The Day My Dad Changed My Life By Tosca Lee Signing the contract for my upcoming novel, The Long March Home. Authors often get asked what they hope readers will take away from their books, what their publishing journey was like and what’s next for them. But my favorite question is this: “How did...
By Alex Kava According to artist, Chuck Close: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” But what if it’s not about inspiration? What if you’re really stuck in a manuscript. You can’t move forward no matter how many bad paragraphs you force yourself to...
You Need a You Space By Jenny Milchman They say the happiest kind of actor is a working actor, and that’s true of writers too. Lately I’ve begun to think that it may be true of all people, period. Sigmund Freud, albeit he’s be cancelled for a lot of things circa today, got it right when he said...
By Gayle Lynds Reposted from January 2018, when the snow was even deeper than it is now. Brrr! Our front yard. Yep. It’s true that winter can drive some of us writers into dark, metaphorical caves, but then we escape the despair and boredom by throwing ourselves into our writing. Whew. Or,...
By Tracy Clark I've had a heck of a time writing lately. Shirtsleeves up. Eyes on my laptop. Fingers on the keyboard. Digging for diamonds like those seven little Disney guys. I started a new crime series. And I’m a pantser. Feel me? This means I started with zip, which is fine. I always start...
by Gayle Lynds I’ve had a number of restless nights lately. You know what I mean — weird stuff speeding through my brain, banging at my consciousness, trying to be useful (or not). Mostly, it’s about writing — I’m working on a couple of different novels at the same time. In the past, the...
by Gayle Lynds This is the best writing advice I ever got. Learning to write well is like climbing a greased pole. You make a couple of feet of progress (exhilarating!), but then you slide back a foot, or more (groan!). In the beginning I was climbing and sliding, climbing and sliding, having...
Introduction by KJ Howe: Writing one dynamic book is a real accomplishment. Keeping a series fresh is a monumental task. It takes a creative mind and an endless amount of energy. Learn from iconic author Tess Gerritsen how to keep your series sparkling. Welcome to the Rogues, Tess! Keeping A...
The grandchildren’s winter treehouse in Gayle’s yard By Gayle Lynds It’s seven degrees here in Maine. Snow blankets the forest. Squirrels are hiding in their nests. Deer, foxes, and porcupines are out of sight, too, keeping warm, I hope. I step outdoors, and my nose turns red. My lips are so...
by Karna Small Bodman “The truth is: Many authors spend 25% of their time writing, but 75% of their time marketing” – that’s a quote from a New York Times bestselling author appearing on a panel at Thrillerfest – the annual meeting of our International Thriller Writers organization. Anyone can...
