Cut-Throat Syndrome – Let Slip the Dogs of War
The Spoils of War – In Editing Hell for the past several weeks, I’m roughly three-quarters of the way through the first full edit, constantly reminding myself it WILL [...]
Five Tips (Minus 4) for Would-be Bestselling Writers
Writing Fiction – Looked simple enough. Write a mystery novel. Hire an agent. Get published. Find a writer’s retreat in the woods or by the sea, and do nothing [...]
Writing—Everybody’s Doing it! So Can You
Everybody’s Doing It – I saw a statistic in a recent blog – “85% of readers dream of publishing their own book.” This may or may not be accurate, [...]
A Rose By Any Other Name . . . The Zeitgeist Of Writing Style
A Rose is a Rose – Or so the story goes. As mystery writers, our craft involves more far than mystery. There’s that all-elusive element of style—highly subjective, to [...]
Self-Published Writers and the Shiny Object Syndrome
DISCLAIMER: At one time or another I’ve been guilty of all the things I deride below. Every now and then something hits me like a bolt from the blue and [...]
Lance Underphal Mystery Books: Research Notes
Making It Real – In one of my early forays into manuscript submission I happened upon an article by bestselling author, L. Ron Hubbard entitled Search for Research. Hubbard [...]