Every novel needs to have at least one major bad guy (or gal), an antagonist with flaws and desires that lead to chaos, crime and even murder. This bad guy must provide a [...]

When my son gets hooked on a new series, it’s very exciting for me—I don’t have to research YA books for a little while! I’m so relieved to have something he’s thrilled to [...]

In each of my manuscripts, I have probably five rough spots to write through on a first draft. These scenes usually have difficult transitions or lots of characters to keep straight (like a [...]

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 [...]

Most writers are spending more time than ever online.  And we’re putting a lot of ourselves out there—on social media, through blogging—or even by sharing our work online. Although that’s the best way [...]

I’ve thought a lot lately about how creative people have it rough sometimes. We do get so much back from being creative—if we didn’t get a lot of joy from it, we wouldn’t [...]

I was looking at my calendar yesterday and adding a guest blogger for Mystery Writing is Murder to it when I realized I have seven guest bloggers coming up in the next five [...]

I was shopping at the Costco warehouse—on a Saturday.  I must have lost my mind because there were gobs of people in there. I quickly grabbed the things I’d come for, then navigated [...]

I’m a huge list maker. This has a lot to do with my need to outsource my horrible memory. It also helps me sleep better at night, knowing that I’ve thought of all [...]

My daughter and I were at the Halloween store last weekend, trying to find her a costume.  For some reason, it’s never easy finding one for her—she has this perfect mental image of [...]

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 [...]

Last week, I posted some resources for finding agents. It’s really tough to find representation.  I think, honestly, there are lots of reasons for this. One is that agents need to believe they [...]

During my August book tour, I visited lots of different bookstores and talked to many different managers. Several of them mentioned, with some concern, the e-book revolution.  One manager went so far as [...]

Every time I write a book, I’m surprised by the problems I run into—even though the problems are always the same. And actually, looking at my list of issues, I’m not sure there’s [...]

My daughter is nine years old. Like lots of nine year olds, she loves to poll everyone on their favorites. And you’d better have an answer. I haven’t thought very much about my [...]

On Saturday, the kids and I went on a bike ride. We’re mismatched bikers. My teenage son is the super biker, easily losing us without even realizing it. My daughter is still on [...]

Working on a first draft can be really challenging. There’s the plot to wrangle into shape, the conflict to ramp up, the characters to breathe life into. And there are a whole lot [...]

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 [...]

Lately, I’ve not really been in the mood to read anything emotionally disturbing or heavy. Lately being the last couple of years. :) I grew up reading heavy literature in school. I read [...]

Looking for an agent can be a really overwhelming process. When I was first looking for an agent, that there wasn’t enough information out there online. Now it seems like there’s almost too [...]

Usually, when I think about plots, I’m thinking about conflict. But I keep running into the term “inciting incidents.” It’s usually a scriptwriting term but I’ve been hearing it more and more in [...]

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that I spend a good deal of my time on auto-pilot. Any rote kind of activity in my life—laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen [...]

I’d posted last week on my need for a little downtime to fire up my creativity. I think a lot of us are in the same boat, juggling family and job responsibilities while [...]

Hope y’all have a great Monday.  I’m in a couple of different places today, so hope you can pop by and say hi at one of them, if you have a second. First [...]

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 [...]

For a little while I was in the dark (which seems to happen a lot). But then I noticed a particular pattern to conversations I was having with my daughter’s friends’ parents. “Elizabeth! [...]

I was at my primary care doctor’s office on Wednesday for a check-up and blood-work. (Fun-fun!) Anticipating the long wait I usually have at the doctor, I came armed with not just a [...]

The last few weeks have been really crazy for me. I’ve been working on a November deadline, working on revisions for a separate project, volunteering for Scouts, and trying to make sure the [...]

Monday afternoon seemed specially engineered to make me crazy. It started early in the afternoon. And we’ll substitute “snap” for all the bad words that I thought during those six hours. I was [...]

Over a week ago, I wrote a post about figuring out what your specialty is as a writer—realizing what you’re especially good at writing and then writing it. But I think it’s also [...]