J.A. Konrath is a mystery author and a funny dude.  He also gives good writing tips: Readers don’t want characters to be happy. They want them to be tortured for 90,000 words, and then happy at the very end. Maybe. That’s the essence of a page-turner. If you … [Read more...]

Revisions have begun for Eye of Heaven.  First draft clocks in at 116,000 words, but when I’m done, it may go over 120,000.  There’s fat to trim, but added details to pour in, and I tend to do more rather than less.  And while this is going on, there … [Read more...]

For those of you who could not access yesterday’s article at the NY Times: IN March, Thomas Kohnstamm, a 30-year-old Seattle native on assignment in Caracas, Venezuela, for Lonely Planet travel guides, walked out of a bar in a neighborhood called Sabana Grande and quickly … [Read more...]

Want to write travel guides?  Check out this article at the NY Times, which basically states that traveling poor and on assignment ain’t that much fun.  I think it depends on your personality and the locale—I’ve always wanted to write a travel guide … [Read more...]

Just watched two of my favorite movies:  The Man From Snowy River (based off the Australian ballad) and Return to Snowy River.  The Outsider is also on television, which ranks right up there.  I think it captures the spirit of the book, which is one of the finest … [Read more...]

Note to self:  You are not, in any way, shape, or form, athletic enough to garden heavily in direct sun on an eighty degree day.  Inching close to heatstroke is not a good thing.  At all.  And when even the dogs want to go someplace cool, for God’s sake, … [Read more...]

Here’s the English version of an interview that the lovely Kris Alice conducted with me for her http://www.loveletter-magazin.de">German Romance Magazine: Where do you live, are you a full-time author? I live on an old farm in the American Midwest, just on the outskirts … [Read more...]

Deadlines.  Everyone has them.  I had one for Eye of Heaven and I ran late.  But the book is done, it has been turned in, and revisions will begin in a day or so.  The book needs a lot of work, but at least the structure is there.  So let this be a … [Read more...]

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  I hope your day is safe and blessed with family and good times.  Our freedoms are sacred and lovely; I hope the coming year brings you the chance to express them at their fullest. … [Read more...]

Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive. — Mel … [Read more...]