From

  • Where Novel Ideas Come From

    One of the questions I tend to get when it comes to writings is the following:  “Where do you get your ideas for your novels?”  That’s almost always followed by, “You have such a vivid im

  • Getting Ready for Christmas

    Preparing for Christmas has been a hard road this year. It all started in November.  I knew it would be busy.  That particular month always is in my line of work.  What I didn’t expect was the

  • How to Survive a Breakup with Your Agent

    It happened one summer day. The breakup with my agent. I met her at a conference.  One of my manuscripts had caught her eye.  We talked.  She asked for a proposal.  I delivered early.  The nex

  • How to Deal with Life’s Little Messes

    Our hot water heater died last night (Friday) at 11 PM.  It happened like this.  I’d had a very long and busy week.  When I finally stumbled through the door at eight o’clock last night, my

  • Numbers in Writing: Scene Chords

    This is the last post of my series on numbers in writing.  I want to talk about scene chords.  In his book, Plot and Structure, James Scott Bell discusses four scene chords.  He defines a c