An Indie Writing and Publishing Blog
My Cat the Editor
Defamation in Fiction—What’s in a Name?
Dorian Box All writers should be aware of the risk of defamation in fiction and take precautions to avoid it, even accidentally. There are several excellent blog posts explaining tort liability (civil liability for money damages) arising from fictionalized works...
The Importance of Factual Accuracy in Fiction — All the Small Things
Is it important to get your facts straight when writing non-fantasy fiction? Not just the internal consistency of the "facts" you make up, although that is also important. Or improbable events that require some suspension of disbelief. I'm referring to objectively...
The Hiding Girl Named a Semifinalist for 2017 Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize
Dorian's second novel manuscript, The Hiding Girl, advanced to the semifinals of the 2017 Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Contest, where it received near-perfect scores (9.5/10). Of 700 entries, The Hiding Girl was one of five Mystery/Thrillers--and the only...
How good is your novel? Here’s a test.
Wondering about the potential of your book or manuscript to become a bestseller? Wish there were a test to empirically measure it? As a fun exercise, I came up with one. I started with my own list of good fiction qualities then supplemented it with ideas found in...
Named a Best Thriller of the Year 2020 by BestThrillers.com
Twelve-year-old Emily Calby was a good girl from a religious family in rural Georgia. She loved softball, her little sister and looking up words to get her allowance. Then two men came and murdered her family. Somehow Emily escaped. Only the killers know she survived. On the run in a fugue, she makes an unlikely ally in a ruthless former gang member who takes her in. Overwhelmed by guilt, she persuades him to train her to kill before setting out alone on a terrifying search for justice. Nothing will stop her—not cops or creeps, not even her own splintering mind. Through it all, Emily fights to hold onto hope and the girl she once knew, kept buried deep inside. A testament to the boundless limits of love, sacrifice and the will to survive, The Hiding Girl is the first book in the Emily Calby Series.