All right, now that it’s November you probably don’t want to hear about Halloween. Too bad. You can go down to your local grocery store and immerse yourself in all the Christmas decor you want, but for now, we’re doing a Halloween debrief. I’ve come to realize writing...

backyard creatures
The First Line
Every now and then I'll get asked about writing the opening lines to my novels. How long do you toil over each of those words, making sure they're perfect? How often did you go back and change that first sentence? And how did you decide on the first line of The New...
What If?
Screw outlining.That’s easy for me to say, because I suck at it. Sure, I had tried outlining very early on in my career, but never in earnest. So after I'd written a few books, I decided to give it a serious go—notecards and everything. I spent nearly six months...
How a Book is Born
This month my seventh novel will officially launch. Maybe "will be born" is a better phrase, considering how many of my titles have either had boy or girl in them. In this case, my publisher will be giving birth to a dead husband, and I'm not sure what kind of...
What Didn’t Suck About 2020
My end-of-year newsletter is usually a reflection of gratitude for the year. Then along came 2020 and spit globs of infectious goo in all of our faces, making this year's annual rite a bit challenging. Still, there were things in 2020 that didn't suck. In no...
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...
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...