Pip Ballantine

March 2014 Writing Show Recap: The Hybrid Author

You’re ready for the world to read your book. Should you self-publish and seek out your own audience? Or go the traditional route and entrust your work to a traditional publisher? There’s a third option: Do both. At the March 27, 2014 Writing Show, husband-and-wife team Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris (pictured left with moderator Bill Blume) showed us how.

“Many streams make a river,” counseled Ballantine, author of steampunk and fantasy fiction. While Ballantine has a long list of traditionally published fiction, she has also self-published work such as her novel Weather Child, which her agent said wouldn’t sell in the United States because it takes place in Ballantine’s native New Zealand. More

JRW ED / Uncategorized, Writing Show recaps / 2014, bill blume, Hybrid Author, Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris, Writing Show /

Twitter Chat with Tee Morris on October 9 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Please join James River Writers on Wednesday, October 9th at 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET to participate in a Twitter chat with Conference Speaker Tee Morris to talk about all things writing related.

Tee has been writing adventures in far-off lands and far-off worlds since elementary school. Inspired by numerous Choose Your Own Adventure titles and Terry Brooks’ Shannara series, he wrote not-so-short short stories of his own, unaware that working on a typewriter when sick-from-school and, later, on a computer (which was a lot quieter…that meant more time to write at night…) would pave a way for his writings.

Tee co-authors The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with his wife, Pip Ballantine. When Tee is not creating something on his Macintosh, he enjoys a good run, a good swim, martial arts (which he will start up again, someday), and putting together new playlists to write by. His other hobbies include cigars and scotch, which he regards the same way as anime and graphic novels: “I don’t know everything about them, but I know what I like.” (And he likes Avo and Arturo Fuente for his smoke, Highland Park for his scotch!) He enjoys life in Virginia alongside Pip, his daughter, and five cats.

Here is how the Twitter Chat will work:More

JRW ED / Twitter Chats, Uncategorized / Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris, twitter chat /

JRWC13 Speaker Preview:How Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris Write Together

How do two people write one story? Philippa “Pip” Ballantine and Tee Morris have not only managed to write a novel together, but they’ve even successfully done it three times in their outrageously fun steampunk-spy series, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

As we draw ever closer to their appearance at this year’s James River Writers Conference, this dynamic duo has collaborated yet again to share with our members how they write as a team.

Collaboration is nothing new and it seems to be a trend with new authors and writing groups. There are teams like Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, or the numerous pairing-up’s that Baen Books is known for that make collaborations look like a great way to create a bestselling epic. It’s also easy, right? You take the idea, split up or divvy the work, and then at the end — ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom — you have a manuscript, right?

Not by a longshot.

When authors collaborate, it’s different from team to team. What is essential in a successful collaboration is to tell a story—the same story—while remaining true to your own style. We both have unique writing styles, but we also have writing styles that are compatible with one another. It is that compatibility that led us to working together, and yeah, probably getting married.

No, we’re not suggesting you marry your writing partner or partners. We just got lucky that way.

But we digress…More

JRW ED / Annual Conference, Programs, Resources for Aspiring Writers, Uncategorized / Annual Conference, collaboration, Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris /

Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

Kathleen Sams Flippen, Writer/Owner of Spaces by KSF, interviews Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, Steampunk proponents and authors of Phoenix Rising, The Janus Affair, and Dawn’s Early Light. Featured speakers at the James River Writers 2013 Annual Conference, the husband and wife team talk goggles and airships, social media and networking, how to juggle creation and marketing, and how to rise and stay afloat in the ever-changing world of the written word.

More

JRW ED / Annual Conference, Five Questions, Programs, Resources for Aspiring Writers, Uncategorized / Annual Conference, Kathleen Sams Flippen, marketing, Pip Ballantine, social media, Steampunk, Tee Morris /