Halloween Recap
BIG NEWS: Halloween wasn't a horrible disappointment! After my rant last month about the challenges of Halloween during COVID, I'm pleased to announce that it ended up being quite the success at the Wilson household. Instead of creating a suffocating walk-through in...
A Very COVID Halloween
This was going to be THE year, man. First, Halloween 2020 falls on a Saturday, Second, that's also the night the clocks get set back an hour in the U.S.. Finally, there will be a full moon that night (a blue moon, actually). Do you know the last time a full moon was...
Unveiling a New Cover
Cover reveal! I normally begin each newsletter with an essay of sorts, but I just received my batch of advance reader copies for my upcoming book, The Dead Husband (coming May 2021) and can't wait to show you the cover. There's nothing like opening a box of your books...
On Writing Violence
I've killed. Countless times. I've shot, stabbed, tortured, burned, bludgeoned, and amputated. Hell, I've even crucified people. In my six published novels, many of my characters meet a bad end. In fact, one of the main reasons I don't write a series is I always want...
Holy Hell, I’m 50
A couple weeks ago I turned 50 (on Bastille Day, for all you Francophiles out there). When I turned forty I had a big party and was planning to do the same for fifty but, you know, pandemic. I'm excited to be fifty. Excited to see what the decade brings, assuming we...
This Heat is Gettin’ To Me
It's hot and I don't know what to write. I'm just sitting here with a blank screen, blurry eyes and fuzzy brain, and I suspect this shit is just gonna spill out without a lot of filter. It's hot and I'm tired, and it feels like I never fully wake up on certain days,...
Notes from Other Authors
Hello, folks. How are you? You getting through these very strange days with ease or with struggle? Likely both, I imagine. Have you been connecting more, reaching out to those you haven't talked to in awhile, just to ask them the simple question you okay? Me too. Over...
Writing in Extraordinary Times
You've heard me go on and on about my favorite band James, whose lyrics I've used in my last two books and, hopefully, the next one as well. Their latest album, Living in Extraordinary Times, was released a year and a half ago, and is essentially a protest album (the...
Room 217
Jessica and I just got back from our annual ghost-hunting excursion at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, for the past six years I’ve gone to the famously haunted hotel to do some writing and search for ghosts,...
Screen Time Makes Me a Better Writer
I pay attention when another author's book captivates my attention. I'll analyze the detail, pace, prose, and voice, and try to figure out what exactly it was that grabbed me. (Sometimes the opposite is true: I'll read a terrible book and obsess over how it became...
