Feature Friday #5 (Bloggers & Books)

What a great week of blogging.  I discovered new bloggers, read awesome posts, and learned new aspects about the craft.  This week, I’m going to be highlighting a couple of science fiction/fact writers and a blogger who was one of my very first followers.

The first spotlight shines for P.A. Kramer: Writer and Scientist.  Philip has a wealth of interesting content on his page.  The page itself is glorious, and honestly, I’m a little jealous of the layout and design.  The minimalist design is elegant, fun, and very easy to navigate.  Design aside, there are a lot of gems to be found on his page.

Philip has a doctorate in the biomedical sciences and uses this knowledge and training to analyze science fiction. He also breaks down scientific jargon and makes it more accessible to us mere mortals.  Two awesome posts are The Science of Gravity, and The Science of Killing Your Characters. In regards to the latter, plenty of bloggers talk about killing characters, but Philip explains the science behind it. Need to poison a character and leave no evidence for the authorities? Philips got you covered.

Also, Philip’s Billy and Ruben comics are brilliant.  Those two are always getting into trouble and the results are often hilarious.  Seriously, you should check them out.

Next, I wanted to highlight Tim C. Taylor, over at The Human Legion. Tim is a military science fiction author who can often be found at ale houses in England plugging away on his manuscripts.  Tim has been generating momentum with his upcoming books and also writing some really interesting blog posts.

The two I wanted to focus on are Starship Troopers and Military SF, and (prepare yourselves, this is a long title) Why writers pull apart owl pellets to inspect the bones within. The first article is an interesting discussion about reader expectations for realism in regards to military tactics and science.  The second post talks about how writers can generate ideas from almost any source.

I really enjoyed this article because it highlights the importance of being curious as a writer.  I think to hone our craft we must take the time to observe the world and gather new information and experiences (even if it means we have to tear apart owl crap).

Tim is a client of mine, and as such, I always feel the need to plug for their books (because I wouldn’t edit them if I didn’t believe in them).  If military science fiction is your bread and butter, you should give his books a glance.  The Human Legion is always looking for a new Legionary to populate the ranks.

The last blogger I wanted to mention today is Angelina Kerner over at Where Dragons Reside. Angelina is one of the very first bloggers who ever followed my page, and four months later, she still takes the time to stop by and leave her thoughts.  Angelina is a prolific reader and is constantly posting book reviews on her page (which are not rated by stars, but by dragon prints!). She also posts writing tips, and that’s where I will focus the spotlight today.

The two posts I wanted to spotlight are A ‘How To’ Guide to Writing a Novel, and How To Prepare To Write Chapter Summaries.  The first article is very intuitive.  It’s no small task to try to chronicle all the steps in producing a novel, but Angelina does a great job of breaking it down and offering some useful bits of advice.  The second article posted at a time when I was researching the subject.  For those of you who like to outline, you should absolutely give it a read.

I wanted to take a moment to thank all three of these folks for (1) reaching out to me, (2) being a source of inspiration, and (3) consistently encouraging enjoyable discussion about both fiction and non-fiction.  It’s people like you who make me happy to spend a chunk of my time here in the blogoverse.

That’s it for today!  If you would like to be featured next Friday, contact me.  It always helps if you let me know what specific post you would like to be featured.  My goal with Feature Friday is to connect like-minded individuals with one another.  The blogoverse is a giant place, and it’s nice to be able to provide some navigation. Until tomorrow, keep reading, keep writing, and as always – stay sharp!