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I have been a newspaper and magazine feature writer for decades. I’ve worked from big cities and smaller markets, both in the U.S. and in Europe. I have (on occasion) spoken on national TV about the stories I’ve written and had my pieces picked up by wire services and reprinted across the country. I’m here […]

That question comes to me at every event I appear at. Especially once a book comes out, like of late with the release of Murdered in Craven and Burned in Craven. The non-writer thinks that I finished the latest book just a week or two ago, and then someone put it on Amazon for me, sending me copies […]

In 2020, I wrote a personal essay that I just couldn’t get published. The worst part was that I couldn’t figure out why. My essay had, as far as I could tell, all the hallmarks of a publishable piece. It told a unique story (about my first same-sex crush at 25, an age when I […]

It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelance journalist, corporate ghostwriter, romance novelist, or free-verse poet, to build and maintain an income stream from your writing, you must proactively market your brand or service. The tools for doing so are always evolving. Twenty years ago, the key advice was to maintain a website and mailing list. […]

I tremendously admire people who regularly journal, and those who have journaled since they were young amaze me most of all. I love journaling, but I do not do it. At lest not often. I think a lot depends on how you want to use journaling, or why you feel the need to journal. I, […]

Last year, as the pandemic zapped the joy out of the holidays, four author friends and I joined forces to pour our energy into a positive project and keep our writing flowing. What started as a small side venture has now become a big, beautiful book filled with five novellas meant to lift spirits this […]

A writer recently asked me to review her memoir. She’d been through an incredible journey in her life, and I had to admit the experience amazed me. She’d already tried self-publishing a few years ago and had gotten scammed by an editor before also learning that not all self-publishers are created equal. A mutual friend […]

Eight years ago, I started writing after a break of more than a decade. I had last worked as a features writer for a thriving mid-sized newspaper. But so much had changed! Slowly, I began finding my way through the confusing maze that is freelance writing. Today, I have recurring writing assignments at several local and regional […]

Just a week ago, I met a young woman attempting to complete a novel. She was in a writer’s group, but leery of who was reading her work, fearful of someone stealing her work . . . and her idea. I explained to her that very few people have the guts to steal someone’s work […]

Half the job of writing books is promoting them. There are many ways to promote a book, but book blogs have become increasingly influential to potential readers. One of the more visible and easier-to-break-into ways to promote a book with an influential book blogger is by guest posting on their site. And double score if […]

“We are born without choosing to, to parents we haven’t chosen, into bodies and borders we haven’t chosen, to exist in a region of spacetime we haven’t chosen for a duration we don’t choose. As physicists know, we don’t choose the particular atoms that constellate our particular selves or the neural configurations that fire our […]

As writers it is not enough to write well. It is just as important to sharpen your business and communication skills in preparation to conduct confident, intelligent, and unemotional conversations with potential clients. Especially when they counter you and disagree. As a Communications Specialist in a corporate role, I was supremely confident of my writing/editing […]