This is what my office looks like when I am finishing a project: messy. I spent the whole weekend moving furniture, tossing old stuff, cleaning, and organizing. I still have more to do, but I am beginning to feel like I can breathe again. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to...Read More

My 9th grade English teacher loved the word garage. I didn’t get it. For me, the word garage conjured up images of oil spots and old tools. She kept saying, “Listen to the sound, to how the word rolls off your tongue: garage.” This morning as I walked the dog, her words came back to...Read More

In 2003, I devoured the debut mystery novel featuring the Rev. Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, In the Bleak Midwinter in just a few days. With Spencer-Fleming’s latest Fergusson/Van Alstyne mystery, One Was a Soldier, I am taking my time. Maybe it is because it’s been two years since the last book...Read More

It’s too hard. I’m not strong enough. I don’t have time. I throw these kinds of mental obstacles in my path all the time. I hear clients uttering these phrases, too. These words may not be true, but they do work to undermine us. Time to spring clean our brains. Make a list of the...Read More

The most important thing is insight, that is … to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that a man does what he does. —William Faulkner In my Write Now! Mastermind interview with author Becky Levine, she suggested that writers who experience strong feelings about a manuscript they are critiquing—I don’t like it,...Read More

We all have them—critique group horror stories. Maybe someone lambasted you for your political point of view instead of critiquing your novel about a politician. Perhaps a critique group colleague told you that you’ll never amount to much as a writer. Or maybe you just did not get any helpful information from the critique. I’ve...Read More

  “Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” —George Orwell Have you ever thought about writing books as a long, difficult struggle? I certainly have—and I LOVE writing! But over the years, I’ve discovered the joy of writing a book marathon style. When the book-writing process...Read More

Introducing Deadly Currents Beth Groundwater is known for her cozy mystery series featuring gift basket designer Claire Hanover (A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket) This month, Groundwater released, Deadly Currents, the first book in what promises to be an absorbing new series. The series introduces seasonal river ranger Mandy Tanner, who...Read More