The Book Club

The Genre Description Page is Now Open!

If you haven't noticed, I've been a little light on the PFS Book Club postings lately. That's because I've been building the newest page here at the Book Club - the Genre Descriptions page!

Like its Archetype Descriptions counterpart, the Genre Descriptions page seeks to further educate readers on the different terms used to describe books. It will always be available on the bottom of the page.

The Genre page has two sections - one for fiction and the other for nonfiction, the two main genres that the PFS Book Club covers. Fiction is further broken down into Adventure, Children's, Comic Book/Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Horror, Literature, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, and Young Adult. Nonfiction is broken down into Art, History, Memoir, and Science. As I cover more books here on the Book Club, I'll be adding more genres.

Eventually, I'll also be adding a Sub-Genre page for common threads through the different genres or sub-genres of these genres, like High Fantasy, the Thriller, or Vampires. Stay tuned!

Weekly Round-Up: The New Year Edition

It's a new year and there's plenty of new things over at the PFS Writing Workshop to look at. The latest updates include:

• 12 new Writing Prompts.
• Good Grammar posts about why conversate isn't a word and the definition of a misplaced modifier.
• Stories about fake author JT LeRoy suing her former publisher, ads in e-books, Kobo adding social media to their apps, a Twitter campaign for a new Lois Lane series, a trailer for a documentary about bad writing, Google Books creating Culturomics, a new Amazon bestseller, how the author of a pedophile guide got arrested, censoring Huckleberry Finn, racism is TV and movie book adaptions, copyright and the public domain, the 2010 bestselling comics, and how Borders can't pay thier bills.
• Getting Published! posts about knowing which literary agent to submit to, having thick skin, and a self-published bestseller.

Also, if you hadn't noticed, there's been changes around here at the Book Club, too! Don't forget to check out the Archetype Description page (Genre page coming soon!) and our new Great Quotes posts.

New Page: Archetypes & their Meanings

In each of the Character Analyses I do here at the PFS Book Club, I've included a section on Archetypes. An archetype is a narrative type of character that repeats throughout history and allows readers to connect characters from one narrative to another. They were developed by psychologist Carl Jung, who pointed out the mythological basis for most of our narrative types.

I've added an Archetype page to the PFS Book Club, where I define what each Archetype I use means, along with a list of why each character is identified as such. The link will be always be located at the bottom of each PFS Book Club page, as well as a link in each Character Analysis.

I think they add a new depth to the literary critiques here at the PFS Book Club, so feel free to explore them and of course, to to argue the merits of one Archetype versus another. Visit the new Archetype page here.

Weekly Round-Up: The 10% Virgin Edition

Welcome to a new feature here at the PFS Writing Workshop - the weekly round-up! Of course, one of these will also be featured each Friday at the Write Line, the Writing Workshop, and our main page, eventually. The Round-Up will feature all the week's latest PFS news and updates!

Over at the Workshop this week, we have:

• 7 new Writing Prompts
• Publishing News: Amazon Gives Authors Bookscan, World' Most Expensive Book Sold, the announcement of Oprah's new Book Club picks and her relationship with Jonathan Franzen, Borders Might buy Barnes and Noble, Google Opens Google eBookstore, Suzanne Collins and Stieg Larsson named to Entertainers of the Year, and the excellence of Dark Horse Comics' new digital price points.
• A New Good Grammar on Subject-Verb Agreement and another on Nouns in Sentences
• And an excellent cartoon for wannabe writers

We also have a special announcement to make!

The PFS Write Line, a collaborative story-telling contest, will begin officially on January 1, 2011. Each day will feature a new winner, and all it takes is writing a single line in the comments fields. Each day, a new winner, and at the end of the week, your names will be featured here, in the Round-Up! The story, when completed, will be published in an upcoming e-book by PFS Publishing. Do you have what it takes?