September 30, 2024February 23, 2024 by winkbooks

Brand your Books with Classic Tropes

Used in discussing market copy and branding in Discovering Your Author Brand by M.A. Lee

Covers for Tony Hillerman’s first novel featuring Jim Chee and Detective Leaphorn

Cadfael — the first book in the 20-book series, *A Morbid Taste for Bones,* by Ellis Peters

Amelia Peabody — the first book in the series by Elizabeth Peters

Action Adventure with Louis L’Amour and Lester Dent

three covers for my favorite writer Mary Stewart ~ these are the covers that sold me.

Classic Mystery Pulp Writers of the 1930s to 1950s

5:47 / Fall into Poetry / Prepare for 6 Lessons November 20, 2024
We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers. These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude. The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills […]
M.A. Lee
5:46 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Dark and Bright November 13, 2024
When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily. We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a […]
M.A. Lee
5:45 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Public vs. Private November 6, 2024
“Share your innermost life,” marketing gurus advise writers, “with your readers, your newsletter folks, with everyone. Make it all public Make it pop-ular.” That’s a certain way to burn out most of your audience, who just want the knowledge you have or just want to be entertained. “Open the window. Let them see into part […]
M.A. Lee
5:44 / Fall into Poetry / Deceptive Monsters October 30, 2024
Monsters of all sorts inhabit literature, for they crowd into people’s consciousness whenever we face trials and tribulations. The unnatural monsters, goy and terrifying, gorging themselves without mercy or conscience, these are our nightmares, rarely encountered. The deceptive monsters, the ones that camouflage who and what they are, still gorging themselves, relishing each victim, these […]
M.A. Lee
5:43 / Fall into Poetry / Unexpected Monsters October 23, 2024
Love. Betrayal. Death. Those subjects we discussed in our story-song and in other recent poems, including Christina Rossetti’s particular version of false love and twisted betrayal—Lust that isn’t love, summer friends abandoning her in her self-exile, her false love leaving her to face her trouble alone. When we’ve endured betrayal, our memories of that traitors […]
M.A. Lee
5:42 / Fall into Poetry / Rossetti's 3 Cold Poems October 16, 2024
October is a month of changes, of transitions, anticipation of the colors even as summer gives us a few reminders of his warmth. And October ends with All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before a holy day ~ a time of riotous revelry by the forces defiant against God, Father, Creator, Savior. Creeping upon me with […]
M.A. Lee
5:41 / Fall into Poetry / Dances of October October 9, 2024
We have a theme of Dances of October for this episode ~ although one of our two poems doesn’t mention dancing and the other doesn’t mention October. How are we connecting these two works to that theme? Well, my brain said “Put them together”, and here we are. The first poem is by African-American poet […]
M.A. Lee
5:40 / Fall into Poetry / Two Autumn Poems October 2, 2024
What sparks a love of poetry? The highbrow puzzles of e.e. cummings or the imagism of Ezra Pound. The lyrical music of John Keats or Christina Rossetti. The logical jumps and intellectual gymnastics of the metaphysical poets. The gimmick that marks Ferlinghetti. The emotions that lurk in a Longfellow sonnet. The intriguing story-songs that we […]
M.A. Lee
5:39 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Wine September 25, 2024
Wine is heady stuff. A simple goblet of wine relaxes us; a mega-pint or a bottle can tip us into trouble. Do you prefer the creamy full-body of a fine cabernet or the bite of a sauvignon blanc? Perhaps a medium red like a spicy Zinfandel or a lighter Riesling? Or a fruiter, sweet-forward wine, […]
M.A. Lee
5:38 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Lies September 18, 2024
Here’s an odd way to start a conversation about a song: the word moron. Hi all. It’s the third episode in our autumn series Fall Into Poetry. We’ve featured two story-songs (narrative poems) that are ballads, not the modern power ballad of the music world but the literature-based ballad with its focus on the subjects […]
M.A. Lee

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