I write novels. Writers will tell you that good writing involves far more rewriting and editing than it does spewing out intuitively inspired prose. We all do a lot of self-editing in the course of producing a manuscript. But if our work is being published, there comes a time when we must work with [...]
When I was working with my publisher on the novel Enemy Queen, people at the press seemed pleased that my book included a murder mystery, and had a few erotic episodes as well. Evidently, mystery and erotica are both very popular among readers. The penchant for mystery is understandable, and fairly straightforward. A recent [...]
The release date for my novel Enemy Queen had grown close, and the Editorial Project Manager at SparkPress, the book’s publisher, asked me if I’d like to contribute a Behind the Book post for their website. She suggested the topic: “how to plot an erotic thriller.” As soon as I finished reading the email [...]
Shortly after my novel Enemy Queen was published, I discovered that another novel which employed chess as a theme, Spurious Games, had been published at about the same time in England. Both books also featured a murder mystery, along with a good dose of wicked humor. It turned out that the author of Spurious [...]
The term “Plant Based” is suddenly trendy. As a writer, I find this interesting—I’m always curious about the newest permutations of words and phrases that establish themselves in the English language—and I am fascinated observing which such additions evanesce, and which endure. But I’m even more intrigued by this term’s ascension because I am [...]
I recently found myself reading an article on the web. It purported to reveal the correct way to write a novel. I am immediately distrustful of anyone who insists that there is only one correct way of doing anything. I believe I have some good empirical evidence to back this up. Before committing to [...]
I shared some interesting correspondence with a friend recently. We’re in our late sixties now, but he and I met in college in the 1970’s where we were both English Literature and Creative Writing majors. We also played a lot of pick-up basketball back then. He lives in New York, and I live in [...]