When an artist gets discouraged remember this . . .

There was a young girl who wanted to be a violinist. She practiced hard for many years. Finally, when she was a teenager, her hero, a famous violinist, a master, whom she modeled herself after, was coming to town for a concert. The young girl attended the concert and...
How to Write and How to be a Writer

How to Write and How to be a Writer

The two are somewhat different. There are lots of writing books out there. It seems after a certain number of years writing, each author tries to capture the essence of their craft and art. I first did this in the early 90s, which, yikes, is a while ago. My first...

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...