Welcome Our Newest Guest Blogger - Karina Evans

Please welcome guest blogger - Karina Evans - Breaking Rules Publishing UK author - Echoes.

You can find the link to purchase Karina's book at the bottom of this blog post.

Should You be Taught How to Write?

I have a confession.

I don’t care about form and style and grammar. I don’t care that the last sentence I wrote contains too many instances of the word ‘and’. I don’t care if you care that it does, either.

I read a lot of books, and many of these books are written imperfectly. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is one. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor is another. Echoes by Karina Evans is another (I slipped that one in to make you buy it).

‘With the first gray light, he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Barren, silent, godless. He thought the month was October but he wasn't sure. He hadn't kept a calendar for years. They were moving south. There'd be no surviving another winter here.’ — Cormac McCarthy

If I’d handed this into my secondary school teacher it would have been sent back covered with red scrawl. My teacher would have sat, head in hands, disappointed tears pooling on her pile of exercise books. It is perfectly imperfect. It paints a breathless picture. The prose holds doom within its words. The long soft sentence symbolizes a journey, with the shorter demonstrating an urgency. How can that be deemed anything other than beautiful?

A sentence can start with ‘and’ or ‘but’ or ‘then’. Speech marks can be forgotten. You can write one word a line if you so wish. This is your story; your time; your creativity; your passion. Don’t be afraid of the lesser-spotted semi-colons; who needs buts and becauses when you have that winking beauty? Words are malleable, they can be shortened and lengthened; split into two.

They can rhyme and they can judder.

A paragraph need to contain only one word.

One.

Words can, all of a sudden, stop. Like that. Just stop. Dead.

Or you could keep them bouncing, down here, up there, trying to catch them but missing and suddenly they are flowing escaping running from you and you are chasing breathlessly can you catch them in time, can you control them, can you slow them, have you got them; there they are.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that a writer needs a degree in English; that they need to know what a sub-clause clause super clause thing is. Because they don’t. All they need is a passion and

A

Rather

Large

Vocabulary

But, if I catch you using more than one exclamation mark, the word ‘lol,’ or more than three dots in an ellipse, I will hunt you down. And that is that.

Karina Evans

Author of Volcano and Echoes

And that all-important - shameless plug.

The link to Karina's Breaking Rules Publishing book - Echoes is below.

https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/store/p72/Echoes.html

Echoes - $10

Echoes is a collection that introduces that anonymous: the people you have walked past, but never seen. 

These 'deliciously dark' musings showcase short stories in a contemporary form. Gripping and powerful, you may never view strangers in the same light again.

Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around the world. Simply email us at infor@breakingrulespublishing.com

Welcome John Dover

Welcome, John Dover!

John comes to Breaking Rules Publishing with a series of spellbinding Johnny Scotch mysteries. His first - 

A Song For Charlie. 

Redemption in a red-headed package.

A triple homicide that points to Johnny.

Buying a girl a drink never caused someone so much trouble, and this time- Johnny Scotch ordered a double. How does Johnny deal with the failure with Charlie while trying to keep himself out of jail in the present? What is Lila hiding in her past? How much single malt does it take to dull the sharp edges of Johnny's current predicament?

Follow Johnny down a rabbit hole filled with scotch, bruised knuckles, and soft cures while he reconciles his actions and how their consequences affect Charlie and Lila.

Based out of Portland, OR, John Dover works as both a professional musician and writer. On the page, John is the creator behind the comic book Series, Johnny Scotch. His pulpy, jazz-noir creation pulls from his experience as a performer as well as his love of the hard-boiled detective novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. John has released three comics in the Johnny Scotch world, as well as a self-published short story, Ella, and his first novella, Danger in Bass Clef. John was also a contributing author to "Tales from the Braided Pony" and "Monster 'N' Things" horror anthologies. You can hear John’s musical voice on his debut solo album, Working Out the Kinks, available on iTunes, Spotify, CD Baby, and various other online outlets.


You will also find John's second addition to his series - "Danger In Bass Clef."

It has been months since Johnny last saw Cass, but when she bursts into his bar one night with a tale of kidnapping, extortion, and an illegal downhill death race, Johnny jumps into action. Join Johnny and Cass on an adrenaline and scotch-laced adventure through the pulpy jazz-noir streets of Bridge City as they fight to rescue her love, disrupt a local gangster's betting ring, and keep Cass from becoming road kill.

Amazon Reviews -

Johnny Scotch – whiskey worshiper, jazz musician, white knight and defender of the underdog. While enjoying his favorite drink in his regular haunt, a blast from his past, Cass, the roller derby dynamo, bursts back into his life needing his help. Not one to turn down a plea for help from a damsel in distress, Johnny sets out to save Cass from the bad guys. But, not everything is at it seems.

This is the first story of John Dover’s that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. Dover weaves a rich palette of flavors in his story-telling. He links back-stories seamlessly with the current tale, creating a world of colors, flavors, and scents. His descriptions are so evocative and seductive that, despite a personal distaste for whiskey, I found myself craving a glass of Johnny’s poison.

This story has believable characters that I found myself caring about, a remarkable achievement for any writer and the city setting he creates is the perfect backdrop for this noir tale. I look forward to reading more from this talented writer.

I was lucky enough to receive an advance reading copy of this. Being already familiar with the Johnny Scotch character from the brilliant noir comic of the same name I was eager to see how having him star in a prose novel would play out. It played out wonderfully, this is truly a great example of a hard-boiled noir styled novel. John Dover was born to write this stuff and it seems to flow from his pen like good scotch from a bottle. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any and all fans of the noir genre. Bravo Mr. Dover, bravo.

“John Dover is an amazing writer. He breathes life into words that transcend the page.

In "Johnny Scotch: Danger in Bass Clef" he seduces the reader into his smokey jazz and scotch flavored world. A noir world of crime, booze, and dames, punctuated by magical interludes of scotch on the tongue, jazz in the ears.

I don't even like jazz, and I don't drink alcohol at all, yet I yearned to fall into the pages and soak up the ambiance. A tourist.

    

Also, in case you're wondering, the title is perfect. It will make more sense at the end.” Robert Easton - Author, Fortress of the Heart

“You’ll pick this scotch soaked, gnarly knuckled noir and polish it off in a single sitting. Storytelling is in tune with the genre. Book is a primer for what you order next time you are at a bar. It’s also a cautionary tale for anyone messing with the grim countenanced jazz musician on stage. 

The only gripe is that the book is short and I’d like the next one right on top. 

Pick it up. Solid noir.” Erick Mertz - Author, The Mask of Tomorrow

Amazon Reviews for Ella:

“This is a fast-paced short story about a trumpet player turned vigilante named Johnny Scotch. It's straightforward and violent and has a retro pulp flavor. If you're looking for irony or satire, you won't find it in this story. What's unique isn't the character's typical physical prowess but his expertise as a musician and love of Scotch whiskey. They both feedback into the old-fashioned plot about the tough guy title character coming to a helpless person's rescue at the hands of over-the-top bad guys. I recommend it if you like two-fisted tales that don't try to parody the genre or be hardcore for its own sake.” Charles Austin Muir -- Author of “This is a Horror Book”

“If you like music, detective stories, and scotch then you will find that this is a book is aged to perfection!” Greg Smith -- Writer of “Junior Braves of the Apocalypse

“I am familiar with the dark and gritty world of Johnny Scotch from the brilliant noir comic series of the same name when I saw this prose short story available on Amazon I had to buy it immediately. John Dover writing never ceases to astound me, he paints such a dark and vivid picture of the action going on in the story. His Johnny Scotch character, booze-soaked musician and righter of wrongs never hits any false notes in his various quests. Buy this story and read it but by all means, go seek out the comic as well. Bravo Mr. Dover, this story is a worthy addition to the legend of Johnny Scotch.” Anonymous Amazon Reviewer

Look to the Breaking Rules Publishing website - www.breakingrulespublishing.com to order and check out John and his two new books. 



Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around the world. Simply email us at info@breakingrulespublishing.com.

And thanks for stopping by.


GONE WRITING!!!

Guest Blogger Justin Ulrich

Welcome to Breaking Rules Publishing — an international publishing company founded on,

believe it or not, a dare from our founder’s daughter. Sixty-four books, three magazine editions,

and several short stories later, here we stand in growth mode. We are eager to put more writers

and authors on the map! Thank you for visiting and we hope you find value in our content as

well as our services.

Please note: we are open to submissions for manuscripts. Please email

info@breakingrulespublishing.com with your submission and a member of our team will

respond shortly. We manage a lot of correspondence and projects and cannot guarantee an immediate response so we thank you in advance for your patience.

Welcome to the Breaking Rules Publishing blog! We found a local published author and writer

named Justin Ulrich who comes to us by way of our interviews featured on the Beauty & The

‘Burg podcast. He will be helping us grow our exposure while bolstering his own blogging and overall writing portfolio. Tune in every first and third week of the month for fresh content from

him. For now, learn how we connected to bring a publishing name to St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay,

the surrounding areas, and overseas to beautiful Florence, Italy.

—————

Hello everyone, Justin here. I’d like to take you on a quick journey of discovering Breaking

Rules Publishing through my side gig. I also plan to share marketing advice as well as tips and tricks that have helped me and can help writers of all backgrounds and experience.

As my side gig, I manage the podcasting arm of the Helium Radio Network—a local internet

radio network broadcasting podcasts across the globe. It’s my job to edit raw audio files and

create a polished podcast. Those podcasts are then broadcast live or recorded to our audience

and placed on our website to live forever.

Not long ago, a local well-known podcaster named Cindy Stovall—host of the Beauty & The

‘Burg Podcast—featured Christopher Clawson-Rule on her show twice! You can check out

her past episodes and listen to our interviews here: Episode 135 | Episode 156. As soon as I

heard the initial podcast, I tuned into every word with the intention to say hello. However, it

would be many months until I reached out. That time was essential to edit my writing and

move closer to the formatting stage of my next manuscript (more on that later).

Simply put, I reached out and introduced myself in late March. Christopher mentioned he

wanted to start a podcast and YouTube channel for Breaking Rules Publishing. He is aligned

with the right strategy in my opinion and I hope he joins our list of show hosts on the

network! Learning where he wants to position his company in terms of exposure helped me

understand more about his long term goals.

I told Christopher I was looking for freelance work to blog, edit, and/or ghostwrite. As soon

as I mentioned guest blogging, he responded, “YES!!!” So here I am guest blogging and

growing two entities at once—his publishing company and my personal brand. In this first

post, I’ll share helpful tidbits that you as readers can use right away and a brief background

about myself.

Tips, Tricks, and Tools of the Trade

In my journey of life-long learning, trial and error, changing, tweaking, hacking, failing, and

more tweaking, I’ve come across many interesting tidbits. I feel some of these will work for

you; others may not. Take your pick and try them out. Let’s start off with what you’re most

likely writing on … your computer—iPad, desktop, laptop, what have you. Make sure you

protect your eyes and body since writing is, for the most part, sedentary.

F.lux

F.lux (“flux”) is one of the best software programs available. I believe the blue light emitted

from our computer, tablet, and phone screens do us harm. It disrupts our sleep cycles, attention

spans, ability to focus, and drains our energy to name a few.

F.lux takes control of your computer screen and lowers the hue on the spectrum to a more

pleasing color. It ranges from super bright white as in your normal LED screen down to a

candle-like ambiance. In the drop-down menu, there’s even an option to turn on “darkroom”

and have the colors fully inverted. This is perfect for low-light, late night settings.

Most important, F.lux is FREE, it’s easy on the eyes, and it’s versatile. MacOS, Windows,

Linux, iPhone/iPad, and Android applications are available. Some of the more recent factory

operating system updates enable “night shift” or something similar. Still, F.lux blows those

generic settings out of the water. Play with the color tone slider to see what daylight, sunlight, fluorescent, halogen, tungsten, candle, and even darkroom look like on your device.

Be Focused

Another great background app I use for working from home is called Be Focused (Mac only;

although I’ve seen similar apps on the Microsoft Store). Soon, I’ll use it when I return to

editing after this blog is complete.

What’s so great about Be Focused? It’s a FREE countdown timer set to custom intervals for

work time and break time. It can track time, but you won’t get all the bells and whistles unless

you pay an upgrade. I don’t think that’s necessary though.

This is still a perfect way to ensure you move throughout the day. We are all guilty, myself

included, of sitting down and not moving for hours if I’m in the zone. I push myself to

continue. “Breaks are missed writing time. Go big or go home!” Not good; my legs and back

are usually sore from not moving. I plan to hold myself accountable to a time limit and this

app is my new tool.

Guilty Writer Habits

There are two pieces of advice that come to mind as I share my insights. The first I feel

fortunate to have been aware of since day one. Yet, I’m still partially guilty. The second I

am definitely guilty of and working toward fixing. Ironically, the two tie together. Let’s

dive in…

First, before I even wrote anything another person would read, I knew my “finished work”

would need editing. No matter how much I edited, there was always something I missed.

When I published my first novel, my publisher corroborated my mentality by saying, “every

author needs an editor.” I presumed she anticipated me refuting her argument. “Yes, absolutely.

Couldn’t agree more.” I responded. A fresh pair of eyes is extremely valuable since, as writers,

we get caught in the story.

I feel the more we edit our own story, the less we have the ability to edit. We subconsciously

train our minds to find certain things and accidentally overlook others. As the old saying goes,

“do what you do best and outsource the rest.” Writers should write and let the editors edit. I

knew I needed an editor. I admitted I wasn’t stellar regarding writing and editing the same

manuscript. That’s fair. Did I listen to myself? Not really…

Second, I wrote my first novel and claimed it was finished. I, then, edited it myself and did

one full pass through looking for plot holes, poor grammar, misspelled words, etc. You could

say I combined copyediting with line editing. It felt great to fix problems before sending it to

be professionally edited. In retrospect, spending those weeks on that initial pass didn’t save

me much time or money. I still had a lot of work to do once the editor returned my manuscript.

I felt I wasted my time in hopes of perfecting my work. *sigh*

In sum, write your story and fill your plot holes, if any. As tempting as it may be to polish your

work, don’t do it. Hand over your blood, sweat, and tears to a professional editor. Leave the

next step to a solid editor with a fresh perspective.

Circling Back to Justin

I am a published author and writer creating a mixture of dark dramas, thrillers, and romantic

fiction. I joined the Tampa Bay area as a transplant, like many Floridians. Long story short, at

20 years old, I had the popular idea to write a movie script. In learning how to properly format

a screenplay, I created one that would have passed the fan test. For those who aren’t familiar,

when literary agents receive a hard copy screenplay, they fan through it with their thumb to

quickly gauge if it’s formatted properly and even worth their time past those initial five seconds.

Several confusing drafts later, that script transformed into my first fictional (and coherent)

novel. GANGER follows a young adult couple lost in a realm of thrills, love, and the

paranormal. I released the Kindle version in February 2017 and the paperback version in July

of that same year. For curious readers, the synopsis is below.

Claire Austen, a troubled girl in her late 20s, struggles through life with an undiagnosed mental

condition. With the help of a well-known psychiatrist and a young man named Aaron, Claire

dives headlong into her problems. In efforts to treat herself, Claire falls into a reality wherein

she is preyed upon by Sierra, her living doppelgänger. With lust as her modi operandi, Sierra

instills fear in Claire and her companion by forcing them to a breaking point; both of them start questioning their identities and their realities. With aspects of their lives uprooted, her

doppelgänger comes between Claire and Aaron in more ways than one as she selfishly chases

what she truly desires: affection.

Currently, I’m finishing my second novel. Many people ask, “Oh, a sequel already?” No, it’s

not a sequel to GANGER. It is a dark fictional drama entitled AVENTURA. You can learn

more about me and my personal blog from my website: justinjulrich.com. I also welcome

emails at writer@justinjulrich.com and enjoy connecting with the community.

For my next blog post, I will discuss more tidbits and some thoughts on marketing. Stay

tuned!

Thank you for reading,

Breaking Rules Publishing

Go break the rules!

Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around

the world. Simply email us at info@breakingrulespublishing.com