What is your character’s umwelt? Yes, umwelt. Pronounced OOM-velt. I came across this concept while reading Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. (If you have a dog, like dogs, are curious about dogs and dog behavior, it’s a fascinating book.) Anyway, the idea of the umwelt came from an early 20th Century German biologist…
Tag: Mark Stevens
Congratulations to Mark Stevens WOTY and Lisa Manifold IWOTY
Selected from a list of accomplished finalists, Mark Stevens is the new Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year and Lisa Manifold is the first ever RMFW Independent Writer of the Year. Writer of the Year Finalists Carol Berg Christine Goff Mark Stevens Independent Writer of the Year Finalists Sue Duff Nathan Lowell Lisa…
“Are You Taking This Seriously Enough?” Seriously?
Paul McCartney just turned 74 but he’s still not sure how to write a song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you hear Macca on NPR’s All Songs Considered? Yes, one of the best songwriters of the last six decades or so says he still isn’t sure how it all works. If I was to sit down…
Backstory Feeds Frontstory
Whack me upside the head – go ahead. I was putting together a presentation recently for a workshop about writing mysteries and I wanted to make the point that the variety of ideas for mysteries—setting, characters, plots and themes—is endless. I thought it might be insightful and instructive (maybe even interesting) to look at recent…
Linger & Mingle
How did I get here? That was my question last Thursday night as I sat at the banquet at The Edgar Awards in New York City. Technically, I got to the banquet because I’m president of Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America (RMMWA). That slot puts you on the national board for Mystery Writers of…