The would-be author asked me how to publish her book.  I should have replied, do you know your market?  Instead, I gave her the name of someone who might help. Why point to the pitfalls ahead?  The woman had completed a book. She deserved kudos instead of advice. I wasn’t the one

“You made it so easy.”  The woman on the other end of the phone laughed.  She was referring to an email I’d sent to friends about Barnes And Noble’s holiday 20% discount  on my books. I sent the message more for vanity than for sales.   I was tickled to see my novel, Hear

The time has come to begin the third rewrite of my memoir. The manuscript has laid fallow for a month, so I will look at it with fresh eyes, correcting imperfections and doing my best to serve my readers. When it reaches print, it will be the best effort I can make at this stage of my

In the writers’ pecking order, the author with a publisher stands taller than the one who is self-published.  Having a publisher implies someone other than the writer believes in the work enough to commit hard cash to producing it. Nonetheless, after working with 4 publishers, I’

This is embarrassing.  I went to a book sale the other day and sold all my novels, including my personal copy of Gothic Spring.  I sold it  by mistake.  The book is valuable to me because  I use it when I do readings. The pages are  dog-eared and marked with comments I wish to m

My friend and colleague, Susan Stoner, Sage Adair mystery series writer, sent me an article the other day with an “I told you so,” message.  Stoner self publishes her work and uses a distributor to make her series available in bookstore.  For some time, she’s encouraged me to

“If you do not have a happy-for-now or happily-ever-after ending, you aren’t writing romance. You will let your readers down.” Lynn Lorenz, a romance writer gave that advice to novices at a conference held in Las Vegas last August. While literary authors like Phillip Roth or Mar

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, my publisher and I recently talked for over an hour about whether I should make some last minute changes in my upcoming novel, Trompe l’Oeil. She was concerned about the book’s complexity and whether or not I should give the reader more clues.

Recently, my publisher and I had a discussion about Rachel Farraday, the heroine of my upcoming novel, Trompe l’Oeil. She wondered if my character needed to be more assertive to satisfy the modern view of women. Where, she wondered, was the grittiness of Victorine Ellsworth, the sch

Hello friends, This is my first blog posting. I’m new at this, so it will be journey of discovery for all of us! I’m happy to discuss the novels I’ve written, the ones I’m trying to publish and useful tips for others afflicted by the urge to write. Here’s