Social media can be used to promote just about anything, from a fashion show to a big sale at a large department store. For those who don’t know what social media is, the [...]

Because I have events in the next couple of months that will involve speaking, I decided to pull up my tips from a year ago and review them. (I haven’t done any public [...]

Maybe it’s because it’s Walmart, but I get annoyed every time I’m at the checkout because the sign says 12 items or less. It should be 12 items or fewer. This, of course, [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand [...]

From time to time, I’m going to run a post on the basics of looking for a publisher or agent. I frequently get emails from folks who are looking for very general, basic [...]

I’d like to welcome Rick Chesler to Mystery Writing is Murder. Rick holds a Bachelor of Science in marine biology and has had a life-long interest in the ocean and its creatures. When [...]

I’m definitely happy to take editorial suggestions from my agent or editor. But sometimes I really need time to get adjusted to a new idea. I handed in a partial manuscript to my [...]

I’m writing this post from the pool (again.) Yes, it’s either the pool, movies,or the skating rink when it’s this hot and my daughter is looking for something to do. There are plenty [...]

I’m starting to think that my children have an evil conspiracy to get me working out. Yesterday, my eight year old daughter asked me to take her to the Y. They have a [...]

On Saturday, I took my children to see The Karate Kid to escape the relentless heat we’ve been having in North Carolina. I was 13 when the original movie came out, but this [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. I’m setting this up as a Sunday installment on Mystery Writing is Murder. If you’re looking for a particular topic, [...]

If someone tells me that they are a writer, I don’t tend to question it. Anyone who loves to write and does so recreationally is indeed a writer. “Being a writer” is about [...]

I’ve always thought that if we don’t stretch ourselves, we don’t grow. But stretching doesn’t always feel good. And sometimes we end up pulling things. My friend asked if I wanted to go [...]

Apparently on Thursdays I have a subconscious desire to take over everyone’s Google Readers with my posts. :) This is the second Thursday in a row that I’m writing for 4 different blogs [...]

One thing that I’ve noticed with my writing is that I swing back and forth in my opinion of the draft I’m working on. What I aim for is to feel good about [...]

I think that, as a writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about my protagonists’ strengths. What are they good at? Where do they excel? How can I play to their strengths? [...]

I was a huge fan of cozy mysteries long before I ever sat down to write one. What exactly are cozy mysteries and how does one go about writing one? Please pop over [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. I’m setting this up as a Sunday installment on Mystery Writing is Murder. If you’re looking for a particular topic, [...]

The release of Delicious and Suspicious is getting really close, y’all. Close enough for me to run a contest. :) First of all, if you’d like to get acquainted with my protagonist, Lulu [...]

Today I have the pleasure of having Margot Kinberg guest post on the blog. Margot is a mystery writer (her newest, B-Very Flat has just been released.) But Margot is also a mystery [...]

Sometimes we just run into some problems or conflicts when we need to write. Just like there are internal and external conflicts, there are also internal and external factors that seem bound and [...]

I think life moved a little slower a few decades ago. It seemed to, anyway. I certainly remember having four TV channels and getting up to change to another station. But these days [...]

‘Information dump’ is one of those terms that’s so descriptive, I could guess its meaning right away. We can get information dumped on us as a reader in several different ways—in backstory (what [...]

It’s Sunday afternoon as I write this and I’m at the swimming pool with the children. It’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit and there are about 200 people crowding the pool. I seem to be [...]

I have a hidden talent that I’ve kept secret on this blog. I can recite approximately 24 Teletubbie episodes by heart. No, this isn’t an ability that I’m particularly proud of. I know [...]

A few days ago I was visiting Mason Canyon’s blog, Thoughts in Progress and saw she’d posted on writer’s block. Mason writes for a newspaper, and she mentioned that when you’re writing articles [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past 5-6 days. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top [...]

Sometimes I notice themes in the blogosphere as writers struggle with the same problem. In this case, I think the bottom line is time…and our lack of it. Recently there have been 4 [...]

Janice Hardy ran a post on her Story Flip blog on those times when you want to show that time has passed as the protagonist learned a new skill or developed a new [...]

One of the most popular posts that I tweeted last week was this one: http://zenhabits.net/creative-habit/ on Leo Babauta’s excellent Zen Habits blog. His post, summing, up was on the number one habit of [...]