Traditionally, in October, National Book Month, I have posted about “haunting books”—books that have stayed with me after I read them. This month, I thought I’d focus on what I’ve been forced to read because of my participation in various book clubs. Left to my own devices, I would probably […]
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Bragging: Recent Reviews and Recognition for My Novels
One of the joys of writing is getting feedback from readers. Of course, the feedback isn’t always positive, but reader reviews are generally a reward for the long slog of writing and editing. Here are some of the reviews readers have posted recently about my novels on Amazon. Each of […]
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Beta Reader Feedback Is In
I’ve now received all my beta readers’ feedback on the contemporary novel that is my work-in-progress. I have spent the past week or so reviewing their input and starting to make the changes I think appropriate. Most of their feedback is really helpful. A couple of my beta readers had […]
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Researching Historical Fiction: The Owyhee Expedition
As I’ve written before, I plan to set my next historical novel in Oregon in 1864. I’ve had the idea for this next book since I began writing Lead Me Home, which I first drafted in 2008 (it wasn’t published until 2015). Soon, it will be time to start writing […]
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The Last Edition of THE OREGON SPECTATOR, March 10, 1855
I’ve written before about the importance of old newspapers in my research for my novels about Oregon pioneers. The Oregon Spectator’s issues from 1948 through 1852 provided a lot of background for Now I’m Found and My Hope Secured. So as I began to research my next Oregon novel (I’m […]
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A Point of View on Writing With Multiple Points of View
In my critique group, I’m known as the Point-of-View Nazi. I try to catch when other writers stray from the point of view they established in each scene. I sometimes get caught making this mistake myself, though not very often. I wrote so many affidavits for so many witnesses during my […]
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An Early Start on College
This post is about my mother, though not about Mother’s Day. While searching for a topic for a Mother’s Day post, I came across a photograph of my mother and me in an album my grandmother made for me many years ago. I’ve always liked this photo, because it shows […]
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My Work-In-Progress, and the Temptation to Edit As I Read
As I reported to readers of my newsletter last week, I completed the rough draft of my work-in-progress in mid-April. This first draft took just under six months to write—not fast, but also not the slowest first draft I’ve written. Because it’s a contemporary novel, I didn’t have to do […]
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My Strength is “Input,” But Enough Already
Many years ago, my work group and I took the Gallup StrengthFinders survey. The theory behind this survey was that employees who get to do what they do best at work every day are more engaged and more productive in their jobs. The survey’s purpose was to identify what people […]
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Another Update on My Work-in-Progress
The silver lining in the pandemic crisis is that I have been writing diligently on my work-in-progress, a contemporary novel I intend to publish under a pseudonym. In Kansas City, the shut-down began in earnest about the weekend of March 14-15. At that point, I had around 70,000 words written […]
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