Yesterday, I was surprised — and amused — to find this message in my inbox: Unbeknownst to me, Sneaky Twerp has been having a nice little surge in sales on Amazon AU. It’s recently been number one in a couple of its categories. Who knows why? Needless to say, I’m looking forward to spending that … Read more
What follows is a raw version of fairly recent thinking on how to settle on the best narrative frame for the story. Maybe have Lester be a motormouth — who admits that he “talks a lot” when he gets nervous. Right there, I have the seeds of a running joke. Whenever he starts monologuing, the … Read more
I just got back from a two-week hiatus. My crappy first draft has been marinating in a series of mp3 files. I dictated the entire first draft using a Sony voice recorder. Now I’m transcribing the audio files using a nifty piece of software called MacWhisper. Once the transcriptions are done, I’ll copy and paste … Read more
Here are the characters, along with their comic archetype: Sir Aliyah Abdullah — Royal/Fighter/Know-It-All (about chivalry)Lester [needs a last name] (Sir Aliyah’s Page) — Nerd Who Thinks He’s Clever/HedonistMo & Fadwa Abdullah (Aliyah’s parents)Mr. Quaggy (school counselor/homeroom teacher)Principal Regina Regis (middle school principal)Skippy (Med Faire joust opponent)King Courtois of Fief — Bumbling Authority/Showbiz TypeQueen Gwennifer … Read more
I write in Google Docs & Scrivener. Google Docs is where I brainstorm and journal. When an idea grows into a premise, I move it to Scrivener. Here are a couple screenshots for the Scrivener “Project” I’m using for the medieval comedy fantasy. The working title is Sir Aliyah, Knight-Errant. As you may know, the … Read more
The editor I hired on Reedsy choose the following 3 as the most promising of the 10 middle-grade novel premises I shared with him: Premise #6: Four Square Premise #9: Parental Abduction Premise #10: The Sad But 100% Completely True Tale of Lester, Court Jester, as told by his Faithful Cousin Sir Aliyah, Knight Errant … Read more
Two years ago I joined this novel-writing course at The Novelry called Write a Novel in a Year. At the time, I was waffling between two projects. The first was a retelling of Cinderella called Spiderella. You can probably guess the premise from the title. Instead of a princess, her fairy godspider transformed Spiderella into … Read more
I was amused to see recently that Journal of a Sneaky Twerp rose once again to the number one spot in its category on Amazon UK: That being said, the category is almost comically specific. Teen & Young Adult Humor Nonfiction eBooks? Teen & Young Adult Humor About Farts With Hirsute Protagonists Nonfiction But Also … Read more
Hello! Some of you may know me. Others, not so much. Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Sean Miller. I’m American. 53 years old. He/him. The “Dr.” above is from a PhD I earned a decade ago at the University of London. My research explored the role imagination plays in the production … Read more
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