How to Write Other Stuff (if you’re me)

I thought of some other genres to write up like yesterday’s post about mysteries. Adventure.  The main character has to do some sort of big goal that requires putting themselves at physical risk somehow.  So every scene, the character should try to achieve their goal by taking a physical risk that fails to resolve the goal, […]

How to Write Other Stuff (if you’re me) Read More »

How to Write a Mystery (if you’re me)

Someone asked me how I write mysteries.  Now that I’m writing them, it seems kind of like a “well, duh” question, although I recognize that they can seem intimidating from the outside, because I, too, was intimidated before I started writing them. Mostly, mostly, you write a mystery like you write anything else, however you happen

How to Write a Mystery (if you’re me) Read More »

Write What You Buy

I recently saw what looks like good advice:  “Write what you buy.” So I looked at the books that I buy.  I buy: Alternate history. Literary historical fiction. Fantasy, especially grimdark.  But also Terry Pratchett. Classic mysteries. Literary horror. Diverse authors. Smartass romance. James Bond novels. Pulp SF and pulp crime. Short stories!!! Some days,

Write What You Buy Read More »

Running twice as fast just to stand still

This morning is not the world’s greatest morning for a packaged sound bite about writing.  The World Fantasy Awards have been released and nothing that I read and liked won.  There’s a new conflict about how to handle serial sexual harassers in an entertainment industry adjacent to mine–everyone agrees that they should be handled, but

Running twice as fast just to stand still Read More »