Resurrecting the Novel in the Drawer – How I Turned a First Effort Into a Publishable Novel Ten Years Later
Good or bad, we all remember our first. I’m not sure what the percentages are officially, but a very informal poll taken on Facebook gave me some figures to work with. Out of 113 authors surveyed, 60% abandoned their first effort and felt that was a Very. Good. Thing. Nearly 40% saw their first novel… Read More
June Promises a Little Mystery
What is more intriguing than a promise? The promise to love someone ‘til death do us part, the promise to return from war … the promise that some day the world will end. June finds authors exploring the mystery of promises both good and evil. New York Times Bestselling Author Stella Cameron leads off the… Read More
What Lies Behind What Lies Behind
by J.T. Ellison On July 24, 2013, I read a story about a young med school student named Paul DeWolf who’d been killed in his apartment. No motive, no witnesses, no suspects. By all accounts, DeWolf was an exceptional young man. He excelled in everything from school to his military training to sports and his… Read More
Easter Musings … and New April Books
This Easter was my first one ever away from home—or I should say away from my mother’s Easter breakfast, egg hunt, and afternoon feast of lamb and twice-baked potatoes. (What can I say the woman knows how to hide an egg and season a Brussels sprout.) I’m no spring chick, and I wasn’t sure how… Read More
The Value of an Outline, by a Pantser
There is something so incredibly exciting about the birth of a new book. THE LOST KEY, the second Nicholas Drummond thriller, is out September 30. Drummond has been asked to join the FBI, and has agreed to leave Scotland Yard and come to America. The book opens on his first day of work at the… Read More
On Adaptations
I watched the coolest video this week. Diana Gabaldon – aka Herself – visited the set of Outlander for the first time, and producer Ron Moore did a video of her visit. I am a huge Outlander fan, have been on the book bandwagon for twenty years, and now am a fan of the incredible… Read More
A Book’s Path…
I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but February 25, my eleventh novel will be born into the world. WHEN SHADOWS FALL is the third Samantha Owens novel, a seminal book in the series, as it decides the course of action for the next several books. Every series has a path, planned or unplanned. When… Read More
The Proust Questionnaire: Dr. Samantha Owens
Dr. Samantha Owens granted me a rare interview this winter. We sat down at the Tombs, a D.C. restaurant she likes to frequent, to discuss her life, her position as the head of Georgetown University Medical School’s new Forensic pathology program. Dr. Owens was incredibly candid, agreeing to answer the infamous Proust questionnaire. We had… Read More
Celebrations
I am a big proponent of celebrating life’s events, big and small. And I’m perhaps a bit contrary in my methods. I like holidays to be celebrated at the appropriate time of the year. None of this Halloween crap in July, thank you very much. I celebrate birthdays on the ACTUAL day, though I have… Read More