My name is Sacha Black. I am, like many of you, an aspiring author. But I am also mother to a one year old, a wife and full time worker bee. I am currently also a student at the Writers Bureau, and…

Welcome to The Z Files ~ I invited writers/bloggers to produce a piece about how the characteristics of their star sign show theselves in their work; contributors were told to treat the subject as seriously, lightly or cynically as they like! For other posts, please click links on the list at the end of this one. The first Pisces writer to wave her fins at my blog followers ~ Sacha Black. I've 'met' Sacha via the blog share days on Twitter, where she posts many an article filled with advice for writers, but a whole bunch of other weird and wonderful stuff, too. She's just getting her first YA/NA fantasy/dystopian novel ready for publication. Sacha, please tell us what being a Pisces is like for you... "By birth I’m a Pisces, but in reality I’m closer to an Aries than a Pisces. I guess that might be because it’s the next star sign, which would make me a hybrid. Pisces are said to be creative and intuitive. That’s definitely me, I am extremely creative, and try to bring creativity into everything I do, both at work and naturally through my writing. Writing isn’t my only creative outlet. I am also a trained nail technician but specialise in patterns and art as opposed to standard nails. I also do pencil portraits." "Pisces are said to live in a fantasy world. I less live in a fantasy world, than I do spend all my time creating them for my stories. As a fantasy writer, I am constantly thinking of new fantastical worlds I can conjure for my characters to live and cause chaos in! Perhaps that does make me a little Piscean after all! (Yes, you've revealed must more Piscean-ness than you probably realise!!) However, where I differ to a Pisces is that they are weak. One of the words anyone close to me would use to describe me is ‘strong’. This is where I am much more like an Aries. At work I am a leader, I am driven and sadly just like an Aries, I can be brusque and impatient!!" Indeed, I suspect there may well be a fair bit of Aries lurking round the next coral reef! The whole nail art and pencil drawings stuff is very fishy, though. I think it's only the 'lower' types who are weak; the 'higher' of any sign shows less of the negative traits. Here is the link to Sacha's blog, and you can follow her on Twitter ~ where she is very Pisceanly kind and helpful, retweeting generously on 'blog share' hashtag days! ... and here are two Piscean writers for Sacha to compare herself with... First, the cool one ~ beat generation icon Jack Kerouac ... and then there's this lady, who I think wrote some books about a misogynist who ties women up, or something. I reckon they sold a fair few but I can't for the life of me think what they're called.... Coming Next: are you ready for the Scorpio sting? Previous Posts: Leo and Aries: Terry Tyler and Julia Proofreader Leo: Anne Goodwin, Gemini: Shelley Wilson, Aquarius and Capricorn: Nicky Black Cancer: Mark Barry, Aquarius: Lynda Renham Sagittarius: Katrina Mountfort Virgo: Barb Taub

One of my favourite quotes is a juxtaposition, pitting perfection against failure. “I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” Yohji Yamamoto There are a million juxtapositions I could have used as examples, even ones as simple as: light and dark. But the point […]

I know, I know. I can hear the groans of ‘about freaking time, Sacha. What took you so long? It’s not like you’ve been writing for 7 years straight, Sacha, I mean Geeeez.’ All I can do is raise my weary eyebrow, wipe the sweat off my brow and down my glass of champagne. FINALLY, today […]

The self-edit can be daunting. But it doesn't need to be. Just like drafting, it's another process, another part of the journey to publication.

There used to be a time when I would accept nothing less than perfection. I still fight the frustration when I’m not completely perfect. I’ve come to believe perfectionism it’s a disease. An infection that slowly eats away at your skin until it buries itself into your bone and spreads to every corner of your […]

Because I love witty, thought-provoking quotes and clever sayings, today I'm sharing my favorite wordly tidbits on the topics of writing and being an author. My favorite quote is by author, Richard North Patterson. I keep this quote on my computer to read every time I sit down to type. Since it's my writing mantra, it has the honor of being first on the list. Richard North Patterson Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with a first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing. Mark Twain Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words. Mark Twain Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else. Mark Twain The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, c. 65 CE Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly. Frank Yerby It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story. Gene Fowler Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. Charlotte Bronte I'm just going to write because I cannot help it. Clarence Budington Kelland I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop. Leo Rosten Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed. Robert Benchley It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous. Stephen Wright I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. Mickey Spillane The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book. E. L. Doctorow Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. Harlan Ellison Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself. Robert A. Heinlein Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. Rosemary Mahoney Writing is not a genteel profession; it's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty. Eugene Ionesco A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing. Stephen Leigh You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer... Niyi Osundare One hasn't become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating. Rainer Maria Rilke What is needed is, in the end, simply this: solitude, great inner solitude. Going into yourself and meeting no one for hours on end--that is what you must be able to attain. Ernest Hemingway The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it. Oscar Wilde There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. William Carlos Williams I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it. George Orwell Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. Franz Kafka A non-writing writer is a writer courting insanity. Until next time, Kaye Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances www.kayespencer.com Twitter - @kayespencer (Images: Creative Commons, Fotolia)

A very short story (89 words if anybody’s interested) in response to Sacha Black’s writing challenge. I admit it took me rather more than 60 seconds. It took me 60 seconds to clear my d…

In my naivety I thought that publishing a novel was a reasonably straightforward process – write, edit, publish, done – but following my blog friend Sacha Black’s journey as she w…

If we’re honest, us writers tend to be a little on the obsessive side. We get an idea, a character forms, and before we know it, we’re tits deep in 30,000 words of wordish vomit. We swim in it like it’s a jacuzzi with naked waiters continuously handing out glasses of champagne. No one wants to […]

I was nominated to take part in this photo challenge by Ali Isaac, who has a wonderful blog filled with fascinating tales of Irish mythology – check it out if you haven’t already, you learn something new with every post. I would like to nominate three of my blogging compadres to take up this photo challenge… 1. Ula […]

If you want to sell books in the current market, then there's one obvious answer: advertising your books. Like it or not, we're in a pay to play market.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am more than a little obsessed by dystopia. I’m like the uber geek fan girl constantly waving her burnt, shredded dystopia flag from the centre of whatever destroyed city I’m reading or writing about that day. Diana wrote this post, and popped an image in I found a little […]

One of the great questions in life. Scratch that. The GREATEST question in life, is whether or not we are alone. Billions of pounds and millions of man hours have been devoted to answering that question. But no matter how many pieces of evidence are provided, our tiny little brains cannot fathom the possibility that we […]

Hello Rebels, surprise! Here's a bonus minisode (episode 51) with me and J Thorn where we talk about personal finance for writers.

If you would like to be featured like this on my blog, drop me a line. I first found ‘A Disturbed Girl’s Guide to Curing Boredom’ in DIVA, a magazine for lesbians. It had the tiniest of blurbs (as all their reviews do) about this little book with a rather intriguing title. I absolutely HAD to […]

Do you have any regrets? Have you ever said something you wish you hadn’t? Something you wish you could have said differently? What if you didn’t say anything? What about your character? Is there anything your characters wish they had said?

Everybody wants to create the perfect hero. I know I do. But creating the perfect hero means more than just perfection. It means imperfection. I like examples, I like learning from examples and I just happen to have read another book (Independent Study (The Testing Trilogy Book 2)), so I am going to use the […]

There’s always one. Even when you fall so bone achingly in love that you’d happily tear your ribs open and carve pieces of your heart into a shrine dedicated to your true love…there’s still that one. They got away. Left. Broke you in a way no time or superglue can ever fix. They are the ones that […]

When you write the end of a chapter, you want readers to be desperate to turn the page and read on irrespective of the fact its 3:41AM and they have work the next day. You want your book to be the cause of their bleary eyed appearance as they clutch the work coffee machine and […]

I used to be an over plotter. A plotter who annoyed herself because she couldn’t do anything until she had planned ten ways to Sunday. The problem with that is, I ended up JUST plotting and not writing. Thank god I came to my senses! Even though I am now edging towards free writing. There […]

Writing a novel seems hard until you have to write a synopsis. This blog will show you how to write the perfect book blurb.

Killing off characters… Whilst I might not be an accomplished published writer… yet and therefore not necessarily have the right to say what I am about to, I am a prolific bibliophile, …

I recently sent a short story of mine to my Bubbi (a bubbi is a grandma, but it’s the Hebrew word for it) anyway. She replied saying she knew I was going to be a good writer, because when I was 10 I wrote a poem for a book she was writing about her mother. […]

One of the most salient memories I have from childhood, was the desire to grow up. I was like the opposite of Peter Pan. I couldn’t get old fast enough. Sixteen was this magical creature where suddenly I would be grown up and allowed to do lots of things. I’d be a ‘real’ teenager. Sixteen came and went, […]

I’m terrified of spiders. I know. So cliched. If it helps, I am also terrified of boats – although the reasoning behind that is a little foggier given I swim like a fish – I must have drowned in a past life. I had a date night recently and we happened to watch a film: […]

There are many aspects to publishing that are important. But for selling purposes, your cover and book hook are THE most important.

George Orwell’s novel 1984 was the inspiration behind the hit TV show Big Brother. It was just a TV show, made up…But what if there really was someone watching us? What if someone has been watching us since the dawn of civilisation? What if there had been a satellite in our sky watching our evolution, watching us […]

I read recently (I forget where – and I have already scalded myself for not saving the link) that every aspiring writer should have an electronic platform namely, a social media presence. What that media presence is, and how effective it is has until recently seemed to me, to be knowledge only for the elite and all […]

We think we’re real smart as a race. We keep creating bigger and better weapons, anything so long as we got the biggest, best toy in the playground and you don’t. But what if we weren’t the only smart cookies on the planet. What if thousands of years ago, we the arse scratching cave men […]

Fed up with female villains that aren't scary or evil? I can help. Today's post is all about creating awesome female villains.

I often find myself wondering about my eyesight and the quality of my perception. I mean, how much of what I see is actually ‘real’ versus an illusion. Technically we have blind spots in our vision where our optic nerve joins the back of our eye, yet our brains interpret and fill that space so we […]

I think it’s an interesting thought, to recognise and even inflict situations on our characters that make them act completely out of character. We strive really hard to ensure consistency with all our characters, I fret over it constantly, trying to ensure their features, attire, and behaviours are consistently consistent! But doesn’t it make for […]

It's Rebel Author Podcast episode 25. We’re talking about how to network for introverts and authors can network effectively.

Some of you will know that a few weeks ago, I had surgery. I haven’t had surgery before and I don’t mind admitting, I’m a control freak. So the prospect of having my life literally suspended with no awareness of what the shit was happening to me for two whole hours, was not something I relished. […]

Rebel Author Podcast Episode 009 Sacha goes solo for the first time and confesses her quarterly goals in an attempt to be more productive!

Characterisation is yeast. Without it, your bread novel turns into a pancake yawn fest. But building well rounded characters that are captivating enough to keep readers up till 3am finishing your book can be a bit of an enigma. If you’ve hung around long enough you’ll know I like to draw inspiration from all branches of the […]

Often, heroes are the odd ones out because they think outside the box and solve mysteries or problem. But this challenge isn’t confined to heroes. You could write about inanimate objects, or kids or animals, maybe the black sheep in a family. You could write about any number of things that are odd or unusual. This week there […]

The Crafting Characters Series #1 This brings the start of another series to this blog. All about crafting characters. Creating believable fully rounded characters with the depth necessary to make your readers keep turning those pages is really difficult. I am still learning how to do it. It’s one of the things, as I start […]

As I write this, it’s actually last Wednesday. I am feeling a tad overwhelmed with everything I am trying to do, so you’re going to help me with a prompt for next week. The weekly writespiration is a platform of inspiration for writers but also an opportunity for writers to share their work. So. This week, I want […]

If you cut my wrist, I’d bleed pantser all over you. Which, for anyone that knows me in real life, is about as ironic as you can get. I’m hyper organised. I have lists of lists and spreadsheets to make even the hardiest of geeks weep. I’m so extreme my wife has to schedule in […]