posted by
DavidBCoe read all posts by
David B. Coe 
Jimmy Buffett has a song called “A Pirate Looks At Forty,” which is about an aging pirate trying to figure out where his life is headed as he slips into middle age. Great song, and one I’ve been humming to myself all day. See, I have a birthday coming up this week (Friday), and birthdays [...]
posted by
DavidBCoe read all posts by
David B. Coe 
When last we saw our intrepid author, she was wading into the Slog, the great morass of storytelling, character development, and worldbuilding that stretched to the imaginative horizon, keeping her from her ambitions. Armed only with a keyboard, a thesaurus, and her wits, she strode forth, prepared to face down the horrors which, according to [...]
posted by
A J Hartley read all posts by
AJ Hartley 
[Note: Since I don’t think this was formally announced, I should say that as part of the recent personnel shuffle here at Magical Words, Stuart and I will be doubling our offerings, each of us posting on alternate Fridays.]
In keeping with our recent series of posts on writing mechanics I thought I’d offer a few [...]
posted by
A J Hartley read all posts by
AJ Hartley 
So I was fortunate enough to get a round of notes on my new YA adult novel from no less an author than R.L. Stine (of Goosebumps among many other things) and he pointed out that I had to rename one of my major characters. Her names was Isabella, often simply ‘Bella,’ which, he pointed [...]
posted by
DavidBCoe read all posts by
Announcements 
Hi all,
Happy Friday. We at Magical Words have some wonderful news that we would like to share with you. As you know, we have used our Friday posts to bring you special guests, and we will continue to this. But beginning in November we will have two regular Friday posters.
A.J. Hartley, who covered for Faith [...]