What does “show, don’t tell” really mean, anyway? Last week Chuck Sambuchino posted my article “7 Things I’ve Learned So…
I want to pass along an exercise I led earlier this month at a high school Writers Fest. I asked…
This month I read two awesome mysteries, Mary Miley’s The Impersonator, and Kristen Kittscher’s The Wig in the Window, and…
It’s true what they say: to write well, you have to read well. And often. And widely, and not just…
I was thrilled when James River Writers (JRW) asked me to interview Kathryn Erskine in advance of the JRW conference…
When you tell a joke, you have to remember the punch line before you tell it, or you won’t get…
Novelist Elmore Leonard passed away this month, leaving behind forty-some books and his “Ten Rules of Writing.” I agree with…
I learn a ton when I interview my characters. Over the years, I’ve compiled a set of questions for them,…
This past February while writing a new scene, a character showed up, whispered to my protagonist, “We have safe houses…
Through the Osher Institute at the University of Richmond, from time to time my friend, Jan, teaches a class called “In Search…