I'm Holly Lisle, a full-time novelist. I've put together a site with over 100,000 words of articles and workshops, a writing newsletter, a mini plot-outline course, and a lot more. Use the quick directory below to find what YOU need.

Writing Diary

 Subscribe to Pocket Full of Words

Pocket Full of Words
Writing Diary of Novelist Holly Lisle

I hate all themes
I hate every Wordpress theme I try. All of them. I hated the ones I was using because they were cluttered and ugly, and I hate these because every single one of them has some issue of being ugly, or being difficult to use, or doing idiotic things with font faces. I hate this [...]
New Look, More Help
I have redone my site’s front page. Take a look at the redone front page here. Does this help you use the site? Does it simplify finding what you were looking for? Does it let you know I have resources available that you did not realize were there? Does it save you time? Is everything clear and understandable? Is everything [...]
What Could You Do In One Sentence
Via my friend Brian Cansler, a site that is pure evil if you’re trying to get any work done. But utterly cool. http://onesentence.org
?Their? reality, and the REAL reality
Back to global warming, and the following astonishing article. (Thanks to Jim Woosley for the link) The world has never seen such freezing heat I was reading comments on one other article about global warming—in which the sad state of the global warmists increasingly frayed argument was being discussed—and one snarky young thing [...]
New Writing Diary Theme
The cluttered look of the old theme was driving me nuts. Got the lesson done a bit early today, found a new theme. This one is clean and not fussy. And earlier today, did a little video for the How To Think Sideways course. My next planned video is a guided tour of HollyLisle.com—just [...]
The Month 5 How to Think Sideways Movie
I’m particularly happy with the way this one turned out. And it’s shorter than some of the other ones. So I’ve included the whole thing here. :D HowToThinkSideways.com P.S. DO NOT send me e-mails about how great the Adkins diet is. I did Adkins when I was about 24–after I’d had my first kid–for [...]
Dreaming the Dead
It was 1:37 AM when I woke up. It’s 1:48 AM right now, and I’m still shaky. I dreamed I was visited by Jim Baen, and by someone speaking for him. I didn’t know his intermediary, but Jim Baen was my first publisher, and he taught me a huge amount about the business, and, [...]
Pssst! Help Zette. Pass it on.
Click the button for all the details.
Time Wounds All
So now I’m forty-eight. The frenetic activity of the past two weeks has settled down. I’ve had some spare moments to think. I’m trying to wrap my head around being forty-eight, but it’s too new. I have a pretty good grip on what forty-seven was, though, and it was huge. Difficult. [...]
Twitter Updates for 2008-10-20
Started in on my first weblog post in a month, and after working on it for a couple of hours, realized I didn’t have time to finish it today # So now I’m starting on Lesson 16. And thinking someday I’ll be able to keep up with my writing diary again. # Migraine. Have to [...]

Newsfeed display by CaRP

How Much Do YOU Know About Writing Fiction?

Take the following short writing assessment to discover your own strong and weak points. I'll give you a full, answer-by-answer walk-through when you're finished.

AVAILABLE NOW!

The Ruby Key (Book I of Moon & Sun)

On the most dangerous night of the year, fourteen-year-old Genna and her twelve-year-old brother Danrith go into the forest to find a healing tree sap that could save their mother's life. But they don't come back. Instead, they are drawn into the world of the dangerous nightlings, and into a bargain with the immortal nightling kai-lord--find a missing child, or they and their mother will die. (Scholastic, May 1, 2008)

Pick up your copy at your local bookstore, or at:

• B&N
• BooksAMillion
• Amazon

Hawkspar

A young Tonk woman stolen from her family as a child and raised as a slave in the far-away Ossalene Citadel is given the choice--be free and be nothing, or give up every hope and dream you had, give up everything you cherished, give up your own life, and fight to save what remains of the people who were once yours--people you don't know and may never live to meet. More than anyone imagines rests on her choice. (Tor, June 24, 2008)

Pick up your copy at your local bookstore, or at:

• B&N
• BooksAMillion
• Amazon