Today we should all welcome Maggie Plummer, who has leapt at the opportunity (all right, I prodded her with a sharp stick until she agreed) to come onto my blog and tell us all a little about herself.

She confesses her all (oo er):

Maggie Plummer is a writer and editor who lives in northwest Montana. Along the winding trail to becoming a novelist, she has worked as a journalist, book editor, book publicist, census enumerator, school bus driver, field interviewer, waitress, post office clerk, fish processor, library clerk, retail salesperson, Good Humor (ice cream) girl, fishing boat first mate, race horse hot walker, apple picker, and bus girl. (Yes, she realizes this wild and woolly variety of experiences would make a great memoir or novel. She declines to divulge the title she has already dreamed up.)

And as you are here, I presume you have a book out?

I…

It seems that in this ever changing industry of publishing, we are currently undergoing yet another new and rather ugly trend. Bullying. And, as a direct result, authors are apparently dropping like flies left and right. Which, in my opinion, is rather unfortunate…and also, a bit strange.

Having never been publicly bullied, I cannot attest to what type of suffering might be associated with such an experience. However, without burdening everyone with my own private sob stories, let me just say, I’ve encountered it on a personal and more intimate level, and suffice it to say, ones attacker packs a heavy punch when they know exactly where to hit.

What have I learned from this? I’ve learned to choose my battles more consciously in order to best win the war. Because I’m in it for the long haul. Writing. Publishing. Life.

But let’s get more specific. Let’s talk about the…

And today I’d like to welcome to the blog award winning author of the Daimones Trilogy, Massimo Marino.

Massimo has some useful advice here about POV (that’s Point of View to us amateurs).

Know your characters’ POV and the right questions

Royal Point of View

As a norm, when we talk about POV in a novel, we think about the narrator. Is the story written in 1st person, 3rd close, 3rd distant, 3rd omniscient, or even in the 2nd. We think of the narrator, and we stop there. In reality, there are also other points of view, and we need to be aware of all of them.

When you craft story, and add conflicts, create tension accumulation points that’ll send your characters through crisis mode, you need to have clear in mind where do they come from.

Not all characters are born equal, and they are not boards to stick…