A personal site for an author: a shelf of published books, the story behind each one, upcoming readings and signings, and a journal about the writing life.https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/enhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/how-to-read-a-publishing-contract-without-panicking/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/how-to-read-a-publishing-contract-without-panicking/The offer arrives, and with it forty pages of clauses. Here are the sections that matter, in the order a first-time author should read them.Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTguidesMarcus Oyelaranhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/notes-from-the-road-eleven-cities-one-novel/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/notes-from-the-road-eleven-cities-one-novel/Six weeks of bookshops, festival green rooms and regional trains, and what a touring writer actually learns from reading the same forty pages out loud.Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTupdatesElena Marshhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/what-six-months-of-research-notes-taught-me/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/what-six-months-of-research-notes-taught-me/Reading two hundred sources for a historical novel is easy. Knowing which four sentences to use is the actual job.Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTguidesPriya Raghunathanhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/the-second-draft-is-where-the-book-begins/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/the-second-draft-is-where-the-book-begins/A first draft is a rumor about a novel. Here is the structural pass I run before I let myself fix a single sentence.Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTguidesElena Marshhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/how-the-enchanted-realm-brings-fantasy-worlds-to-life/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/how-the-enchanted-realm-brings-fantasy-worlds-to-life/Maps, menus and the price of bread — the unglamorous machinery that makes an invented place feel like somewhere you could catch a cold.Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTbooksElena Marshhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/10-reasons-whispers-of-the-forgotten-should-be-your-next-read/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/10-reasons-whispers-of-the-forgotten-should-be-your-next-read/A quiet novel about archivists and a drowned village that does more with silence than most books manage with spectacle. Ten specific reasons to pick it up.Tue, 22 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTreviewsElena Marshhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/unraveling-the-plot-key-themes-in-the-enchanted-realm/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/unraveling-the-plot-key-themes-in-the-enchanted-realm/Inheritance, borders and the uses of forgetting — a slow look at the three ideas holding up a book that pretends to be about a forest.Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTtheoryElena Marshhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/meet-the-makers-the-team-behind-the-cover/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/meet-the-makers-the-team-behind-the-cover/Six people, four months and roughly two hundred rejected versions stand behind the image on the front of a novel. Here is how the cover of The Dragon's Embrace was made.Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTupdatesMarcus Oyelaranhttps://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/meet-the-author-of-the-dragons-embrace/https://bookauthor-astro-preview.tncflow.com/blog/meet-the-author-of-the-dragons-embrace/Elena Marsh spent nine years on a book that was supposed to take two. Here is what happened in between, told without the flattering edits.Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTbooksElena Marsh