Preparing for NanoWrimo?

November is when many writers go into hyper speed and participate in Nanowrimo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It doesn’t mean you have to write a novel in a month, but it’s a way of helping people set goals and encourage each other to write....

Researching Books Before the Internet

Yes, there was a time when we lived in caves, ate rocks and didn’t have an internet. Well, DARPA did, but the first Internet message was sent in 1969 and the system went down after two letters, but hey, it was a start. So, yeah, I actually wrote about that first...

Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Writers?

I heard that this weekend at the Writers of the Flathead Conference in Kalispell, Montana. I remember David Morrell saying the same thing at Thrillerfest several years ago. It’s a mantra. It used to worry me when I heard it, but then I realized my day job is...

On Covers and the Importance of Title

Perhaps the biggest mistake I made early in my writing career involved titles. I’d never gone to a writing conference or had any classes on publishing. I was living overseas in the Orient, studying martial arts. This was pre-Internet– yes there was a time...

“Worst Advice I’ve Heard from a Speaker”

This was what someone posted on a conference twitter thread that I recently spoke at. Of course, the speaker was moi. Making friends and sowing happiness wherever I go. The advice was to query every agent who attended the conference whether the attendee met the agent...