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Karen Payton Holt

~ author of 'Fire & Ice' vampire series – an epic ride into darkness.

Karen Payton Holt

Category Archives: Blog: Non Fiction

Weirdly Scary

10 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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I will never look at my trainers the same way again. It feels as though maybe they should be locked away at night.

That is a serial killer laugh if ever I saw one.

Author Logo?

01 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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I am very pleased with the design I came up with for my Fire & Ice series. An author started a thread asking about ‘author logos’.

It started me thinking; this could be mine. What do you all think?

How Do You Measure Success?

23 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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I’m me. An everyday person with a life full of family, occasional drama, births, deaths, marriages, and health bombshells.

As an aside, health events are always a bombshell. No one ever sees them coming… those sideswipes that fill your brain with paralysing worry, but I digress… where was I? Success.

I accidentally wrote a book series. Yes, that sounds weird, but it is true. Okay, I was good at English at school. I read my way through my childhood and teenage years, but then nada, just living the mother, family, for three decades. And before you leap out of your seat, I consider raising three children a huge success.

Just as empty nest syndrome loomed on my horizon, a bizarre collision of inspiration and compulsion made me write a short story that refuses to stop growing. It was all consuming, and the feeling of obsession, being driven, was exhausting.

My success is that I managed to pour my heart out onto paper – well, laptop, but you get what I mean.

Now, I hunger for readers and the process of getting their attention is bewildering and complex. So, do I measure my success on the act of writing, or am I a failure unless I attract a fan base?

The elation at getting 5 star reviews certainly settled the anxiety when I put my work – my heart – out there, but if I’m honest, no matter how hard I push that boulder, getting the ball rolling and transforming it into an avalanche of readers – good grief! That’s not just a mixed metaphor, that’s a metaphor crash – erm, as I was saying, getting the ball rolling and transforming it into an avalanche of readers feels impossible.

On that measure, I’m failing, but I’m not giving up.

www.facebook.com/100001952685785/posts/5851022164972815/

Audio Text Reader?

18 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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Is this a short term fix to getting my books out in Audiobook format I wonder?

Speechify – Audio Text Reader

fb.watch/6cs9GB2v9m/

Just Because Some Things Break Your Heart..

11 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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Sometimes, kindness is a lifesaver and must be celebrated.

twitter.com/vg_stef/status/1402581972191416320

The weird science of loneliness explains why lockdown sucked | WIRED UK

30 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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As writers, solitude is needed; sometimes we hunger for it, but… I’ve missed human interaction.

It is the isolation of having choices taken away that has thrown my mind into a tailspin, I think.

Loneliness has been draining for a lot of us. Just having our social interactions stripped away feels like the lifeboat is sinking. This article helps to explain why.

The weird science of loneliness explains why lockdown sucked
— Read on www.wired.co.uk/article/lockdown-loneliness-neuroscience

Uplift Vibe

07 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction, Uncategorized

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https://youtu.be/PluaPvhkIMU

In dark times, we all need a shot in the arm of joy and love… here it is.

How ‘In Depth’ Should Your Story Be?

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction

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WRITER'S CARNIVAL - A Carnival of Knowledge

by Karen Payton Holt (AKA KPHVampireWriter)

When you are writing a story and setting the scene, because you want the reader to ‘see’ what you are seeing, it is very easy to fall into one of two traps.

1/ ‘An information dump’ – where the writer’s head appears above the parapet and the detail the reader ‘needs to know’ is dumped in to their lap. If the story is halted for too long then picking up the action again is more difficult.

2/ Descriptive opening paragraphs written in passive voice, which can be dull.

‘The man entered the bar. There were tables scattered around the room. The lighting was dim. There were four men sat huddled in a corner, and one guy was wearing a hat…’

You get the picture. However, introducing a new setting is far more interesting if the voice is active.

Consider, ‘The tavern door was heavier…

View original post 420 more words

So, You’re Writing A Trilogy?

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Karen Payton Holt in Blog: Non Fiction

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WRITER'S CARNIVAL - A Carnival of Knowledge

By Karen Payton Holt (AKA KPHVampireWriter)

Here is a burning question: Should you have all three written before you publish Book One?

As the writer of the vampire/horror genre series of novels ‘Fire and Ice’, I have an evolved personal view on this topic. In short, the answer is ‘yes’, if you can, then you should.

Is it essential to write the entire series before the first book leaves the nest? There are two considerations to this argument; commercial and creative.

View original post 540 more words

‘Fire and Ice’ vampire series of five novels.

  • Weirdly Scary
  • Author Logo?
  • How Do You Measure Success?
  • Audio Text Reader?
  • CHASING A RABBIT

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Recent Posts

  • Weirdly Scary
  • Author Logo?
  • How Do You Measure Success?
  • Audio Text Reader?
  • CHASING A RABBIT

Recent Comments

Darlene on My indi-author spotlight…
Jacob on A Change of Pace
ellenbest24 on Repaying The Compliment.
Karen Payton Holt on Repaying The Compliment.
ellenbest24 on Repaying The Compliment.

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Categories

  • Blog: Non Fiction
  • Fire and Ice series
  • Flash Fiction
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • Poetry
  • Science Fiction
  • Short Stories
  • Uncategorized

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