"A Candle Loses Nothing By Lighting Another Candle" - Father James Keller


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Guest Blog by Lisa Rusczyk


Hello and thank you for having me. I’m the author of Chasing the Dark, classified under “alternative” with my publisher, Passionate Writer Publishing, and a contributor to Unloved, a collection of shorts about bullying and suicide.

I’d like to talk about taking risks in writing. For me, there has to be something in every book I take a risk on. I may delete or rewrite, but that risk is always there. In Chasing the Dark, it was the writing style and drug use. I’d never written first person, present tense before, and through the book found out that I love it. In another book, a YA fantasy I wrote, there is a brutal killing and I wondered if it would be too much for the audience.

Books I enjoy reading take risks also. They challenge me to believe what I am reading as truth, and the good books pull it off. Especially scary books. They risk-takers keep me up at night scared or thinking about something I hadn’t thought of before.

I think the greatest rick-takers I’ve read are Kurt Vonnegut and Chuck Palahniuk. I drool over every sentence and passage in their books.  This is not Sunday afternoon, passing the time reading. This is word-play, mind-play and insane! I hope to someday write a book as exciting as these authors’ books.

This blog is for authors by authors, so I’d like to encourage readers to take a risk in your writing this week. Surprise yourself. You might love what happens..

Lisa Rusczyk

1 comment:

In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, Kiki Howell of An Author's Musings, would like to advise that in addition to purchasing my own books to review, I also receive books, and/or promotional materials, free of charge in return for an honest review, as do any guest reviewers.