There’s been a lot on the Internet in this last week about publishing. The big news a few days ago was the exposure of the fact that authors (primarily self-published) can buy reviews.*Many people were shocked and horrified. Some shrugged. But there is no doubt that self-publishing is on the rise, and that more and more [...]

I am not a fan of the graduation speech. I have actually written on this topic before, but every graduation season it comes up again and I remember just how much I hate graduation speeches. I hate them with the kind of hate that usually rises when reading a list of war crimes. And I fully [...]

cheapandflimsygrandeur asked you:
Where do we go from here?
Dear cheapandflimsygrandeur,
IT IS HERE! The final day of NaNoWriMo. The end of the road. The last stop. The jumping off place. No matter what you’ve done with NaNoWriMo-whether you wrote 50,000 words or 5,000 or 500-you did something. Yay! Something! It’s something you didn’t have on October 31st!
So [...]

saidreadertorider asked you:
Dear Auntie MJ, recently one of my best friends has started treating me like I’m insane because I talk about my characters as though they’re real people. How do I explain to him that I understand the line between fiction and reality but I like ignoring it and that I’d rather be crazy [...]

alinatheduck asked you:
Dear Auntie MJ, I am concerned that if I discuss religion and the faults in certain denominations in my NaNoWriMo novel that I will be seen as disrespectful towards religion just because my character is. How do I do my characters’ views justice even though people will think of me as judgmental and [...]

lacitedamour asked you:
Is it okay for me to make up words for my novel? I have a habit of making adjectives adverbs or verbing nouns that makes the story make more sense to me, but I’m not sure if the English language allows for that.
Oh lacitedamour of my heart,
Here is a fact that people love [...]

katwaterflame asked you:
Do you do research for your books? If so, where do you find the research items?
My dear katwaterflame,
Auntie MJ has an MFA, a fact she sometimes brings up, but only SOMETIMES, and only in the right circumstances. This is largely because no one cares. But it is relevant here, because Auntie MJ has [...]