Writing Prompt of the Day

October 5, 2021– We’ve been stretching our imagination muscles with writing prompts as our theme this month! I hope that you’ve been participating in the challenge and that you’re keeping your collection of short stories for submission to a publisher eventually. If you’d like to submit your work to us at the end of this challenge, feel free to do so at pandapublishing8@gmail.com.

Today’s assignment: Using the photo above, write a 4500-word short story from a third-person omniscient point of view (and to throw a monkey wrench into this challenge even further); please write your story in the psych thriller genre.

Definitions:
Omniscient-A narration style that is all-seeing, all-knowing, of all characters. The narrator tells the story from multiple characters’ perspectives.

A great example of the above perspective is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Psychological-thriller is a genre that combines psychological and thriller genres into one. The thriller aspect usually contains crime, mystery, espionage, all while psychologically manipulating the reader/audience.

Great examples of this type of genre include The Woman Next Door by Sue Watson, and my book Obsessed with Her available here: Obsessed with Her Novel – Pandamonium Publishing House.

Happy Writing! X LLB

Excerpt from chapter 2-My Name is Jessica Westlake

May 29, 2020– I’m almost done my next thriller novel titled, My Name is Jessica Westlake. Today I thought I’d share an excerpt from chapter two. I hope that you enjoy it! Look for it online and in stores on July 1st, 2020.

Sunlight drips through the window and onto the floor. I open my eyes and disappointment sets in; I had hoped I wouldn’t wake up, and I wish that I hadn’t made it through the night. I feel cheated because I want nothing more than to join Benjamin, to hold him, and tell him that I love him. I want to apologize to him because I failed as a mother. My one job was to protect him, and I didn’t. I would give my life a hundred times over for him to have a chance at survival; every thought is of him, and every second of consciousness torments me and shreds my soul into strips of grief. There is no way that I can go on; there is no point anymore because the mother that I prepared myself to be is gone, and an empty shell takes her place. Cloudy thoughts and tears fill every moment; it is as if there is an unquenchable reserve of fresh torture that replays over and over each time I wake up. I can’t help but think that teenage girls who are barely out of high school can have children; women who live in Third World and war-torn countries are able to deliver a child who is not born asleep. I wasn’t even able to manage that. Each breath feels like wasted effort; I’ll never hear him laugh, never see him smile, and I’ll never be able to rest his body on mine or feel his heartbeat. What is the worst part? All of it. Every single horrific moment.

Pseudo-who?

April 15, 2020– Many very famous (and not so famous) authors (including yours truly) use pseudonyms. Let’s find out who they are and why they use fake names to write under. Pseudo=Phoney, artificial, not genuine Nym=Name.

1. To write more than 1 book per year. Stephen King used a pseudonym so that he could write multiple books a year. One book per year is the industry standard in publishing, but he found a way to get around the issue by simply changing his name. You wouldn’t want to do this too often because you need to build a following of loyal readers, and that takes time and effort.
2. To switch genres-I personally do this to protect my young readers from Googling my darker works. Lacey L. Bakker is the name I use for writing kids’ books, and L.L. Colling is the pen name I use to write my adult thrillers. If my young readers do an online search, they won’t find my adults-only books.
3. To take the pressure off– J.K. Rowling is a perfect example of this. She wanted to write without the pressure and the hype of Harry Potter, so she changed her name and wrote The Cuckoo’s Calling.
4. To switch publishers-The truth is that publishers own your works and the name that you put on that work. If you change publishers, you’ll have to use a different name, especially if you’re still under contract with the original publisher you’ve signed with.

I’m going to caution you on one thing; if you write a book that has sensitive information in it and you think that by changing your name, you’ll be able to write anonymously, that is not the case. Eventually, something will lead back to you, and you’ll be found out. Also, what if your book really takes off and people want to meet you in person for interviews and book signings? Choose your name wisely! X LLB