From this Thursday (12/19/19) through Monday (12/23/19), I'm making all my Kindle books FREE as a thank you for a great year. Want mystery? Try the acclaimed...

Today, a bestselling writer friend and I were discussing the recent disaster in my life. No, nobody died, though I don’t preclude the possibility that someon...

As an editor, one of my pet peeves is the writer who thinks he needs to put every last detail on paper. It might be a place or a person. It might be a room. ...

AVOID HO-HUM DIALOGUE - FLIP THE SCRIPT While doing research, I came across a story I think can be very helpful in writing dialogue. You’ve probably heard of...

Here's an excellent eye-opener on how to go about pitching your book from Lee Constantine, CMO of Publishizer.com. https://medium.com/publishizer/how-to-writ...

RUN AWAY FROM QUERYING IN AUGUST!! Here’s why. All the big publishers and many of the medium publishers are headquartered in New York City. In August, NYC be...

How many times have you been told to develop an elevator pitch? A couple fast lines to capsulize your manuscript? So, you spend days, maybe weeks, crafting t...

Q: What’s a blurb? A: It’s a short explanation of the plot and characters of your novel, designed to hook the interest of an agent, an editor, or a reader. Q...

An effective way to match your villain to your hero is to create an asymmetrical relationship between their strengths and weaknesses. When strengths and weak...

OK, by popular demand, here's the skinny on how to get this straight. THERE is an indication of a place: Put the basket there. Go over there. It can also be ...

The bestselling novel, THE FIRECRACKER KING, will be available free for 5 days on Amazon Kindle, to promote the launch of the sequel, BODY DROP, on May 1. Ou...

Last month I explained push/pull marketing and promised to get back with more information on “pull” marketing, which can best be described as market research...

It's funny, but when THE FIRECRACKER KING came out 5 years ago, I immediately got bombarded with the big question: When will we see the sequel? I've spent mo...

I want to talk about a coincidence that brought into focus an issue near and dear: showing vs. telling and how much detail is enough. Last month I read two r...

Marketing for Writers 101 When most writers use the term “marketing” they really mean “selling.” The two are worlds apart. What is “selling?” You have a publ...

WHO IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER? When you start a manuscript, you might only have a gut feel for the broad strokes of your main character. But as you get deeper i...

SOPHIE’S CHOICE FOR WRITERS I think it would be helpful to contrast two key elements of a story: setting and immediate scene. I’ve talked about immediate sce...

Merry Christmas! A once-in-a-year opportunity for writers is here. Let me explain. Busy buying last-minute gifts? Cooking holiday meals? Picking up relatives...

I like to pass along writing articles that catch my fancy. Here are some helpful comments, especially the one from JoJo Moyes. Click here> http://tinyurl.co...

FOUR QUESTIONS AN AGENT MIGHT ASK YOU DURING YOUR PITCH SESSION 1. Are you working on anything else? This is one of the standard questions at a pitch sess...