Welcome to Think About It Friday. A post where we can ruminate on the writing process, weird news or quirks of the everyday world. Today I’m looking at my writing process. Every writer does it differently. The truth is the writing process is as unique to the author as his or her voice. Which is [...]

If you are like half a million other people planning to watch the opening of the last Harry Potter movie today, like me, you might be looking back over the past 13 years since the first book came out and doing some deep navel gazing about how this story has impacted you and the culture [...]

One of the things I love best about writing steampunk are the opportunities for research. Take this, for example: did you know that during the 1870s and well into the 1900s there was a all-female crime syndicate in opperation in London? Oh, yes, dear reader. It’s true! And it’s the fodder for a steampunk imagination [...]

OK, so I’m starting a new book. (Well, let’s be truly honest, I’ve got three of them going right now.) The point is this new book is a little more difficult for me to start than most I’ve worked on. And it’s because of the characters. It’s one thing when they step on stage and [...]

There are a lot of times as a writer where you shake your head and say, “Why me?” Like the time my publisher declared bankruptcy three weeks before my book was supposed to be on bookshelves, or the time I submitted several books to a publisher and received encouraging revision letters only to have my [...]

How do you know if you’re meant to be a writer? It’s really a valid question. Lord knows I’ve asked of myself enough times. But really, how do you know? For me there have been points of clarity mixed with occasional thwacks upside the head to remind me. The first big point of clarity came [...]

Normally I don’t talk about pr stuff on my author website. But something has crossed a huge line. And that something is RWA. So pardon me as I put on my publicist’s hat for a moment and climb up on to the soapbox. Speaking from professional experience in corporate environments, it doesn’t matter what your [...]

 Let’s face it. We all want something. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But why is it that some people are this amazing bust out phenomenon and other people, are well, just plugging along? I may not know everything, but what I have learned is this: becoming great is a marriage of many levels. It’s [...]

There are really so many misconceptions about writers, what they make, how they do what they do, that it’s laughable. Not all writers parade around in bunny slippers, dashing off a book in a weekend between watching reruns of Supernatural. And writers usually don’t make an astounding amount of money. Not even those that hit [...]

OK, really I should have said, what writers who want to get paid decide what to write. The truth is if you pick up pen and put it to paper or type on your keyboard and create a story or an article, you are in fact a writer. But here’s the thing: if you want [...]