How is a writer who’s struggling to complete a manuscript, probably juggling a full-time job with personal commitments, supposed to do all the work involved with social media?  Your publishers, agents will tell you to use social media.  Folks like me will all tell you to have a social media program.  Yet another buzz word! What’s a writer to do?

This is #2 in a series, beginning with Is The Publishing Industry Dying? about how to cope as an author in the new world of media. As a writer, you hear it all the time from everyone, “You have to be on social media!” You may be asking yourself why and wondering if this is all just a fad and if

Accidentally In Love – On Series Characters By Angel Colon There’s a kind of magic that happens when a character finally “clicks”. Dialogue and action are second nature—of course he/she would do this because this happened. There’s a familiarity present that feels nearly physical, as if the character were a friend that hasn’t called in a while. That attachment lends

What Are the Elements of a Great PI Series? by Alex Segura I didn’t think I was writing a series when I started working on my debut novel, Silent City. At that point, I was flying blind, toying with the idea of writing my very own crime novel in the same vein as the books that inspired me. But as

Five Bits of Writing Advice That May or May Not Work For You By Rob Hart   I want to open this with a caveat: Not all writing advice is good advice. Because it’s all subjective. Like how some people will tell you the only way to be successful is to write every day. I don’t believe that. I don’t

This post appeared in slightly different form on the crime fiction site Do Some Damage on April 3, 2018. *** I remember reading years ago that Jerzy Kosinski had an unusual writing routine. During every twenty four hour period, he would sleep twice for four hours.  This allowed him to work during the quietest times of the night and early

This piece appeared in slightly different form on Criminal Element. The opening of Robert Benton’s private eye film The Late Show is chock-full of deception. We first see the Warner Brothers logo, but it’s not the Warner logo of 1977, the year the film was released. It’s a sepia colored 1940’s era Warner logo, and right away we hear soft 40’s style piano music

Once upon a time, I wrote for children. Old children. The creatures known in publishing as young adults—not quite teenagers but beginning to navigate the realties of a world that is not always kind. They have experienced cruelty, encountered their first villains. They know about sex—kind of, sort of. As young people, they don’t always have to power to vanquish

Every published author will tell you that a great copy editor is a gift from God, and have horror stories about those more in Satan’s camp.  I’ve had both.  Now that I’m busy with the editorial process, the importance of great copy editing has become even more apparent. There’s a big range of capabilities different copy editors bring to their

Adelina here. I am sorry. I look at this blog and realize I have not been keeping up. You would think, being dead, that I would have plenty of time to blog, but it is not so very simple. Just because you are dead doesn’t mean the beets don’t need to be planted, the butter doesn’t need to be churned,