Jade Varden Official Blog

Tomorrow marks the first day of Indie Author Month, an exciting event that's being sponsored by the Aside From Writing book blog. Up to 30 ebooks will be given away during the event, and a new writer will be featured every day all May long. I'm one of them! Check Aside toward the end of the month to see my feature and find out how you can win books from the Deck of Lies series. Each day, a new indie book will be featured on the blog. The daily posts will also include a small interview with each indie author. Month-long and daily ebook giveaways will also feature heavily in the month-long event. To enjoy all the action and find out what makes indie writers tick, you'll have to check Aside From Writing every day in May!

Is it okay to use semicolons? What does it mean when you add an ellipsis to your story? Do colons have a place in prose? These are the questions that writers have been debating for many years, and some have some very strong opinions. When it comes to the punctuation rules of fiction...well, what are they? The Semicolon "Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college." These were the words of Kurt Vonnegut, a well-known master of the literary arts. Writers are often opinionated -- occupational hazard -- but does that mean Mr. Vonnegut is right, or just passionate about his own style of prose? Other writers have waxed poetic about the meaning one of the semicolon; one well-known writer even likened it to God. 

A lot of readers have been asking me about Book 3 in the Deck of Lies series, and I can now report that the first draft is nearly done! I put in a lot of hours this past week and through the weekend, and I'm now working on some of the final scenes in the book. So far, so good -- right now, I don't see any reason why I won't be able to release the book this summer as planned. When I'm feeling a bit more confident about it, and after I've talked to my lovely cover designer, I'll tell you the exact date you can expect to find the book on Amazon. If you've been to my official site , you may already know you can read the blurb for Death (Deck of Lies, #3) there, but I've also included it below just to help you get excited about the ongoing family saga of lies and secrets. The story will continue this summer with all-new surprises, twists, turns...and romance. All In I never wanted to get in this deep, but I did go looking for the truth before I w...

Dialogue is an important element in any story, but many writers struggle with creating believable conversation. What's the secret to great dialogue? If you don't already know, you'd better figure it out before you publish your work. Bad dialogue can ruin any story, and will make readers stop turning pages. Speech Speaking is a basic part of the human condition, and it's likely that your story is mostly populated by speaking people. Less commonly, you might be writing about non-speaking characters who are deaf, mute or both, but even in this case they will be using some form of communication. It may not be speech in the traditional sense of the word, but you will still be using some form of dialogue so your characters may interact with each other. There's a certain formula to crafting great dialogue. Learn it, and your story will be much richer and more believable. Participants In every conversation, there are characters involved. No matter how many there m...

The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has just been released this month -- and to celebrate, I'm releasing a selective excerpt. The piece of the scene you're about to read takes place in Chapter 5. Some names have been hidden to protect the dead (and the spoilers from Book 1!).    I was taken aback by his interruption, and the way he’d honed in on my true feelings. “I…I wouldn’t say I hated her, exactly, but I-”    “Where were you on the morning of March 29?”    “What?”    “March 29, Rain. It was barely two weeks ago. Surely you can remember where you were on the day that your fellow student disappeared?” His voice was low and gentle, almost chant-like.    “I…” And I racked my brain for a moment before the memory clicked into place. Of course. March 29. That was the day I went to school to find that my locker had been completely trashed by Carsyn. I felt my cheeks flame just thinking about it. “I was at school.”    “And befor...

 You spent all that time crafting an exciting book, filled with humor or romance or mystery (or whatever you write about). You wrote a blurb that garnered my interest, designed a cover that got me all fired up. So I bought your book. And now, I wish I hadn't...because you didn't even justify it properly. It's one of the simplest steps, and one of the most overlooked. Justify my interest in your work, and show all your readers that you actually give a crap about it. Take a few extra seconds to set your justification. Otherwise, you might look like an amateur.  Justification  Go to any shelf, pull out any book and open it to any page. You'll always see the same thing: neat, even edges on either side. There will be a few indents where paragraphs begin and end, but the overall look is still clean and straight. You can create the same look with an ebook, and you should. Electronic books should absolutely look like print books, because everyone is familiar with ...

The beautifully bound books you buy from well-respected publishers usually have all the same characteristics...and that commonly includes helpful page numbers and pretty page headers that announce the title of the book and/or the author of the work. So why can't you include these same professional touches in your ebook? Because of the formatting , that's why. If you want to use all that fancy stuff in your self-published books, do yourself a favor and give up the ghost right now. No matter what you do, they're never going to appear on the epage correctly. Yes, never . Never, Ever Ever? Never. There's no standard page size for eReaders, and there's no standard size for ebooks. What's that mean? Basically, that means your ebook is going to look different on different devices. Pull it up on a Kindle, and it will look one way. Open that exact same book up on your iPad, however, and there will be more text on each page. So if you try to carefully place page...

We all snigger during the movie or TV show when someone's drinking a black-label can of a beverage called "Soda," because it's so obviously generic. But we also know why the movies and TV shows do it: they can't afford to pay a billion-dollar company for the rights to the brand name, or perhaps they don't want to endorse a brand name, or the company said they couldn't use the brand name, or whatever. Basically, they don't want to break the law by using a brand name they don't own. So what about when you use a brand name in your book? Brand Names We all use brand names, and everybody owns something with at least one designer label (yes, Levi counts as a designer label). I wash my dishes in Dawn, drink Coca-Cola products and swear by the Swiffer. But is it okay if my characters do, too? Telling your girlfriend to run right out and buy Colgate toothpaste in one thing; self-publishing it in print (or eprint) is quite another. So are your charact...

I'm not sure when or where I stumbled across Wendy Cartmell's No Mercy , a collection of short stories, but I'm thrilled I did. From the first word to the last, this collection is engaging, interesting and extremely well written. For starters, the formatting in No Mercy is perfect. I couldn't find a mistake, and you know how hard I look. But I didn't read the entire collection of stories in one sitting, when I promised myself I'd stop after one, just because it looked pretty. After the first thrilling tale, which introduced Cartmell's gruff detective Sergeant Major Crane, I wasn't about to put No Mercy down. Each story was unique, but they all fit together well to showcase Cartmell's singular style. She writes descriptively, easily drawing the reader deeply into each tale before neatly ending the story with something altogether shocking -- and sometimes triumphant, or chilling, or sorrowful. The title of the collection sums it up perfectly, ...

How do you feel about using a pen name? Everyone's got an opinion, even your readers. Crafting the perfect pen name is a little like writing the perfect novel...only the name is probably going to stay with you a lot longer. If you don't use the right one, you'll make things unnecessarily hard on yourself. What's in a Name? Stephen King. Anne Rice. Stephenie Meyer. What do all the big, blockbuster writers have in common? Names that are easy to remember and easy to spell. That's very important when you want readers to start looking for you on Amazon, Google and everywhere else you exist. By the same token, you don't want to publish books under a name that's too simple. Type John Smith into Google and you're going to get way too many results. What's Wrong with Your Name? Friends and family aren't going to recognize you by a pen name (and neither will all those people from high school who need to feel envy). Don't you deserve...

I"m still a little confused by how much I liked The Teacher's Billionaire . The idea isn't exactly a new one -- your basic doomed couple who each come from completely different worlds. Their worlds collide, lust ensues, trouble looms...will they or won't they? Sure it sounds formulaic, but somehow it doesn't read that way. Christina Tetreault doesn't break any of the rules, but I completely fell for her enchanting tale anyway. I'm not one for romances, particularly those in a contemporary setting. I can only tolerate love stories if they're steeped in history, something I actually find interesting. But somehow, this sweet romance kept me captivated and still followed the familiar genre formula.  Tetreault's writing is so vivid, the characters so alive, that everything seems completely believable. A working-class teacher in Boston who works hard, gossips with her friends and doesn't feel so secure in her looks meets, and completely char...

Putting the text into a book is hard enough -- adding images complicates matters significantly. Writers have all sorts of reasons for inserting images into their books. In cookbooks, travel books and children's books, pictures are an absolute must-have. But writers in other genres may also wish to add a helpful visual aid to their work. A family tree, a map -- these are a common enough sight in many types of books. So...how do you add these elements to an ebook? Images and eBooks So, you want to add a pretty picture to your ebook. It is possible, but if you don't know exactly what you're doing it's going to become a frustrating, tedious affair -- and you may not succeed. Find/create the image . First things first: get the image you want to place in your book. Make sure you know where it's located on your hard drive, so you can get to it easily. You won't need it again until the book is finished and ready to be formatted. Open your conversion software ....

Every writer strives for authenticity, even in fantasy writing. It's important to create real, relatable characters that readers can connect with as they move through the story. And what's more relatable than the famous celebrities who populate the real world? There are some names that everyone's heard of, and in creating a believable character you might want to throw some of these celebs into your story. Whether it's a casual mention or something more, there's some important stuff you need to know before you use a celebrity name...like the fact that you might get sued for doing it. Using celebrity names is tricky, so you might want to think twice before you put them in your self-published book. The Line Between Fiction and Reality In creating a character that feels real, many writers use real settings for their stories. You might move your characters around on a university campus that genuinely exists, take them to a park you yourself have visited, have them...

Formatting is very strict in fiction writing. Crack open any novel, and 99 times out of 100 it will be formatted very specifically -- with paragraph indents. So it's only natural that when you're writing, you automatically hit the tab button as you type along. But you shouldn't, because the tab button is actually the devil. The Devil in the Details Yes, the tab button is Satan incarnate. And if you want to avoid a formatting Hell where html code will slap you around with pitchforks, you will never, ever use it when you're writing.

Along with a great cover, you need a sensational blurb in order to move books. You've got very few chances to grab the reader's attention, and the blurb is one of the best shots you're going to get. It has to set the tone for your book, give readers information about what they can expect from the work and compel them to take a deeper look. The blurb has got to do a whole lot -- but you know, it can't be too long, either. What's in a Blurb?  You've already poured your heart, soul, blood and tears into creating an entire book -- and you should feel great about that. It's incredibly difficult to tough it out all the way from Chapter 1 to The End, and you deserve to be proud. But after you've put so much of yourself into that work, it can be heartbreaking when no one bothers to read it. Now, you've got to face a task that's very challenging in its own way: getting people to read what you've written. You do that with a sensational blurb. ...

It happens even to the best of writers: the dreaded block. It can strike without warning, and it can last for a long, long time. So how do you deal with writer's block? Waiting it out isn't really an option, so you've got to find a few tricks that might shake that creativity loose again. Facing Writer's Block Only you know when you've got it. For many writers, even admitting to writer's block can be a problem. If you've spent several days on one particular scene, or can't seem to get motivated to write even after several days, you might have writer's block. It's okay to admit it, because you've got to confront it if you're going to beat it. And there's lots of ways to beat it. Begin at the beginning . Stumped by a story? Go to page 1 and start reading. Read it not like a writer, but like a reader. Let the tale re-engage you, and read all the way up to the point where you're stuck. By the time you get to it, you may hav...

Want to know what I'm up to when I'm not blogging writing 101 tips? Visit Indie BookSpot to read my latest interview, and find out how I approach ebook-selling.

Every book has just one definitive end, but each chapter is a small ending within the whole. Sometimes, the only way to move forward in a book is to end a scene and then jump to another point in the story. But how do you go about doing it all? Do you know how to write good chapter breaks and scene breaks? Ending a Chapter It's a tricky thing to end a chapter, trickier than most writers credit it to be. Each chapter ending should feel a bit like an ending, as if there is some small conclusion -- but at the same time, each chapter must compel the reader forward into the story. It's perfectly fine to create cliffhanger chapter endings, to move into a very tense and emotional scene and then end it abruptly only to have it continue in the next chapter. However, every chapter shouldn't read that way because readers like to come to natural stopping points within a book. Often, a chapter will end at the end of a day, a big event or an important conversation. The chapter that...

If I ask you to visualize a ball, what do you see? A baseball, white with the classic stitching? Maybe a football, with its unique elongated shape and pointed ends. Maybe you see a bright orange basketball, an item that's big enough to hold with two hands. But if I ask you to visualize a ball that's hand-sized and fuzzy green, you ought to know I'm talking about tennis. The descriptions in your book are everything, and I'm never going to be able to picture anything in your story if you don't include them. Are you taking the time to write descriptions...or just a bunch of events?  Descriptive Writing Ever heard the expression show me, don't tell me ? A favorite battle cry of writing teachers the world over, it simply means that you should describe the events you're writing about -- instead of just writing them. Here's the difference: Kate walked into the living room, cup in hand, to tell John exactly what she thought of him.  I just told you t...

Once upon a time, writers like Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austin sat hunched over wooden desks next to oil lamps, scribbling out fantastic prose in longhand with bottles of ink sitting just within reach. They sent voluminous manuscripts -- ink spots, and all -- off to publishers, who were happy to turn these gigantic collections of parchment into beautifully bound books. Those days are long over. Today's writer has to become an expert on using the Internet, a star in social media, an editor, a book formatter, a software guru, a forum nut -- and yes, even a graphic designer. Want to be a professional writer? You'll be lucky if you spend even half of your working hours actually writing. Among the many non-writing tasks you'll be asked to perform, you need to learn about book trailers. What they are. Who they're for. What to do with them. And, oh yeah -- how to create them from scratch. Put away your bottles of ink, and get out a keyboard. What's a Book Trailer? ...

Should you give your chapters titles, or just number them all the way through? How do readers feel about it? What's the point of doing it? Chapter titles might seem like a little detail, but any book is nothing more than a bunch of details laid out in a pleasing manner. Some readers have very strong opinions about chapter titles, and there may be a certain stigma that comes with using them. So the main question is: to title, or not to title? Chapter Titles Using titles for chapters (example: The Bright Red Balloon) as opposed to simple numbers (Chapter 3) adds another layer to any book. When used properly, chapter titles can make a very big impact on readers. But chapter titles can bring certain negative elements to your story as well. The Good Chapter titles help to set the tone for what's coming up in the next few pages. A gripping chapter title can completely arrest a reader, and make them keep reading when they might have closed the book to continue anothe...

One of the worst mistakes a writer can make -- and a sure way to anger a reader -- is not sticking with a firm tense. Make your work consistent by choosing which tense you're writing in, and find out exactly how to do it. Tenses There are three different tenses, but most authors use only two of them. Once you choose your tense, you're going to have very specific grammar rules to follow -- so choose wisely. Past By far the most common tense in book-writing, past tense is used when the events being described have already happened. The narrator is telling the tale from some point in the future from when the book takes place. A book written in past tense doesn't have to be historical or even dated -- it can be contemporary, taking place even as the reader is working their way through the book. The narrator, however, is in the future. That's important grammatically, because as a writer you have to be certain you're using past-tense words to describe e...

After you agonize over every word and debate plot points until nothing in your book makes sense any more, the last thing you want to do is worry about packaging. But at the end of the day, it takes a compelling cover to sell any book. A gripping image, a title that reaches through the screen -- a reason to buy, that's what every reader is actually looking for. And chances are, if they don't like your cover they're never going to read a word you've written...no matter how great the blurb may be. Designing a Cover Only very artistic people have the skills and know-how to create both the text and cover for a book completely from scratch, but you may not have to. There's lots of ways you can create a cover, and not all of them involve sitting down at a drawing pad or graphic design program. DIY If you've got the skills and the materials, you can always use a program or a piece of paper to literally draw and create your book cover from a completely blank s...

The book trailer for The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) is now live! You can get the book at Amazon .

"I will read whatever this author writes." Another reader has given Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) a 5-star review! Find it at the Kindle store to read the review and download your copy.

Now's your chance to win the first two books in the Deck of Lies series FREE! Click the link and sign up to win. Good luck!

Point of view is the most basic element to any book, and the first thing you're going to have to decide when you sit down to write (or stand, I'm not here to judge your style). Are you going with classic fly-on-the-wall, personal firsthand storytelling...or something even more bold? POV isn't something you should determine on a whim. Know who exactly is telling the story, and why. Perspective There are only three types of POV in book-writing, and that makes it easy to pick one. Perspective in books changes everything, so you have to make a decision when you pick your POV. Each option has its own advantages, and disadvantages that will limit you as a writer. First-person POV When you're telling a story from the first person, a single character is relating the tale. You'll be writing lines like I looked her straight in the eye , or I took a deep breath before speaking . But when you're in a character's head, you've got to get inside their h...

Writers are creative by nature, but that doesn't mean they can pull a thousand names from their heads without breaking a sweat. Naming characters can be pretty stressful, and we've all suddenly changed a name at the last minute for one reason or another. When you're drawing a blank, there's lots of resources out there that will help with naming characters.  Name Resources The simplest way to find names for your characters is to turn to sites designed for expectant mothers. Type "baby names" into any search engine, and you'll discover a wellspring of name resources that just won't quit. In fact, it can get overwhelming. Narrow the field by choosing a certain letter or combination of letters that speaks to you, and type that into a search string on the baby site itself. Baby sites are very helpful, and many of them will organize names by gender, origin, letter, popularity and a host of additional categories. If you want to write a character ...

It's an exciting feeling to finish a book, but once all the writing and editing are done you've still got more work ahead of you -- so don't start celebrating just yet. Your book might look great in a document file, but there's all sorts of things that can go wrong when you try to convert it for eReaders. Software really helps when you want to make your book look great electronically, not just on paper. Get Some Software Your book isn't going to look the same on an eReader as it does on your computer. But even if you don't have an eReader, you can find out what your book looks like to your readers (and make sure it's perfect before it's published). First, you've got to convert your book into a format that eReaders can actually read. For that kind of thing, having the right software really helps. Mobipocket is free, and it converts .html, .pdf, .txt and .doc formats into the Mobi format used by Kindle. Upload the book directly through the so...

The writing is done, the editing is finished and the formatting has been (painfully) completed. Yes, the day has finally arrived -- The Tower is being released! Book 2 in the Deck of Lies series is now available at Amazon's Kindle store , so download your copy while the downloading's good. Book description: A Tower of Lies... Death brings some families closer, but it’s ripped mine apart. I wanted to convince the police that they had the wrong suspect…but I never expected them to start suspecting me. Now, I have no choice but to keep searching for the truth, even if all my relationships fall to pieces around me. Someone is trying to make me look guilty. I never thought my mission to prove my own innocence would lead me to more family secrets. I thought I had already discovered the truth about myself. But every answer raises more questions, and everything I think I know is about to change…again. I have to find the truth, no matter how much it hurts -- before I get ch...