This is K.M. Island, and you're listening to the one hundred sixty-third episode of the Word Play Podcast.

This week marked a flurry of work, most of which would be extremely boring in the recounting.

So I'll spare you the details and just say that I've finished up the last big edit on Dreamlander.

It'll be off to the copy editor soon and then we'll be seeing the first of the galleys.

In order to make this all less boring, you can insert a mental image of me doing a little celebratory tap dance right here.

I also finished transcribing my character interviews for storming and completed the world building template.

Now I get to dive into the outline itself, to which you can insert a mental image of me

clutching my notebooks and squealing for joy.

How to use foreshadowing to jazz up slow scenes? The latest post in the video series on my blog offers

tips on how to use foreshadowing to inject just enough tension to keep readers

hooked even during otherwise slow and seemingly peaceful scenes.

To watch it, visit my blog at wordplay-K-M-Y-L-N-Y-L-N-D dot blog spot.com.

New videos are posted every Wednesday.

And now I hope you enjoy this week's podcast.

Five ways you're keeping readers from suspending disbelief.

Unlike non-fiction or memoir, the whole point of fiction is that it isn't true,

or rather that's half the point. The other half is that this

untruth is constructed in the pattern of truth in order to shine a light on the

reality of our lives. As Pablo Picasso said, art is the lie that tells the truth.

Readers open a book with the understanding that everything to follow is fake,

but they also open that book with the understanding that the author

is going to do his darndest to make part of the reader's brain believe it's true.

...