DeAnna Knippling

I have a new interview up for the Blood Moon Bundle, which includes a short story under my middle-grade pen name, De Kenyon, titled “Beware the Easter Moon”: If you had to pick 5 books to take to a desert island which 5 would it be? How long am I going to be stuck on this […]

I had to write up a short guide to writing tweets/short social media posts for a group of writers, and it didn’t turn out awful–so I think I’ll share 🙂 BASICS: The elements of a decent social media post are text, hashtags, and link. All elements together should be fewer than 280 characters, which you

A Procession of Faeries #4: Water Faeries Universal Buy Link | Goodreads (reviews) On a rock by the shore sits a mermaid fair  Dreaming of her lost lover as she combs her hair  Kelpies, and selkies, and the great snakes of the sea  All stop and listen as she sings of a love never to be  For

Universal Buy Link | Goodreads Once upon a time… Napoléon Buonoparte did not ally himself with the armies of France during the French Revolution, but sought power instead in Britain, where his subtlety and planning was met with reticience and phlegmatism.  The British feared Napoléon’s infamous Corsican temper, and worried that it would lead him

So if, as a writer, you’re supposed to take feedback from readers, critique groups, reviewers, etc., with a grain of salt, what is that grain of salt? My thought is this: “Would the suggested change help satisfy my readers?” I think that’s it. Next time you get a comment you’re on the fence about, ask the

Uncollected Anthology: Silver Linings Universal Book Link | Goodreads (reviews) Discover how to negotiate with demons and survive a night on the street. Sniff out a pesky ghost or hunt down a creature at night. Attend a fairy ball, overcome inner darkness or speak with the wind.  7 stories about the one thing in the dark that pulls

In other words, how important is originality in fiction? Should you be trying to write something original? First:  what makes you think you would recognize originality if you saw it?  When I was reading slush for several online magazines, I would run across the same idea over and over again, written by people who clearly

A question came up on Twitter that I’d like to address: Is it more important to have good ideas or good craft as a writer? A professional writer had told the questioner that good ideas were more important than good craft; that agents and editors needed something unique to sell and they could edit it

If you are a short story writer, then it is likely that you struggle with writing novels; if you are a novel writer, then it is likely that you struggle with writing short stories. And yet people do write short stories, and they do write novels, so it must not be impossible.  Just…difficult to translate. NOVEL WRITERS

Once upon a time, a person had an ambition to do something new.  This new thing, it didn’t seem like a big deal.  “Aha!” said the person.  “I’ll just tuck that into the corners of what I’m already doing.  It will be fine.” But it was not fine. The new thing kept getting pushed back