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 [...]
Breakin’ for a Few FAQs
Blog Hop, You Say? – At the risk of severely dating myself here, the last time I did a “hop” it was a sock hop. Anyway... A new author [...]
A Writer’s Log – The Preface
A Writer’s Log – The idea is simple enough, yet I’ve struggled with this whole “blog” thing from the very beginning. It just never quite sat right with me. [...]
One Mystery Writer’s Social Media Experience
My Art Is My Business – Most of my posts are mainly for readers to enjoy, so bear with me while I digress. Hopefully, you’ll find this peek behind [...]
To Masturbate Or Not To Masturbate, That Is The Question
Gored by the Horns of a Dilemma – Last night, when I pushed back from my latest manuscript in progress, I left my character dangling, somehow incomplete. She's not as [...]
Book Review of Pattern Recognition
Gibson Turns Insight Out - William Gibson, the proclaimed source code for cyberpunk defies categorization, making it up as he goes. Hardly a mystery writer, he's not known for [...]