The path to happiness in writing is always in the process : the imagining and the writing. In these essays, Kim Wilkins-the celebrated author behind Daughters of the Storm , Giants of the Frost , and (as Kimberley Freeman) Wildflower Hill and Stars Across The Ocean -offers the collected writing wisdom she's accumulated across her career. Drawing on years of experience delivering workshops, lectures, and articles, Headstrong Girl features Wilkins's collected advice on both living the life of a writer and telling great stories, including topics such as the importance of persistence, turning off social media, anchoring scenes for your audience, and creating an effective protagonist and supporting casts for your novel. With over three million words of fiction in print across multiple genres and pen names, this is a chapbook jam-packed with writing advice from one of Australia's preeminent experts in genre fiction. Ideal for existing fans seeking a glimpse behind the scenes, or new writers looking for a sound foundation to build upon while working towards a long and successful career.
Works of genre fiction are a source of enjoyment, read during cherished leisure time and in incidental moments of relaxation. This original book takes readers inside popular genres of fiction, including crime, fantasy, and romance, to reveal how personal tastes, social connections, and industry knowledge shape genre worlds. Attuned to both the pleasure and the profession of producing genre fiction, the authors investigate contemporary developments in the field—the rise of Amazon, self-publishing platforms, transmedia storytelling, and growing global publishing conglomerates—and show how these interact with older practices, from fan conventions to writers’ groups. Sitting at the intersection of literary studies, genre studies, fan studies, and studies of the book and publishing cultures, Genre Worlds considers how contemporary genre fiction is produced and circulated on a global scale. Its authors propose an innovative theoretical framework that unfolds genre fiction’s most compelling characteristics: its connected social, industrial, and textual practices. As they demonstrate, genre fiction books are not merely texts; they are also nodes of social and industrial activity involving the production, dissemination, and reception of the texts.