I think these recap posts get better stats than all my others! :) I’m doing this a little early this week because I’m flying to the Malice Domestic conference today and won’t likely [...]

A week ago I was on a social media panel, talking about the benefits of networking and giving some tips. Afterward, one of the attending agents asked a fellow panelist and me if [...]

During the recession of the early 90s (which looks like nothing compared to the one we’re in now) I was fresh out of college and working for very little money at a magazine. [...]

So we’re replacing the downstairs carpeting. And we have a few really massive pieces of furniture. The carpet company said it would move one of the biggest ones, but the rest were up [...]

I like having a writing plan. This doesn’t mean that life goes according to plan. Kids get sick. New carpet gets installed. Cars need to go to the mechanic. Life happens. I grab [...]

Friday morning at o’ dark-thirty, I’m going to the Malice Domestic conference in Washington, DC. Cool things about this: I get to meet (in person) some of the great folks I’ve gotten to [...]

As promised, I’m running a post with the past week’s interesting writing/reading related links that I found in my Google Reader and tweeted on Twitter. Well,it’s almost a week’s worth. :) The page [...]

First of all, I want to thank Writer’s Digest for the honor of choosing Mystery Writing is Murder as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers (Genres/Niches). Their list has just been [...]

Usually my son gives me a play-by-play of what he’s working on at school. But the past couple of weeks, his Language Arts class has been concentrating entirely on writing to prep for [...]

What happens if you have two things—or two facets of a character’s personality—that are equally important to the protagonist but conflict with each other? We could use the tug between a character’s work [...]

Living in Charlotte, North Carolina, I’m—surprisingly—one of the few Southerners I know here. I’m surrounded by neighbors who’ve moved from the North for (mainly) banking jobs. In the small Southern town I grew [...]

Since our novels are all supposed to have tons of conflict in them (major, minor, and in between), our protagonists need to use their problem solving skills…usually. In real life, I think our [...]

Once again, I’m posting writing links that I previously posted to Twitter. The idea of doing this isn’t to overwhelm anyone—I’m overwhelmed looking at this list myself! But I thought that if I [...]

So I was in the grocery store….again….(must make more lists) and was nearly run down by a little guy pushing a shopping buggy that was bigger than he was. “Benjamin! Watch our for [...]

Today I’d like to welcome Alan Orloff to the blog. Alan is a fellow Midnight Ink author with a new release–Diamonds for the Dead. He’s also writing a new series for Midnight Ink–The [...]

Actually, I’m at 3 different blogs today. :) So, let me go ahead and link to them all, here. My post is up at A Good Blog is Hard to Find, where I’m [...]

It’s important to have an online “home base”—an established place to call your own—even if you’re an unpublished or aspiring writing. To find out why you should develop an online presence, and how [...]

I’m going to the Malice Domestic conference at the end of this month in Washington, D.C. This has put me in a tizzy. Conferences and other types of public appearances do that to [...]

For the past month, I’ve been dying to spring clean. But my schedule has been so busy that I haven’t had time to do more than just basic maintenance around the house. The [...]

I was at the grocery store (again) yesterday before taking ten kids to my son’s 13th birthday paintball party. I was buying lots of chips and soft drinks. I saw a woman in [...]

It’s been a month since my daughter learned to ride a bike. We were all really excited—now we could ride bikes as a family! Charlotte, North Carolina, has greenways that go on for [...]

For a few months, I’ve seen tell-tale signs of social media burnout at some of my usual haunts—on different blogs, Twitter, maybe a little on Facebook. Mostly from bloggers. I think those of [...]

Today I’d like to welcome writer C. Patrick Schulze to the blog. Patrick is a friend of mine through Twitter (@CPatrickSchulze) where he not only posts helpful original content, but also tweets useful [...]

A couple of days ago, we were visiting our family in Alabama. The kids had gotten very restless and were about to start wreaking havoc in their grandparents’ house. I shooed them outside [...]

I’m doing a mid-week Twitter list this time, so I don’t get so far behind! The last post I did for links generated so many hits that I think I’ll have to make [...]

There aren’t many jobs where youth is a disadvantage. I believe writing is one of them. Actually, I don’t think someone in their 30s is particularly young. Until recently, the 30s was considered [...]

Today is my deadline for the second Memphis Barbeque book. I’m emailing it to my editor this morning. I’m getting better with deadlines. I’ve always met them, but I’ve felt very reticent about [...]

I’m taking a couple of days off from blogging to celebrate the Easter weekend with my family. I hope you’ll enjoy this older post, which originally ran last June. Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, [...]

I’m taking a couple of days off from blogging to celebrate the Easter weekend with my family. I hope you’ll enjoy this older post, which originally ran last July. :) I wasn’t cool [...]

Today is the first day of spring break for my children. This week of spring break is also the time to celebrate four close family birthdays, observe Easter, send off my taxes, and [...]