1. Check out this fantastic piece in The New Yorker on the land-based writing habits (and more) of Herman Melville. Melville felt he had all of Moby Dick in his head and just needed to write it down. By the way, if you’re writing fiction, I hope you know you already belong to the same…
Author: Mark Stevens
Mark Stevens is the author of the The Fireballer (Lake Union, 2023) and The Allison Coil Mystery Series including Antler Dust, Buried by the Roan, Trapline, Lake of Fire, and The Melancholy Howl. Trapline won The Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery. Stevens has also published short stories in Denver Noir (Akashic Books, 2022), Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Tribune, among others. Stevens is longtime member of Mystery Writers of America. In 2023, Stevens was named Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for the second time. He lives in southwest Colorado.
Rocky Mountain Writer #178
Susan Smith So you’ve finished a draft of your novel and you’re ready to submit to agents and editors. You’ve checked it, you’ve read it. A few friends said it’s good to go. Not so fast. Susan Smith has just the class for you—a special extended class at Colorado GOLD, one of the Friday morning…
Rocky Mountain Writer #177
Sara Dahmen Among the special guests at this year’s Colorado Gold conference is Sara Dahmen, whose is heading in from Wisconsin to teach a master class called “All the Secrets – An In-Depth Guide on Book to Film.” On the podcast, Sara talks about her Flats Junction historical fiction series, which has already been opted…
Rocky Mountain Writer #176
Anne Hillerman As Anne Hillerman describes it, she was shaking in her boots when she first set about writing new mysteries featuring the iconic characters Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn—characters created by her father, Tony Hillerman, and the lead protagonists in 18 award-winning novels. But Anne Hillerman brought her own approach to the series and,…
Rocky Mountain Writer #175
John Gilstrap Writers, John Gilstrap thinks you should cut yourself a bit of slack. Let the story flow. Get comfortable in your own writer’s skin. Stop copying the style of other writers. Sure, learn the so-called rules, but don’t let them hold you back. Gilstrap, one of the keynote speakers at the 2019 edition of…