Showing results by narrator "Sonja Field" in All Categories

Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters - but it just isn't grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It's time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

Why do some stories work and others don't? The answer is structure. In this IPPY and NIEA Award-winning guide from the author of the bestselling Outlining Your Novel, you will discover the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will help you to not only perfectly time your story's major events, but will also provide you with an unerring standard to use in evaluating your novel's pacing and progression.

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the nutshell technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story. Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in audiobook form with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting.

When I find myself face-to-face with Lucifer, I realize what he wants from me could annihilate Hell and Earth. I would do anything for those I love, but with the fate of the world resting on my shoulders, I’m not sure I can stop him from destroying us all.

Standing at the edge of the gateway, I understand two things. One, I have no idea what I’m doing. Two, the gateway to Hell is not closing. Now, there may be only one option left to me, to all of us. I may have to enter the one place I’d hoped to avoid throughout this journey. I may have to enter Hell. Unfortunately, a change in events takes the choice away from me.

Powerful themes are never incidental. They emerge from the conjunction of strong plots and resonant character arcs. This means you can learn to plan and implement theme. In doing so, you will deepen your ability to write not only stories that entertain, but also stories that stay with readers long after the end. Conscious mastery of theme will elevate every story you write and allow you to craft fiction of depth and meaning. Take control of your story via a powerful implementation of theme.

It has been 13 years since the war started, the bombs were dropped, and the central states became a thing of the past. When the war ended, a wall was erected to divide the surviving states from those destroyed. I never expected to go beyond the wall, but unlike all the others who volunteered to go, I wasn't given a choice. With a dim knowledge of what I could do, the soldiers came for me. They took me beyond the wall where I learned that the truth is far more terrifying than I'd ever dreamed.

In the first three books of the Gia Santella crime-thriller series, Gia vows to avenge the deaths of her parents, no matter what the cost, infiltrates a Bay Area hate group to solve another murder, and travels across the ocean. But in her efforts to see revenge and justice, she finds herself face-to-face with a tangled web of deep dark secrets that threaten to destroy everything she ever believed was true. 

Ten years ago, I adopted Blue after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning, I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you to never buy a dog on impulse. Going to the pound because you need something in your life that's worth holding onto is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I asked the man at the pound to show me the biggest dogs they had. He showed me some Rottweiler-German Shepherd puppies that he said would grow to be quite large.

In the summer of 1973, 19-year-old Cassie returns to her home town on the Massachusetts coast after her first year away at college. The next day, her boyfriend Julian is implicated in a brutal killing. Seven years later, a freak occurrence gives Cassie the ability to cast her consciousness back in time to a younger version of herself, allowing her to re-live that earlier time with the benefit of foreknowledge. 

Let outlines help you write a better book! Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal.

My dog once took a bullet that was intended for me. A bullet that ripped through his chest, narrowly missing his heart, and exited through his shoulder blade. This left him unconscious on the floor of my home. Amazingly, this bullet did not kill him. Ten years ago, I adopted Blue after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you never to buy a dog on impulse.

It was one the most beautiful mountains in America - Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. But what many didn't know was that this peaceful mountain had an explosive past. Eleven-year-old Sally Tanner knew the mountain well, and, like many, she never imagined that this serene wilderness could turn deadly. But on May 10, 1980, Sally finds herself in the middle of the deadliest volcanic eruption in US history.

I am desperate for freedom, for peace, and for justice. As I leave captivity and step into the bright sun-filled day, a wave of relief washes over me. I am not free yet, though. Walking between barbed wire topped walls toward the exit gate, I breathe in fresh air, preparing for the next challenge. An enemy posing as a lover waits for me. I will evade him, though.

Vigilante heiress Gia Santella has finally put her dark past behind her. Unfortunately, the past isn't done with her yet. Under the sultry Mediterranean skies, Gia thinks that she’s finally escaped the dark cloud that has hovered over her most of her life, but she is wrong. When tragedy strikes and she is left reeling, she is thirsty for vengeance. But in her efforts to see revenge and justice, she stumbles across a complex Sicilian underworld and finds herself face-to-face with a tangled web of deep dark secrets that threaten to destroy everything she ever believed was true.

River: As the perilous journey across a country I’d long thought destroyed begins, I don’t know who I am anymore or what I’m becoming. My abilities grow stronger with each passing day, as does the fear of what comes next. All I know is that I will do anything to avoid becoming like Lucifer, and to protect those I love, even if that means protecting them from me.

Meet Ruby, Pearl and Jade--three sisters who grew up in the paradise of St. Thomas. Each young woman has a unique path to walk, and a unique love to discover--and they are as different as the gemstones they're named for.

What happened to Sadie? This question has plagued 25-year-old Rebecca Danser for 19 years. Imagine if at the age of six, you had ditched your four-year-old sister in the front yard to go play with your friend in the house…and then you never saw her again. In the intervening years, now living in Silicon Valley, Rebecca has made a mess of her life. She hates her job, has no career prospects, and has never had a successful relationship, unless you count sex with a relative stranger during her time jumps into the past.

Wired in to her computers, MMA-fighting tech agent Sophie Ang has been content in her clean, cool tech lab, where she chases criminals online, continuing a dance in the dark with the enigmatic vigilante known as the Ghost. Tumultuous changes from without and within, eject her from her agency cocoon to the front lines, where she finds herself in partnership with a brilliant, overbearing, larger-than-life ex-Special Forces operative called Jake Dunn. 

Join cruising legends Lin and Larry Pardey as from England they proceed into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. During their voyage they dealt with armed guards on the Polish waterfront who watched while the people greeted them with flowers and fruit. They weathered a fierce mast-under broach in a Baltic gale. And experienced great friendships found in harbors large and small.