What’s In a Name?
People are always surprised when they find out book titles are often not the title the author used. Looking back, my publisher changed the title of five of my nine books. And that’s okay! I’ve long since learned not to get attached to my working title, and often I’ll...
Seven Steps to Write a Novel
Think of all the ways to spread an idea and you'll probably get a consensus that one of the most difficult ways is to write a novel. To express through character, emotion, and story that big idea you have. So many people tell me they've always wanted to write a book....
Being Curious
Whenever I'm talking about my 20-year writing journey, one thing I always mention is the power of curiosity. Together with empathy and perseverance, curiosity is a necessary tool for the writer. It gives the storyteller (and the reader) the agency to ask, "What...
Why Novelists Hate Their Books
I did a talk and book signing last weekend at a charity event, and the organizers had five of my eight novels available for sale. During the signing, readers would scan the available titles and inevitably pose this question to me: "Which of these books is your...
The Power of Being Humbled
In many interviews with writers, this question almost always come up: What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers? My answer is unwavering: write every day. But I'm never asked the second most important thing a writer—aspiring or...
It’s time to write YOUR book.
This month marks a momentous anniversary: in March 2003 I typed the first words of my first novel. I had no clue what I was doing at first. I never dreamed of being a writer, nor did I know anything about the art of writing itself. But twenty years ago I was...
Death by Edits
A book comes alive in editing. Unfortunately, editing sucks.Editing is the time where you have face hard truths about your book, and as tempting as it is to tell yourself, ah, it's fine, the reality is without putting in serious post-first-draft work, your book will...
What Scares Me
Back in September I asked you all to suggest a topic for my newsletter, and a reader said they wanted to know what my fears are. Well, number one on that list is a fear of my cat taking over my newsletter (and based on the number of emails I got, Guff has a lot of new...
Dogz Drool
Hey. It's Guff here. Yeah, you know. The cat of the family. I'm taking over the blog post this month because Carter is too busy.Too busy, you ask? What could he possibly be too busy with that would make him delegate the task of writing his monthly blog post to his...
Halloween Scream Reel 2022
It's November, so that means it's time for the Halloween Scream Reel. I revealed in last month's newsletter that my theme this year was Disco Inferno, so basically I transformed my garage in a dance club located in hell. The main attraction was the...
