Short answer: I don’t. Longer answer: I first got the idea for A Dead Guy at the Summerhouse when I was a young adult, before young adult was even a label. Very long answer: A friend had given me some books in the genre that was known then as Gothic. Remember Gothics? Young girl goes to large house filled with wealthy eccentrics, usually with a threatening figure and a helpful figure (often romance is involved), the threatening one turns out to be Good and the helpful one turns out to be Bad, much fear and emotion, happy ending. The covers usually featured the house with the young girl (usually in her nightdress) running away under a full moon, looking back over her shoulder in terror. I thought it would be fun to write one with a young man instead of a young girl. I thought it would be fun if, instead of trying to winkle out the house’s secrets, everybody would be trying to share them with him and he would be all, “I don’t want to know. I don’t want any drama or excitement....

Yesterday Marian Allen discussed the new List feature on Facebook . Today she looks at the changes to the rest of the News Feed. The Middle Bit If you keep your News Feed open, the Top Stories will disappear as they're replaced with new stories. Hover over the upper right corner of a Top Story and click the little arrow that appears to mark or unmark the story as a Top Story, hide it, report it, and manage your subscription to that person’s stories. If you get an item in your News Feed that you want to know more about the next time it is discussed (Facebook changes, for example), mark it as a Top Story. Going forward, anything on that topic will be prioritized as a Top Story for you. The coolest thing about the Middle Bit of any of your Facebook pages? Click on Update Status (“What’s on your mind?” (or sometimes called “Write something”)) at the top of any page. Type in “Super secret birthday party”. Down next to the POST button, there's a button with an arrow next t...

Please welcome Marian Allen as our guest on the Blood-Red Pencil today. When I first joined Facebook, it was a confusing mess. Then I got accustomed to it, and I could use it to do what I wanted to do, within the limits of its programming. Again it changed, and it was a confusing mess. Again I got accustomed to the new way it worked. Then it changed.... You see where this is going. Facebook, like everything today, is changing more often and more suddenly than I'm completely comfortable with. It's like playing Mau--adapt to the rules and enjoy the game. The abrupt changes are part of the fun. If you don't want to be blindsided, you can always subscribe to the Facebook Blog and be that much ahead of the curve. Here are some of Facebook's changes, as they affect the News Feed, and what I love about them: Lists You can organize your "Friends" into lists--Close, Family, I Need A Laugh, Critique Partners, Editors...any way you want. The same per...

At a writers' group the other evening, the question came up of Smashwords versus Amazon's Kindle store as places to post one's writing. As a Libra, I was happy to tell them it isn't an either/or question. I've self-published three collections of short stories, and I put them up at Smashwords AND Amazon. Here's why: A lot of people look no further than Amazon for their e-reading material, so it's a good idea to place your work there. Amazon has applications (apps) for most, if not all, reading devices including Kindle for PC, which emulates a Kindle reader on a regular computer screen. The downside is, self-published authors cannot, at this time, issue discount coupons or offer their books for free at Amazon. Smashwords will format what you upload to them and offer it for a multitude of reading devices, including the Kindle. If you're very careful with formatting your master document, you can choose to send your book through a variety of sales c...