This week, I’ve got a few books for the writer in all of us, two of which tie in to the prompts posts that I do here every Thursday. Or, well… every Thursday when I’m not distracted by shiny 3D TVs.

Anyway, here we go!

Write Good or Die: ed. Scott Nicholson – Survival tips for 21st century writers, from best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, M.J. Rose, Heather Graham, J.A. Konrath, Gayle Lynds, Alexandra Sokoloff, Jonathan Maberry, and more. How to develop your craft, improve your writing, get an agent, promote your work, embrace the digital age, and prepare yourself for the coming changes in the publishing industry. Edited by Scott Nicholson.

Instigations: Michael Arnzen – Brimming with over 500 prompts, INSTIGATION: CREATIVE PROMPTS ON THE DARK SIDE is a treasury of twisted tips, strange scenarios and disturbing sparks to help ignite the fuel in your creative furnace. Its aim? To push you into the danger zone of your imagination, by thinking in unconventional ways and trying things you never thought — or dared — to try before in your writing, art, or dreams.

Four Seasons of Creative Writing: Bryan Cohen – Writing prompts are questions and hypothetical situations that are able to cure writer’s block instantly. This book gives you exactly one thousand idea-generating prompts that focus on the coldest, warmest, toughest and funniest days of the four seasons. These 1,000 prompts work for blogs, scripts, stories, poems, essays, songs and anything else that requires you to stare down writer’s block and start writing!

The Stand: Stephen King – When a man escapes from a biological testing facility, he sets in motion a deadly domino effect, spreading a mutated strain of the flu that will wipe out 99 percent of humanity within a few weeks. The survivors who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge–Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence.

Lisey’s Story: Stephen King – Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, Lisey’s turn to go to Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.

Duma Key: Stephen King – A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle’s right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, a marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn’t survived the injuries at all. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a “geographic cure,” a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else.

And that’s it from me this week… hope you’ve found something to pique your interest!
<3 JL