Blog - Page 23 of 73 - Adam Blumer

Get Edges of Truth for Your Kindle at a Discounted Price!

By Adam Blumer June 20, 2014 Books, Christian Nonfiction, Free Kindle Books, Freebies, True Crime No Comments

First Time Kindle Price Reduction of this amazing true story! Note: I’m pleased to announce a special sale for a friend’s book I had the honor of editing—and a book I highly recommend. When a baby dies from head injuries, an innocent babysitter is accused, and uncertainty forces experts to define the edges of truth. This intensely personal story will grip your heart and challenge your faith. It gives a vivid account of Mary Weaver, who was presumed guilty of shaking and slamming a baby to death; and one of her lawyers, Steve Brennecke, who fought to clear her name. Dr. Ruth Ramsey calls this book “a wake-up call for anyone who is ever involved in child care.” Reduced Kindle price June 21-26, 2014: Saturday-Sunday—$3.99 Monday-Tuesday—$4.99 Wednesday-Thursday—$5.99 Friday—regular Kindle price: $7.95 Get it here at Amazon. Companion Bible Study—Free for a Limited Time! I Survived! gives a personal, inside view of…

Speech Tags or No Speech Tags?

By Adam Blumer May 30, 2014 Fiction, Fiction Workshop, Freelance Editing, Weekly Post, Writing 4 Comments

Each novel manuscript I edit for my day job is a learning experience. It either reveals what doesn’t work in fiction writing or reinforces what does. In this post I want to talk about the speech tag. I briefly wrote about it in this post, but I wanted to expand on some key ideas here. Why? Because strong dialogue is so important for good fiction. It reveals character, it depicts drama, it reveals vital information, and it pushes the story forward. Used correctly, it can do so much for a story. But use it unwisely, and it can really be a drag. Of course, the primary purpose of speech tags is to ID the spakers, but I’ll just come right out and ask it. Are speech tags even necessary? What do they accomplish other than giving the reader more words to read? Because, I would argue, there’s a better way…

Book Review: Double Blind by Brandilyn Collins

By Adam Blumer May 2, 2014 Books, Drone, Fiction, Reviews, Weekly Post, What I'm Reading 3 Comments

NOTE: Don’t miss the drawing for a free book, mentioned below. I always enjoy reading the latest Christian thriller by Brandilyn Collins; in fact, her novels are part of the inspiration that got me started writing my own stories. Not to mention that each novel offers a wonderful blueprint of how a Christian suspense novel should be written. Each time I read another of her novels, I learn more about plotting, pacing, and all the other necessary ingredients for a good plot to work. But this novel especially caught my attention when I read the back-cover burb. The novel I’m working on now, my third, has a few similarities to Brandilyn’s premise (the protagonist needs brain surgery and gets an implant that offers more than anyone expects). So when I read her blurb, I thought, Oh no. Somebody beat me to it. But thankfully her story goes in a very…

Turning Off That Internal Editor

By Adam Blumer April 4, 2014 Drone, Fiction Workshop, Novel Writing, Novels, Weekly Post, Writing 4 Comments

Over the last few weeks I’ve been making some excellent progress on my third novel, tentatively called Drone. I’m hoping to finish the first draft this year. But lately I’ve been facing a problem. What some readers may not know is that I’m self-employed and work my day job as a book editor. This type of job requires that I edit numerous pages of text on my computer screen every day. This job demands an ever-vigilant internal editor. My problem is learning to turn off that internal editor when it’s time to work on my own book. When I reread what I wrote during my previous writing session, a little voice in my head says, Oh, that’s stupid. The writing here is really sad. This scene is falt. Your story stinks! I don’t need the negativity right now. I struggle enough with self-doubt and insecurity with each project. That internal…