Bøger af Tom Leveen

Write a better book by watching classic films from the '70s, '80s, and '90s!Why would an award-winning novelist and university-level writing instructor use movies as examples in his class instead of classic works of fiction? Frankly, because most people haven't read classic works of fiction, but most writers have seen or are culturally aware of many movies that came out between 1970 and 1999. Join author Tom Leveen (known for How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film, and Theatre) for a quick run-down of several great movies and mine them for tips that you can use in your own novel, no matter the genre, to help you land that agent or kick your indie novel up a notch or two!Struggling with dialogue? There's a movie for that! Protagonists not making an impact on readers? There's a movie for that! Not sure how to use the story's environment to support a theme? Yep, there's a movie for that, too! Whatever your need to make your fiction shine, How To Write Your Novel By Watching Movies First has a solution. Whether you are just starting out or are a seasoned pro looking for some new creative juices, this book will give you a whole new toolkit to chose from.It includes fun tips for writers of all genres that can give your manuscripts the boost they need to help you land an agent, an editor, or a legion of die-hard fans. So c'mon, writers! Grab the popcorn and let's go to the movies!

The house remembers him. And wants his son.Braden's got a wonderful wife, darling three-year-old son, nominal success as a novelist - and no contact with his parents for years, with very good reason.Then a box of his books is accidentally-and mysteriously-delivered to his childhood home. Against his own best judgment, Braden swings by the old place with his son, Josiah, to pick up the box. In and out, super fast, no big deal.The house has other ideas.Infected by the traumas inflicted by his parents, the house traps Braden and Josiah with its lone, erstwhile occupant. It turns Braden's long buried memories into corporeal horrors threatening his fragile, still-recovering psyche and the childhood of his only son. Braden must quickly uncover what exactly the house wants from him--Or if it is, in fact, the house that's haunted.

Friends. Family. Monsters. Urban legends of a murderous figure called Springheel Jack date back to the 19th century. What 16-year-old Baylee is about to learn is that "he" is most certainly for real...and not alone. Baylee and her older brother Elijah are orphans, their parents brutally murdered in what appears to be a random act of violence along an empty Nevada highway. Living now in another state with friends of the family they hardly know, the two teens do their best to build new friendships: shy Elijah with a small and loyal group of gamers, and quiet Baylee with exactly one tomboy skater friend, Krista...plus a strikingly beautiful and kind boyfriend Baylee won't tell anyone about. When Elijah suddenly gets his first girlfriend and Krista is picked up by a new boyfriend, both of them cease talking to Baylee. Determined to prove the two new kids are bad somehow, maybe even criminal, Baylee follows them out to the desert one night, and finds her worst fears are nothing compared to the bloody, gruesome truth. And her secret beau is right at the center of it... As Elijah slowly turns into something dangerous and otherworldly and Baylee's adoptive family moves to put her into a psychiatric health facility after she tells the truth about what she knows, Baylee turns to the only people who might be able to Elijah human again: her brother's nerdy RPG gamer friends.

She's not what he thinks. He's not what she needs. In stunningly raw, relatable prose that upends the idea of the manic pixie dream girl trope, Tom Leveen does more than just talk: he tells the story of a less-than-perfect "dream girl" and the equally flawed boy who worships her. Tyler has been crushing on Becky since he started high school, but didn't get the guts to talk to her until long after he already found himself dating Sydney, a quintessential good girl whose patience for Tyler's unrequited love is thinning. After publishing a story about Becky in a prestigious magazine, Tyler decides tonight -- halfway through their senior year -- he's going to come clean to Becky, with whom he has become good friends. But "Open For Business Becca" has some not-so-secret secrets Tyler's been denying, and there's no way Tyler's dream girl can ever be what he needs her to be. Instead, he just might discover how far he's willing to go to break his own heart.

I''m the girl nobody knows until she commits suicide. Then suddenly everyone had a class with her.Tonight''s the night. Everyone will be there. Will you?Graduation in Santa Barbara, a house near the beach, and no parents! That can mean only one thing: PARTY! But not everyone''s in a partying mood. Beckett is only going to confirm she is invisible after having spent two years caring for her mother; Morrigan seeks revenge on her ex- for having the gall to NOT sleep with her; Azize is trying to make a friend -- any friend; and Anthony''s ready to pop off on anyone who mentions his maimed, combat-veteran brother.As the night quickly spirals out of control, eleven unique characters -- all of whom are familiar to anyone who''s been a high school student -- crash, collide, and recombine in ways none of them saw coming when a brutal act of xenophobic violence brings the party to a halt.Graduation is a time of change. But after tonight, no one will ever be the same.

He'll sacrifice anything to save them . . . except being human.The world became aware of them sixty years ago: people with remarkable physical and sometimes psychic power, often with terrifying deformities. Most folks call them deviants or use slurs like "deev." They call themselves omnihumans.Manic is a federal officer whose job is to take down allegedly dangerous deevs. He loves it, and he's damn good at it. He'd wipe 'em all off the face of the earth if he could, because every deev out there is a threat to mankind, including his only child--even if she is a naïve college girl devoted to protecting the civil rights of the very deviants he arrests.When his daughter's tuition funds suddenly run out, Manic accepts a high-paying, off-the-books gig assassinating individual deevs. But after learning a deviant he's killed was hunting down gangsters trafficking in the bodies and minds of children, Manic inherits his quest.But Manic's identity and clarity of purpose are thrown into chaos when he uncovers the concrete labyrinth where the gangsters are doing their dirty work and finds a vigilante deviant who's also trying to destroy the organization. Humans, he'll learn, can be far worse than any deev. And protecting those most innocent may not only cost his life . . . but his humanity . . .