For those of you who are new here, there’s something you should know about me. I have a Halloween problem. I think that's probably true for a lot of us. It started in the 1970s, when I was a kid and there was always that one house in the neighborhood that went all...
By the time you're reading this, Jess and I will have embarked on an epic month-long road trip from Colorado to Maine (and back). As of today, we should be leaving South Bend, IN and headed to Mayville, NY. Oh, and we're taking the fucking dogs. The reason we're going...
One of the questions every author gets asked is where their ideas come from. I've always found that question a little funny. It makes it sound like authors have some kind of superpower the rest of the world doesn't. Which is garbage, of course. Everyone has ideas. All...
I've always been fascinated by multimedia storytelling. Not because I think books need gimmicks. I don't. A novel should absolutely stand on its own. But when I'm deep in a story, I sometimes become obsessed with the objects inside it. I think this is because I...
A quick word before I dive into my normal silliness, because it would feel wrong not to say this. A month ago, I lost my sister to a sudden and unexpected medical crisis. Her name was Kristin, and she was my only sibling. Two years older. Way smarter than me....
Expanse, Colorado. A mountain town at 7,000 feet. Population 313. Most of them are hiding from something. Including Annie Wolfe and her twelve-year-old daughter, Coral. Years ago in Miami, Annie did something she can’t outrun. Since then, she’s been waiting. New...
One of the questions I get asked a lot at events is a simple one: Who are you reading right now? Or sometimes: Which writers influenced you the most? It’s a perfectly reasonable question. And every time someone asks it, I feel a tiny flash of stress. Maybe more...
Last month I shared a Day in the Life of a Writer, and more than one of you followed up with questions about writing an hour a day and whether that’s actually enough to finish a book. It is. And it works. Just do the math. If you write for an hour and average...
A day in the life of a writer is spent in a cabin in the snowy woods. A 1930s Royal typewriter. A bottle of vodka. A thermos of black coffee. A vow not to leave until ten thousand anguished words are hammered out. Feelings oscillate between rapture and suicide. None...
This year blindsided me. Not with tragedy or revelation. Just a quiet, weird fact I had to sit with for a minute. For the first time ever, I made more money as a writer than from anything else in my life. How fucking wild is that? I’ve been writing for nearly...
