November 30, 2024

Currently, I am in throes of writing book #3, THE WITHERWOOD CHOIR, and by #3, I actually mean book #4 (because the first book I wrote, THE LAST GODDESS, absorbed its twin in the womb and popped out with two wobbly heads and a single spine while weighing in at a hefty 190k words). It…

June 22, 2024

Did you know that losses are twice as potent as their equivalent gains? This psychological concept underpins the idea of “loss aversion,” a cognitive bias that often tests a writer’s will to continue on through the query gauntlet. For some, the cumulative pain of rejections can outweigh the potential gain of snagging that offer, which…

January 24, 2024

Okay, it might end up being a love-hate relationship, but still… A special lull exists between when you gently press your writing into someone else’s arms for critique and when they drop off your book like an Amazon delivery guy with a full bladder and no health insurance. During that lull, your mind fires off…

August 25, 2023

Struggling to write that dreaded synopsis? Try boiling your book. Pause for a moment and imagine yourself at a doctor’s office where diagrams of skeletal, musculature, and nervous systems are displayed on the wall  – reassuring you the physician knows what all your pokey, slimy, and noodly bits are called, while simultaneously giving you an…