Month: January 2020

I’m posting a series of handouts that I’ve prepared for past writing seminars. Here’s one on forming a writing workshop. A workshop can help you to be accountable to other writers and regularly produce pages. Naomi’s Guidelines for Running a Writing Workshop Determine goals and purpose with first the...

Yes, this baby getting some surgery this week. He’ll lose a toe to possibly save his life. I think that he will adjust. Please think good thoughts and pray for him this Friday.  ...

I’ll be speaking to the Stanford Club of Pasadena and the Stanford Professional Women this Sunday on the topic, Writing and Publishing in a Text(ing) World. For more information, go here: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=31478 I’ll be distributing a number of handouts. Here’s one of them: How to Find an Agent (updated...

Tulo and I cheered on runners on the Pasadena Marathon and 5K route this past Sunday....

With the Oscar nominations and in our mystery genre, the Edgar announcement to come in a few days, observers are fixated on awards. But the older I get in the publishing industry, the more I’ve become fixated on sales. There have been campaigns notably in the children’s literature to...

Tulo has been waiting patiently for the release of these two books: Scott Kikkawa’s KONA WINDS, a mystery set in 1950s Hawai’i, will be out this week, while Margaret Dilloway’s new middle-grade book featuring my favorite–improv–will be released in June!...

The book contract is signed, so the official announcement is out: CLARK & DIVISION, my historical mystery set in 1944 Chicago, will be released by Soho Crime next year. Thrilled! I’m still working on the novel, so stay tuned for posts regarding research. If you subscribed to my newsletter,...

Writing is not conducive to weight loss. In fact, being such a sedentary active, often fueled by one too many jalapeño potato chip, See’s molasses chip or bottle of sweet tea, it can lead to the weight gain. I’ve always been an active person–in the past, I’ve run in...

I adore these two guys!...

In one of my favorite writing books, BIRD BY BIRD, Anne Lamott discusses writing “shitty first drafts.” It’s a necessary evil for writers and sometimes I forget to extend that truth to my own work. On Christmas of all days, I printed out my work in progress, got comfortable...