Join us on March 3 for the third in a series of Zoom chapter meetings highlighting the states and regions of the New York chapter. The March meeting will feature a panel of four Hudson Valley writers discussing the use of location and atmosphere in their fiction as well as their other techniques they’ve developed for crafting an engaging mystery. […]
Join us on Nov. 11 for the first in a series of Zoom chapter meetings that shine a spotlight on members that, because of geographic location, find it difficult to attend meetings in New York. The November meeting features three notable authors from the states of Pennsylvania. And, we do mean states. John Vercher won accolades for his first novel
If one thinks about it, a writer is a conjurer and a liar at heart. He or she is always observing and listening—casing the jointin a literary sense. Every snippet of overheard conversation, every situation is hoarded away like ill-gotten loot in the nether regions of a writer’s mind. It may lay dormant for a while, but the idea is
When many writers talk about social media, they mention all the obvious platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. They’ll also talk about all the issues that they have with these. Manual reposts across platforms, not enough time to work on all of them, and having to jump from one to the other to do anything as just a few
My new mystery, Below the Fold, talks about the media’s obsession with covering murder cases filled with lots of sex – like Jodi Arias, Amanda Knox, Scott Peterson, Pamela Smart and right back to O.J. and Nicole. The book is set in a TV newsroom, and I spent many years as a journalist working in newspaper and television newsrooms. So
Recently, the Authors Guild published its 2018 Author Income Survey and its findings are ugly. Median writers’ income has fallen 49% from 2009 to a measly $6,080. It gets worse. Income derived solely from books has fallen 21% to $3,100. The survey points out that full time writers are earning additional income from teaching and speaking. But this only gets their median annual
Seduction has never been my thing. Not in the real world, in terms of enticing a romantic partner to my boudoir. (Does anyone even have a boudoir these days?) If you’ve seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, think about the scene where Kathy Bates imagines answering the door in cling wrap. That would be me on a good day. But
For any aspiring novelists out there, how many books do you have on how to write a novel? At least a dozen are sitting on my shelf, with a handful more taking up space on my Kindle – all mocking me. I probably subscribe to the same magazines that you do, and I’ve read many of the same articles that
“Geez. How can you write a whole book?” I get asked that a lot. Most people see a book as an extended homework assignment or some written report to humanity that has to be done before they take the dirt nap. It’s always presented, from those people who ask, as an obligation—as some onerous task that one has to suffer
What is crime? It begins as a kernel of an idea that metamorphoses itself into a series of thoughts that lead to a transgression against the law and, sometimes, the taking of a human life. It upsets the balance in a safe and ordered world. But this turmoil and chaos are precisely what an author craves and desperately needs when
