I’m interviewing writer Thomas Perry in a few days, and I thought it might be fun to return to his first book, The Butcher’s Boy, his first novel and the winner of the Edgar Award that year. It’s easy to see why it separated itself from the competition. It exemplifies...
In my years of teaching at universities and conferences, lecturing on podcasts, and conducting instructional panels and presentations, I have encountered the phrase “Show, Don’t Tell” as one of the most basic yet often misunderstood phrases and pieces of advice and...
How Hadestown Uses Timeless Storytelling to Captivate and Inspire Writers As I left the performance of the Broadway touring production of Hadestown at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), it left me thinking about the storytelling techniques that made it such...
Writing Is More Than Just Art—It’s a Business People are attracted to writing because of numerous things: crafting and exploring great characters, shaping and developing new or familiar worlds freshly visited, and telling stories with compelling plots, subplots, and...
In the last essay, we discussed an overview of the Four Ps to create an effective sell-through plan for your books or services. In this essay, I’d like to apply those principles directly to writers and speakers. The last essay was an overview; this essay focuses on...
Hollywood has an allure, and I am often asked, in my consulting work and at conferences such as Bouchercon and Killer Nashville, “How do I get my book turned into a film?” The first answer to the question is straightforward but not always easy to accept. Do you have a...
Writing, unlike many other professions, is a self-employed endeavor. This unique aspect of our craft necessitates cultivating writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. Every day, the responsibility is solely yours. It would be best to find...
We just finished an election season. Thank God that’s over. It never ceases to amaze me that many elections are held around the premise that someone else will fix our problems. They are not. Ever? Never. We fix our own problems. Bringing this home to writers, it's...
I’m all about reading, but I’m also all about writing. Answers are not necessarily found in self-help books, in fixing everything that “is wrong with you,” or staring out the window thinking about how things could be better. Sometimes, our self-reflection seems...
As a speaker on leadership, I often address diverse groups, not exclusively writers. However, it's crucial to recognize that writers are indeed leaders. They are the driving force behind their teams, the origin of all creative endeavors. Today, I want to delve into...