fiction about going overseas. I daresay young girls still agonize over the same decision: the who, the when—although in light of the…

Rage is not anger. Don’t confuse the two.

We can rant at a neighbor’s dog that won’t stop barking, we can snap at a significant other for not picking up their dirty underwear, we can even feel our blood pressure rise at the words of a politician or shout at another driver who cuts us off on the interstate. Anger comes in a flash and usually leaves the same…

Following the discussion, we assigned ourselves an abbreviated…

While we women authors often include at least a touch of romance in our novels, it doesn’t mean women understand romance better than men or even that we’re better at "working" it. Perhaps—and this is just my opinion—women simply have more fun with romance than men do.

Let’s suppose for a moment that the love of fun is the reason women authors rule the fiction…

My favorite fiction to curl up with has usually been a mix or urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Yet now after bingeing on the genre for a while, I find myself diversifying.

Yes, I grew bored with the standard tropes associated with, let’s call it “paranormal fantasy.” You know the tropes I’m…

“Flash Fiction” is a short—sometimes really short—form of storytelling. The number of words required in flash fiction differs from writer to writer, editor to editor, contest to contest, but some purists insist that it’s a story told in less than 75 words. For less-rigid flashers, anything under 500 words is flash-worthy. Either way, and despite the limited length, flash…

It’s time.

I’ve had my first novel published. I’ve garnered great reviews. I’ve created my website, my blog, my fool Twitter feed (or whatever!). I’m even close to finishing the novella that will act as a bridge to my second novel. So now it’s time to start on that second novel—for real.

Yeppers, Number Two is the s****. The time for excuses…

Cats have long been associated with the paranormal. One might first think of them as feline familiars to witches, but that is so not the beginning or end of their story. In Japan, myth says cats turn into super spirits when they die. Another culture believes cats routinely accomplish astral travel even in life. The Ancient Egyptians basically deified…

As a newbie author, I recently realized how important—and fun!—it was to be a member of the Knoxville Writers Guild and the guild’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers’ Group. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned over the past year and how much of what I’ve learned has affected my writing.

Here’s a case in point.…

Sometimes s*** happens and I feel compelled to “go there,” to speak my mind. And so…

To me it seems things have taken a turn in the U.S. that’s unlike anything I’ve seen over the past half-century. And, well, you know the Edmund Burke quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” With that on my mind, I write this particular blog as part of my stab at doing “something.” 

First, I ask the reader to view these…

I received super exciting news at the first of the year. The boutique publisher of my novel, Curse Me Not, has taken my e-book to print!

Truthfully, I never expected It to happen. My publisher focuses on e-book sales, but apparently the world turned on its ear sometime during the latter part of 2015. National print book sales took a huge upswing,…

I mentioned in a past blog that I’m a member of the Knoxville Writers Guild and, in particular, of the Guild’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers’ Group. We love our “flash fiction" writing experiments, so I’m going to share another one. This one is based on a stock photo that was used as a "prompt," and while humor usually features in my flash fiction, this time I went serious – even spiritually serious. See how you like it:

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Paranormal romance is not just for women. Okay, maybe it’s mostly for women, but not just for woman. ​​

Frankly, if I was a dude and wanted a peak into the female psyche, I wouldn’t just read paranormal romance—I’d study it. Solid glues about us girls can be found in everything from classics like Harrison’s Dead Witch Walking to ‘soft…

As a member of the Knoxville Writers Guild, and in particular of the Guild’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers’ Group, I recently joined in on a writing experiment that was downright fun. The idea was that each of us write a short ditty (called “flash writing”) using a photo as a writing prompt.

We were given several stock photos to choose from: a couple of samurais…

Hopefully, some of you have checked out a few of my blog posts since I began the blogging adventure just a few months ago. If you haven’t, now would be as good a time as any. I’ll wait . . .

Now comes the hard part. You have to let me know what you think. I put a lot of time into this blog, keeping each post short and sweet—and also, hopefully, humorous and…

So your friends all have e-readers—either a Kindle, Nook, tablet, iPad, what have you—but you can’t imagine reading without the feel of a hard cover or dog-eared paperback in your hands. Let me tell you. Before I published Curse Me Not as an e-book last year, I would have been right there with you.

Thing is . . . and I mean this in the nicest possible…