I go to a critique group every Sunday that meets in a Barnes and Noble. After we meet, I go browsing through the store. Bookstores are one of my most favorite places to be and am often tempted to buy reference writing books. As you probably can guess, I have quite the collection of reference books. I decided to share my top five!
1. My most favorite reference book is Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus. I use this book while I write every single book!
2. How do you name your characters? I use The Writer's Digest Character Naming Book by Sherrilyn Kenyon. The book is divided by nationalities and even gives name meanings, tips on naming characters, and offers some surnames as well!
3. I write romantic suspense so I have to have the HOWDUNIT Forensics book. It's a guide for writers and includes a wide variety of information from gun shot wounds to poisons.
4. Have you ever wished you had a quick list of the topic you were writing about? A wonderful reference for writers is the Descriptionary by Marc McCutcheon. I have two editions of this book! Let's say your character is into archery. This book lists terms under that topic. Easy to use and lots of info!!
5. My last one is great. It's called Careers for your Characters by Raymond Obstfeld and Franz Neumann. It's divided by different career fields. The book tells what the day is like in the career, who to contact for more information, buzz words, job descriptions, tools of the trade, and so much more. It even includes books and movies that contains the career. Interesting book to read and it's one I actually use! It doesn't just sit on my bookshelf!
So what's your favorite reference book?
About Us
We are the authors Sierra Wolfe, Tierney O'Malley, Wendy Ely, Alisha Paige, Mark Alders, Kate Davison, and Gracen Miller. Welcome to our blog. We hope to entertain and inform you. This is where we will share our writing journeys and life experiences, and maybe, share a bit of wisdom we pick up along the way. We hope you enjoy it!
About Gracen
Gracen is a hopeless daydreamer masquerading as a "normal" person in southern society. When not writing, she's a full-time basketball/football/guitar mom for her two sons and a devoted wife to her real-life hero-husband. She's addicted to writing, paranormal romance novels and movies, Alabama football and coffee…addictions are not necessarily in order of priority. She is convinced coffee is nectar from the gods and blending coffee and writing together generates the perfect creative merger. Many of her creative worlds are spawned from coffee highs. To learn more about Gracen or to leave her a comment, visit her website at www.gracenmiller.com.
Gracen's Books
About Kate
I like to read and write just about anything. But I am a sucker for a Happily-Ever-After. I need to know characters ride off into the sunset and all is right in their world. That's why I chose romance instead of another category. HEA's aren't always promised in other genres, though I do read them too.
Most of the time you'll find me at the keyboard, moving between the 5 projects I tackle at a time.
Most of the time you'll find me at the keyboard, moving between the 5 projects I tackle at a time.
About Alisha
I write paranormal, magic realism, fantasy, erotic and vintage romance. I live in a haunted house built in the 50s and love to drink red wine and eat dark chocolate while sitting in the swing out back. I love to watch my children play in the sandbox while my dogs wrestle on the grass. Does life get any better? It's the simple things in life I cherish.
Alisha's Books
About Wendy
Writing is an adventure I started at a young age but never took it serious until last year. My focus is on contemporary romance and have two books coming out later this year. Besides writing, I run a childcare, attend college, and am a single mom. Life isn't boring for me!
Wendy's Books
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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About Tierney
Hi! My name is Tierney O'Malley, contemporary and paranormal romance author from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My publishers are Cobblestone Press, Museitup Publishing, eXtasy Books, and Silver Publishing. I'm excited to join this blog and hope to share you fun and meaningful posts. :D Click here or go to my website http://tierneyomalley.com to learn more about my books or contact me. I would love to hear from you.
About Mark
My name is Mark Alders. I live in a house. This house has a street in front of it which is a good thing because if it didn't I wouldn't be able to drive down to the shop and purchase the chocolate I need on a daily basis *giggle* Seriously, I am a mild mannered post office worker by day and an erotic romance writer (mainly male/male) at night. Not much else to say other than, like everyone else, I have bills to pay, a mortgage and family that I love and drive me crazy all at the same time. Oh, and I have a dog, too! See? Average Joe...execpet when I get down and write...then I let my imagination go to places I never knew existed and my characters invade my mind.
About Sierra
I have an Associates Degree in Nursing and work as a traveling nurse. Although, I miss my family and friends back in Missouri, I enjoy meeting new people and love to travel. Of course, I wouldn’t go anywhere without my wonderful daughter and two rotten dogs. Writing has always been a part of my life, but for many years, I thought it was only a hobby. Finally learning that I couldn’t live without writing my beloved stories, I decided to see where it would take me. Who knows where my next adventure will be? Either in nursing or writing, I will continue to look for new and fun places to explore.
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5 comments:
What a wonderful list! I'll have to find some of those myself, they would be wonderfully useful! I don't really have any books for reference, as I mostly use on-line resources. As to what website I use the most, Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. Both come in so handy!
Great post! Another good one is Stephen King's On Writing. It's also very cool to read his biography as well as all the tips for writers and how to self edit.
All right, I have to admit I'm putting the Descriptionary book on my to be bought list. The Careers for your Characters sounds good, too.
I use a basic baby naming book when I'm stuck. Or online I'll Google - for example - Irish names then lists will pop up of the most popular Irish names - it's good for both first and surnames.
I have dictionaries of folkore, occult studies, European arms and armor. Reniassance paintings, Impressionists and the Pre-Raphelites. (All right, so I read those for the sheer joy of it.) I have an entire encyclopedia dedicated to vampires. books of spells, magic, and Culpepper's Color Herbal. (most of the information is out of date, but it's awesome for historical reference.)Books on gods and goddesses. Um...maybe it's easier to list the books I don't have.
-Kat
Great post, Wendy! Those are some good reference books you've listed there. I will definitely have to pick up several of them. Mostly, I use the internet for research. I also love Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com.
If I ever go back and teach Jr. High I may have to invest in some of those. Great resources.
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