I have coined a phrase: “When the muse knocks, get up and answer the door.” By which I mean: Inspiration lurks everywhere, arms folded, tapping her foot, waiting impatiently for you to take notice. Like at the Homer Public Library Plant and Book Sale. Happens twice a year. Library sells books taken out of circulation…
When I sold my first multibook contract, back in the Dark Ages, the immediate response from my new publisher was a multipage questionnaire asking me what I would do to help them publicize my books. Would I reach out to local media? Would I do signings? Would I tour? This was so long ago that…
from 7 Tips for Writing Crime Fiction, written for Writer’s Digest. 7. Backstory. Every single character gets one, including the guy who shows up once to deliver the mail. It can be as little as a sentence or as much as a subplot running through the entire narrative. The supporting cast is what makes a great…
...I've never had a turn, not one! I haven't even been given a name; I was always just the ugly sister; put the stress on ugly...As for the prince, you think I didn't love him? I loved him more than she did; I loved him more than anything. Enough to cut off my foot. Enough to murder...But all my love ever came to was a bad end. Red-hot shoes, barrels studded with nails. That's what it feels like, unrequited love. She had a baby, too. I was never allowed.
# Permanent link to “I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.”
[from the stabenow.com archives, February 10, 2008, with present-day commentary also in bold] Okaaaaay, five days after publication of Prepared for Rage, I have received the first email wanting to know when the next Kate novel will be out. Laurie King and I were talking about this yesterday. We’re pleased and flattered that you “Just…
[Originally posted on October 21, 2013. Repeating it here because reading is as much a part of #thiswritinglife as writing is. And because you never know what you’ll find inside a used book, or what will happen when you write a blog post about it.] I found this copy of Ernie Pyle’s Here is Your War in…
People often ask if I’m afraid I’ll run out of ideas. No, that’s not what I fear. My CPA, who I’ve been with since before I sold my first book, including those seven–or was it eight? possibly nine–years I had no earned income at all, retired last year. We’ll pass over the massive trauma this…
If you write long enough, eventually someone will ask you to contribute a chapter for a serial novel. What is a serial novel, you ask? In the archaic meaning, it’s a work of fiction published in installments–think of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop and people in New York waiting on the docks for the ship carrying copies…
On March 15th 49 Writers hosted a conversation between me and Haines, Alaska writer Heather Lende. Pro tip: It never does for writers to take themselves too seriously. We didn’t. My review of Heather’s book is here, Of Bears and Ballots, which book you should most definitely read along with everything else she’s ever written.
[Written at Laurie King’s request for The Arvon Book of Crime and Thriller Writing, 2012.] Those “Eureka!” moments Writing successfully is sweat equity. Butt in the chair, hour after hour, grinding out sentences and paragraphs and pages, none of which, one is grimly aware, may make the final cut when it comes time to edit. That…