First novel, Earth, to Launch February 19, 2015

My first novel, Earth, is being published by Seattle’s Booktrope, and the official launch is this Thursday, Feb. 19th. Join our mailing list on my website, carolineallen.com, and be entered to win a couple of fun promo prizes. I’m a visual artist and metaphysical coach (besides being a fiction writer) and you could win a […]

Enter to win an original watercolor!

We’re holding a raffle to attract people to my new Caroline Alllen, Author Facebook fan page. Earth, my first novel will be published in February 2015! Click this link below, and Rafflecopter will guide  you through the process of liking my page, and following me on Twitter, and you’ll be entered to win this 9×12 […]

Walking in the Worlds of my Fantasy

Please welcome guest blogger and new Art of Storytelling intern Acea Spades Black.  In this blog, the 21-year old Portland native explores his childhood love of LORD OF THE RINGS and the power of fantasy. Acea is serving a 3-month sentence as AofS’s intern, and is already helping put us on the map with press […]

Art of Storytelling is Hiring an Intern

The Art of Storytelling is hiring an intern in the Portland, Oregon area. With clients all over the globe, Art of Storytelling’s coaches and editors work online with creative writers on novels, memoir, screenplays and short stories. We help excavate a writer’s authentic voice, evolve that creative expression step-by-step, and finally help clients get published. […]

Writing a Novel: One Soul, Two Lives

Guest blogger Julie Mannina discusses her novel about past and present lives, Rhamanta, in this ongoing series of essays on writing by guest bloggers. Read more about Julie on her blog http://juliemannina.wordpress.com/. As a child welfare attorney, I see compelling stories every day. Several years ago, I decided to try to record those stories that really […]

How to write: Keeping a series character fresh

  Welcome to the first in a series of essays on writing by guest bloggers. Today’s blogger is Marni Graff. A former writer for seven years with “Mystery Review” magazine, Graff has interviewed Ian Rankin, Deborah Crombie, Val McDermid, and her mentor, P. D. James, amongst many others. A member of Sisters in Crime, she runs […]

Semiautobiographical Novel: A Eulogy

On June 9, 2012, I hosted a reading of six memoir and fiction writers at Santoro’s Bookstore in Seatte. My father is dying of Parkinson’s. One evening I was thinking about how at his funeral all the eulogies would be cleaned up, politically correct versions of the truth. Why couldn’t someone tell a real story, I thought, about […]

Writing the Hot Coals

Missouri backyard after hunting season. Famous spiritual healers past and present talk about “letting go” of the past. Holding on to traumas of the past is like holding onto a hot coal. Just drop the hot coal, they say. How can a writer reconcile this with spending years writing a memoir or semiautobiographical novel? Not […]

How to write the dance of your soul

Silver Falls, Oregon I had a good friend in London in the early 1990s, Celia Goodyear, who worked with children with severe cerebral palsy. Most of the kids had no control of their bodies whatsoever and could only move their eyes. A common issue with such profoundly handicapped kids is they don’t detach from their […]

How to write believable characters

Statue at Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest, http://www.carolineallen.com I’ve been working with Julie for four years. She’s writing a fascinating novel, where half of the novel is set in Medieval Wales and the other half in modern times. The protagonist has lived both lifetimes. Read more about Julie, as well as an excerpt here. http://www.artofstorytellingonline.com/#!__site/case-studies Because Julie […]