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

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Pocket Full of Words
Writing Diary of Novelist Holly Lisle

Think Sideways is Finished
I just finished posting the final lesson and technique for the Think Sideways course. I’ll be adding bonuses, and going back through and revising the existing lessons based on the errata pages my students have been doing for me, but in spite of the holidays, I hit that final deadline. Haven’t been around here, [...]
A thoughtful post on Christian/Muslim reconciliation
The writer of this is Quaker (I used to be) and a visiting scholar at Yale Divinity School. My personal take on any religion is “no, thanks,” but I am a firm supporter of freedom of religion. And of tolerance, defined as follows: I will tolerate you, your quirks, and your beliefs, if [...]
More on the contest
I’ve put up a notification page here: http://hollylisle.net I’m not sure what form the contest will take, but my editor says my publisher wants to work with me on it, so I’m thinking we’ll do something. I hope it’ll be something even better than what I had in mind. If you want to be notified when [...]
Question Answered
Whatever sort of contest I can have to promote my books, it can’t be that sort. {sigh} My publisher put the kibosh on the video contest. So. I’ll come up with something else. But not today.
Wow. The Ancestor of the Mortgage Loan Bailout!
Who’d have thought we could have skipped the whole mortgage-loan, credit-crunch fiasco if people still studied history? Tacitus is on my nightstand in my to-be-read pile. He just got moved way up the priority list. Thanks to Jim Woosley for the link, and for my introduction to a weblog that is now added to my Recommended [...]
HollyLisle.NET and My Video Contest
Do a fantasy movie trailer about my Current Contest novel. Enter. You could win up to $500.
Month Six Movie Done. Live. And Here
I have made the full versions of the How To Think Sideways movies for Month One, Two, Four, Five, and Six publicly available. Month Three is a private discussion between me and my students, and will not be made available. The rest, however, you can now post to your website, download to your [...]
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

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How Much Do YOU Know About Writing Fiction?

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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)

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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