Today’s newsletter is jam-packed—we have our upcoming seminar, another success story as a past attendee debuts her new novel, a new story-telling method with a special perk just for writers, and so much more! So buckle in, and let’s get down to business!
Please join us this upcoming Monday, July 19th, at 8pm ET as we welcome best-selling author Rin Chupeco! One of our most requested seminar topics is “how do you world build in a novel?” And let me tell you, Rin is among the best at this! We specifically asked her to teach this workshop because we’ve been so blown away at the dynamic, vivid worlds that she creates. Whether it be a ghostly tale, a fantasy world, a contemporary AU, or a science fiction planet, Rin has literally invented a myriad of worlds on her pages, each one unique and special.
In good stories, the world is another character who influences the plot, an essential element to the whole novel. And Rin’s are among the best of the best.
Her seminar is going to be an interactive exploration of world building, and will come with hand outs! The only way to get the hand outs in time for the workshop is to sign up by Sunday in time for the live presentation. So do not miss out on this!
Congratulations to Cassie Gustafson!
Cristin and Beth still remember the first time they read early pages by Cassie Gustafson at one of the retreats. The book—which became After the Ink Dries—sent chills up their spines even in that early form.
This beautiful book explores a story about a girl who wakes up after a party with names and slurs written across her body. She’s been signed by her assaulters…and one of the names on her skin is that of her new boyfriend.
If that’s not a hook enough to suck you into this amazing story, you also need to know that the main character is a webcomic artist—and the story weaves actual comic pages inside:
As you can see, this book touches not only on an important topic, but explores it in such a unique way that we know you won’t be able to put it down—just like us. And luckily for you, you don’t have to wait the years we did to get this book in our hands! It’s available next Tuesday, and you are absolutely going to love it!
A new interactive reading experience from Beth Revis…with a special feature for writers!
We told you this newsletter was jam-packed! Our very own Beth Revis has just launched a new interactive reading experience with the launch of the Amazon Kindle Vella program.
Blood and Feathers is a serialized novel—which means you read it a little bit at a time. It also means that you get to see the story progress and change with your input, as if you were sitting beside Beth as she wrote the book at one of the Wordsmith Retreats.
But we all know how much of a teacher Beth is, and how much she nerds out about writing. And she’s done two things to make this story particularly special to writers.
The first is in her Author’s Notes. At the end of every episode, Beth has listed out exactly what research she did to inform her history-based fantasy world or included extra information on what writing elements she incorporated into that episode. The Author’s Notes are really geared to writers, peeling back the cover (pun!) on how stories develop and what shapes them.
Here’s an example of what that looks like:
The second cool thing Beth is doing for writers and readers with this book experience is taking the interactive nature of serial novels to a whole new level!
You can join the online Vella Book Club here. Several authors have banded together to work on the book club, and each one is hosting a page for their serial, so you can discuss and interact with a ton of authors—many are YA, but we also have one author whose work dips into MG, some romance, dystopian, and more! Each author is online and can discuss how they develop their story as they develop it. You basically get to watch and learn from the creation of the story!
Additionally, there’s a writer’s chat room on the Vella Book Club server, which will allow you a chance to ask any type of question and get lots of feedback from a variety of authors’ experiences. It’s basically a chat room crowded with authors across all sorts of publishing experiences and story genres, ready to talk to you specifically about how stories are made!
If you’re not familiar with Discord, it’s basically an organized chat room. You can join under any name and participate in the different rooms on the server—for example, there’s a #blood-and-feathers room where you can talk to me about what choices I should make for the characters and how I should help the story unfold. But there are different rooms for each author’s story, so, for example, if you’re into Sarah J Maas style fantasy romance with a magical court (and , chat with Liza Penn and about her story, As Above. If you’re into Percy Jackson type adventure but with black market phoenixes, chat with Brooke Hatchett about The Naturalist. If you’re writing a gay romance and/or a quirky horror, Scott Tracey and Love Crafted (Calvin and Hobbes meets Lovecraft) is the place for you!
This is truly a unique and interactive way to tell stories, and we’re all so excited to bring the platform and our experiences to you.
Blood and Feathers is currently available only through Amazon’s Vella program—you can either access it via the website or on the Kindle app for iOS. More programs are coming soon (Amazon just launched it last night, so it’s still brand new!), and there will be a paperback next year, but to see the Author’s Notes and participate in the book club—where you get to discuss and shape how the book ends—you need to read it now.
Would you like 200 free tokens to get started on the story? Start reading Blood and Feathers now. The first three episodes are free. When you get to the fourth episode, there’s an offer to claim 200 free tokens to keep reading.