LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  • Meet Opal. She knows the esoteric contents of almost every handwritten ancient magical tome in The Crystal Connection. She can identify a magic charm on sight, she can read ancient languages, and she knows what you should never, ever say…

  • Writing a book? Live in the Denver metro area? Join me tomorrow evening for a fun, free workshop that explains exactly how to outline any novel or story in just minutes. Find out how to take charge of your plot, avoid…

  • Meet Rane. It’s no coincidence that “Rane” rhymes with “pain.” She’s Dru’s best friend, Opal’s best frenemy, and Greyson’s possible nemesis. She’s also six feet tall and able to transform into rock or metal just by touching it. Comes in…

  • Here’s a nice new review from the Seattle Public Library: “Light on angst and heavy on banter in a world where the four horsemen of the apocalypse drive muscle cars, this fresh urban fantasy plays with genre tropes with a heroine more…

  • Meet Greyson Carter, a street-smart mechanic afflicted with an apocalyptic curse. At any moment, he could transform into a horrifying creature that will trigger doomsday. Can they solve the riddle of his curse before it’s too late? Find out all about the…

  • Writing a book but feeling stuck? Do you have the sneaking suspicion that your story went off the rails somewhere? Don’t worry. You can fix practically any story problem just by asking yourself five simple questions. Read the full post…

  • Hey, who doesn’t like free and easy? If you’re a writer in the Denver metro area, you should join me for a fun, free workshop that explains exactly how to outline any novel or story in just minutes. (By the…

  • Meet Dru Jasper, the bookish owner of The Crystal Connection, a sorcery shop that sells potions, charms, and enchanted crystals. The “real” sorcerers don’t give Dru any respect – but what happens when she becomes their only hope? Get a…

  • I swear, I never saw this day coming. Hey, you know, I’ll celebrate any new milestone. Including this one. So here it is: Today, for the first time, I have a book that’s available at Walmart. And I’m . .…

  • So there I was in Target, shopping for chicken and peanut butter, when something terrifying popped up on my phone. Publishers Weekly had just reviewed my new book. Not just online, but in print. I froze. My heart started pounding.…

From the blog

  • Want to Get Published? Read This.

    I’ve talked to dozens of best-selling authors about their early years, before they were published. And the similarities between them are striking. On average, they wrote about half a dozen unpublished manuscripts before they sold a novel. (By the way, this is what I call the Myth of the First Novel. Because it’s hardly ever…

  • Compelling Character Arcs in 4 Easy Steps

    I’ll let you in on a secret: readers want your character to change. They know, deep down, that your character is unhappy with the status quo at the beginning of your book. Something is terribly wrong in your character’s life, and things can’t keep going on this way. Something’s got to give. Readers fervently hope…