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I read and loved What Remains of Love by Suzanne Trauth when it came out and I’ve been thrilled to[...]

Of all the tools available to fiction writers, the most maligned may be the prologue. With the possible exception of the adverb and the semi-colon, no other literary device engenders such visceral...

It is to my chagrin what whenever I post a photo of my two admittedly adorable Australian Doodles, Seamus and[...]

I’ll start with the gift: I’ll read and critique the first 5 query letters any writer who is looking to[...]

The best stories are the ones where the story happens BECAUSE a character is who they are. It can only happen to THEM, and therefore, even plot driven narratives are really character driven at heart.

Think back—way back—maybe to your childhood or high school days. And think of a person you remember vividly—someone other than your family or personal friends. I did this recently and immediately...

I just received the cover of a new nonfiction book that includes an essay I wrote, and that had me[...]

Plagiarism as plot device in recent novels

Miss Demeanor blogger C. Michele Dorsey wrote a post earlier this week titled, Writers Who Left a Hole in My[...]

When a favorite author dies it leaves a hole in my heart and my reading calendar. Years later I will lament that there won’t be a new book coming, which is a powerful statement about how much writers...

Earlier this month, I traveled to Dubai to teach a Novel-Writing boot camp at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. It was a miraculous experience--meeting people I never would have met,...

Apple Vision is a terrific productivity tool, but you need some patience

It is a truth universally (well, maybe generally) acknowledged that romance in a good crime novel must be relegated to a sub plot. If solving the mystery is primary, we’re told, the book is a crime...

The place we keep our treasured books varies from reader to writer, providing inspiration and research, but who knew bookshelves[...]

The tagline for The Millionaire (Is Truth for Sale?) came to me when I sat at my keyboard, metaphorically bleeding from the forehead, trying to boil down the essence of the book into a catchy phrase,...

Writing team from Alanta

Book club members buy books. Libraries buy books if a library decides to put your book on their book club list. Book club members spread the word. If they like your book, they're going to tell their...

Somewhere along the way during the thirteen years between starting to write fiction and publishing my first novel, I learned[...]