I’m a big fan of f-words. Though I try to limit the number of them, both in my books as well as in real life. F-words have power. Even if you don’t use them, you must understand the beauty of a great insult. Or a stream of f-words blurted when one stubs a toe. I…
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Airing my own dirty laundry: a writer’s Black Moments
Writers understand black moments. They’re our bread and butter and appear in every novel. First we establish our protagonists’ worse fears, then we throw rocks at them, pushing them toward their nightmares. From the first pages we frustrate, annoy and confound them. With slightly dysfunctional glee, we deepen their problems. With Donald Maass’s voice ringing wickedly in…
The Value of a Compliment
So. Here we are, six months into the “New Year.” How are your writing resolutions going? Are you getting 2,000, or 10,000, or whatever daily word counts you aspired to complete? Me either. Have you finished that first novel and started in on your second? I’m right with you on missing that one too. In…
Halfway and Unfinished
I was talking with a writer the other day. Those writers. You know the type. Shifty-eyed. Distracted. Stinking of gin and desperation. A nervous laugh and a hair-trigger sense of despair. Yes. A writer. She was working on her first novel, and times were bad. Why were times bad? Because she was about halfway through…
I’m Guilty – Throw the Book At Me (I really need to catch one!)
Yep. I’m guilty. I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened. I stopped writing and started doing yard work. With a shovel. I became enamored with a battery-operated sprayer for my weeds. I couldn’t resist the siren call of the annual plant displays at every store in town, including the pharmacy. I found a…