Last year, I judged the Edgar Awards for the Mystery Writers of America. I was on the committee that selected Best Novel. My committee was nine judges to start with, including me. One judge dropped out somewhere around August, perhaps overwhelmed by the number of books or underwhelmed by the stories he was reading. I’ll…
Category: Blog
Solving the Conflict Puzzle
I recently started a new novel. I’ve only been working on it for a few weeks, but it’s already given me an epiphany. I looked at my last book as a collection of elements, all independent from one another. I spent the first round of revision working out plot kinks, the next developing character, the…
The Eureka! Moment
Have you ever had one of those when you’re writing? When you suddenly notice something that was right there, but you couldn’t see it until that exact moment in time? I recently had one, and while it gave me a bit of a headache, it was definitely a good thing. This weekend was the Jeffery Deaver…
Writing on the Go
I love to travel! I enjoy the planning, the happy anticipation—and the dead time that’s so conducive to writing. I pack to take advantage of all of it. Here are some of the ways I make time for new scenes and chapters when I travel. Small laptop. Mine’s a Mac Pro 13-inch screen. You can…
To Plot or Not to Plot
Pants or Plot? This is THE question. A confession: I am a pantser, sometimes spelled pantzer. No, nothing like a panzer. I write by the seat of my pants, plot on the fly and rake up scattered thoughts of villains, protagonists, settings and an occasional animal. When finished with a first draft of an historical…