We are just days away from the launch of Fluid, the Mindspace Novella #4.5! (Coming out in or around October 27th.) To celebrate the launch, I’m thrilled to share the amazing cover of Fluid, designed by the incredible Scarlett Rugers. It’s a brand new look for the shorter works, but it harmonizes so well with the existing covers. I couldn’t […]
ENovella Live Today
I’m thrilled to announced that Payoff, the Mindspace Investigations novella between books 1 and 2, goes live today in electronic format only. Still recovering from a mind-injury, Adam agrees to help a judge find a college kid–but there are strings attached. Check out Payoff here.
Writing a Series
As most of you know, the last few weeks I’ve been researching series writing as a way to get my head around not only my next book (no. 2 in a series), but also the next however many I get to write with this world and characters. As a reader I hate the series that […]
What is Good Fiction?
Ever since I’ve gotten back from Odyssey, I’ve been struggling with how to integrate their teaching with my own system of fiction. Since the system I wrote under originally sold two books for me, I wanted to hold onto it. But the central principles of Odyssey kept echoing in my brain, so that when I […]
Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Or, the Mindset of the Writer of Fiction
To be a writer of fiction, you must believe in several impossible things before breakfast. You must believe in people who never lived, places that never existed, and series of events that never happened. This is the easy part. What is harder is seeing these made-up things clearly, so clearly that you can describe them […]
Advice to New Writers Part Two
This week, I follow up to last week’s advice to new writers. Whether you’ve been writing two decades or two seconds, it’s critical to keep working to get better. Here’s a few pointers I’ve learned along the way. Length. A story should be as long as it needs to be to tell the whole story – […]
Tension and Suspense
This week has had a lot of waiting. Waiting for the agent to get back to me to confirm receipt of my manuscript. Waiting for the Finalists call on Monday, on the off-chance I get it. And all the tension, the suspense, the wondering – all this waiting has got me thinking about how to […]
Raise the Stakes
The difference between a good story and a great one, the difference between a book you work through slowly and one you can’t put down, is largely the stakes. What do I mean by stakes? What your character or characters have on the line. Rather than a routine case, give your detective one that is […]
Reading Journal
I was talking to one of my writer friends the other day about writing (what else would writer friends talk about?) and heard about a very cool idea. A reading journal. It’s a simple notebook you put next to you when you read and make notes on what works (and what doesn’t) in the books […]
The Right Details
The best gift I’ve ever been given in my life cost five dollars. Yes, you read that right. I was fifteen, and trying out my brand-new culinary skills in my mother’s kitchen. Making large messes. Burning things. And learning what made up delicious food, and how to prepare it. I’d stir batters with my mother’s […]
