LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  • #1 New York Times best-selling author Sherrilyn Kenyon is a self-professed “pantser” who writes by the seat of her pants.  You know, the type of writing where you start with blank paper and fill it up as you go, rather…

  • Just a quick thought for your weekend: Isaac Asimov was once interviewed by Barbara Walters.  She asked him, “What would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?” He said, “Type faster.” So . . .…

  • Believe me, this has absolutely everything to do with science fiction, bestselling authors and the Nebula Awards, since all of these things undoubtedly have one thing that links them: pizza. Come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never eaten a…

  • Melissa Rosenberg is the screenwriter of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and other vampire movies you’ve never heard of (yeah, right).  Lest you think that her lofty position exempts her from getting scathing feedback on her work (it doesn’t) or has…

  • What’s the best way to kick back and relax after a hard day’s work?  Here’s an idea:  Fight a bloodthirsty zombie horde! Just for fun, I recently started hosting “Spooky Board Game Night” at the Denver-area geek mecca Enchanted Grounds. …

  • Who doesn’t love free stuff?  Free is my favorite price!  And also, being a true nerd of epic “I Grok Spock” proportions, I personally feel that Free RPG Day is possibly the coolest gamer grab ever. Here’s the scoop: a…

  • It’s the end of an era.  (I’ve always wanted to say that.)  Thanks to the spectacular new “Template Designer” feature on Blogger, SciFiBookshelf.com now has that cool sprawling starfield background I’ve always wanted. But there’s only one problem:  No surveys! …

  • Congratulations to Charity Bradford, winner of the first-ever SciFiBookshelf.com contest! Charity, email your mailing address to me at LaurenceMacNaughton(at)yahoo(dot)com, and I’ll pop that book in the mail to you.

  • You’ve only got one week left to win a free book from Jack Campbell’s New York Times bestselling series, The Lost Fleet!  How?  Just leave a comment telling me what you’d like to see more of on SciFiBookshelf.com. How easy…

  • Want to write a story for a good cause?  Want to win some money, too? Check out this mind-boggling story contest, courtesy of the inimitable team-up of John Scalzi, Wil Wheaton, artist Jeff Zugale and the Lupus Alliance of America:…

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…