If you have a website, a blog, a tumblr, or an Instagram account that you approach in a semi-professional or artistic way, you might want to figure out your brand colors or create a personal color palette. It can tie everything together, make design decisions easier, and convey who you are. I’m not a designer, and I know some of
Category: Writing Matters
In my day job in publishing, whenever we’re discussing a new story, one thing we’re often asking is, “What’s the character arc?” (It’s also a reason we pass on a lot of stories: “I don’t understand his arc.”) Without a strong character arc, the reader (or the editor) may be left thinking, “So what? Why should I care?” Simply put, the
My novel The Equinox Stone features a hero who suffers from retrograde amnesia. Because I wanted to do a good job writing about amnesia, I did a lot of research on types of amnesia, symptoms, treatment, and causes (even though in my character’s case, the cause is not something that could ever happen in real life. I hope.) I hope
Around this time of year, a lot of people are looking for good graduation gifts. A book is an ideal gift for an educational milestone. If you want to be a little more generous, but you’re still looking for graduation gifts under $100 or under $50, you can give a book and add a $20 bill or two. Maybe write
I am just finishing up reading tons of query letters from an open submission period at work. While there’s no one formula for how to write the perfect query letter, there are a few things you can do to stand out in a good way. The whole querying process is, frankly, brutal. For authors, it’s so hard to make that
A lot of writers struggle with describing settings. I’ve written before about how to describe settings and why it matters, but a few people have told me they’d like me to do some of my master lists for writers to help them out! I have a weird love for creating lists like this, so I’m happy to do it. “How
Hi friends! I’m writing this post at SleuthFest, a terrific writers’ conference for mystery and thriller writers. As an acquiring editor, I’ve spent hours here hearing novel pitches and chatting with writers. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I love talking with fiction writers about their projects, so I enjoyed it. Writing conferences often set up