I’m a sucker for sappy Christmas movies, and they almost always start showing them in November. I spend pretty much two months watching these things! Here are some of my […]
Use Your Experience
The old advice is “Write what you know.” That’s a misleading phrase, and it stymies many a beginning writer. The actual phrase should be “Write what are willing to learn […]
Blathering: A Nibble
So at the Tony Hillman Conference, they had a session where you could put your name into the hat for a reading of your first page in front of two […]
5 Tips to Writing Emotionally
One of the areas many new writers have trouble with is emotional content. Their writing may have a lot of description, even vivid images, but there is no connection for […]
Short-Short: Dressing Cases
HERE’S a link to an interesting article I found while researching the lads’ upcoming trip to the East Coast. It’s all about dressing cases.
The Art of Blogging
This was a panel at the Hillerman Conference, featuring Dawn Wink, Susan Tweit, and Joe Badal. Advice from Dawn, whose blog is called Dewdrops: Follow your passions Figure out who […]
To Outline or Not to Outline
This was a panel at the Tony Hillerman Conference, featuring Anne Hillerman, CB McKenzie, Sara Hoklotubbe, and John Sandford. Q: Do you outline or wing it? John: There’s no right […]
Short-Short: Random Last Name Generator
HERE’S a nifty little random name generator – for surnames. It’s only English, but it’ll get you started on those secondary characters. Back to the Hillerman Conference soon…
The Serious Art of Writing Humor
Kris Neri shared some of her secrets with us at the Tony Hillerman Conference. Here are a few tricks of the trade. Teaching humor is hard, Kris says. To teach, you […]
Tony Hillerman Writing Conference
I’m back down from the rarified air of this lovely little conference! This is my second Hillerman Conference and I’m definitely going back again (and again)! If you’ve never […]