Ever find yourself wondering why you’re writing a particular story? Out of all the myriad tales out there, why do certain themes seem to pop up in your fiction more often than others? Why, when you analyze the themes you gravitate to, do they bear a startling similarity? Maybe you find yourself writing about the…
Traditional Publishing. Back in the day, the only way you could get a book published—other than paying a vanity press to print it for you—was to find an agent who would submit your book to publishers. This was a long and frustrating process, fraught with rejection letters. Now, of course, you can publish your work…
Recently, I had a short story published in the Baltimore Review. I tweeted out my good news, and another writer responded, asking me about writing short stories. He finished his question with “Do you think it’s worth it?” That stopped my fingers mid-tweet. “It depends on how you define worth,” I finally replied. There are…
Yes, I am back promoting the late Gary Reilly. This July, my partner Mike Keefe and I released Gary’s 15th (all posthumously published) book. It’s called Jeremy Bannister, or the Ups and Downs of An Aspiring Novelist. It’s an unusual book because Gary wrote every chapter the same length–one chapter to a page. It’s about…
If this were a typical year, I would be attending Colorado Gold conference this month. Besides a few workshops and the social activities, I would make sure to attend the editor and agent roundtables, where “the experts” answer questions and give advice to aspiring writers. Over the years, the questions asked at these programs were…