Archives — All My Posts

A list of all my bloggeries!

• Learning to Deal With the Real World
• The Energy that Powers a Story and Drives it Forward
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
• Conflict Opens a Door and a Story Begins
• Two Years and Two Months of Grief
• Have You Ever Wondered How Amazon’s Algorithms Work?
• How To Do an Online Interview
• Are You Envious of Other Authors?
• My Publisher Is Sponsoring a Short Story Contest!
• Grief: Haunted by the Hard Questions
• What challenges did you face when writing your novel?
• The Two-Year Anniversary of the Worst Day of My Life
• There Are Worse Things Than Not Being Happy
• When You Lose the Person Who Connects You to the World, What do You Become?
• Making an Impact With Our Writing
• Weeping For Those Who Are Newly Born Into The World Of Grief
• Grieving the Nothings
• Wondering About Life And Death And The Meaning Of It All
• Is a Salinger-Like Reclusiveness a Viable Option in Today’s Book World?
• Getting Grief Right in Writing
• Where Do I Belong?
• Rules of the Writing Game
• Do Us All a Favor and Let Your Characters Cry
• Why “Grief: The Great Yearning” is Important
• I am going to be on blog talk radio today!
• How are characters integral to the setting?
• “Golly gee what have you done to me?”
• Facebook Makes Us … (Fill In the Blank)
• There Really Is Life Offline — If You’re a Goose
• Review of Grief: The Great Yearning
• Rubicon Ranch — The Saga Continues
• The Necessity For Grief
• A Different Level of Sadness
• Gather ‘Round and You Shall Hear . . . The Story of My Online Life
• Grief Update — Two Years and One Month
• Comment Spam
• Being Open to the Possibility of Joy
• Finding Time to Write
• Why is Writing Important?
• Writing Worth Reading
• Untaming Me and Embracing My Inner Savage
• I am Being Interviewed on Blog Talk Radio this Evening
• Surveillance: Poisoning the Soul of a Nation
• Do you think writing your book changed your life?
• How Many Books Are Going to be Published in 2012? (Prepare for a Shock)
• What To Do (And What Not to Do) When Someone is Grieving
• Facing My Dreads
• Creativity Has No Price
• Introducing the Best Multi-Author Blog in the Blogosphere
• What is the Price of Creativity?
• My Short Story “The Willow” Has Been Anthologized!
• Help! I Need Blog Talk Radio Topics
• What Type of Person Experiences Profound Grief?
• Grateful to be an Author
• Was a Horoscope Ever More Wrong?
• The Internet is My Tranquilizer
• File Not Found
• Grief and Our Lizard Brain
• When Grief Has You
• Virtual Book Tours
• Purposely-Flawed Characters. Or Not.
• Way Cool Global View of My Blog!
• What is the easiest part of the writing process? What is the most difficult?
• Excerpt From “Grief: The Great Yearning” — Day 3
• Two Years and One Day of Grief
• Two Years of Grief
• Grief — Two Years Minus Five Hours
• Still Confounded by Grief
• Anniversaries of Grief
• Counting Down to the Second Anniversary of Grief
• Choosing Book Titles
• What’s your writing schedule like? Do you strive for a certain amount of words each day?
• All Books Are Not Created Equal
• How has your background influenced your writing?
• The Top Ten Reasons We Need a Good Laugh by Lazarus Barnhill
• Do you think writing this book changed your life?
• Excerpt From “Daughter Am I” by Pat Bertram
• Steampunk Collaboration
• List of Loaths
• What is Life? What is Death? And What do Such Questions Have to do With Grief?
• “Reading Pat Bertram Gets Better and Better”
• Falling into Grief
• Dealing With Grief After a Loved One’s Long-Term Illness
• Saying “Yes” to Life, and to Steampunk
• The Shoulder Season of Grief
• Shamrock-N-Sirens Readers’ Event Introduces . . . Me!
• Grief: Love or Codependency?
• Introduction to “Grief: The Great Yearning”
• Rubicon Ranch: A Collaboration
• Grief: The Great Yearning Has Been Published!
• Passing the Test of Grief
• Grief Means Never Having to Say I’m Sorry
• The Final Resting Place for My Grief
• Counting Down to the Second Anniversary of Grief
• Grief Update — Twenty-Three Months
• What challenges did you face as you wrote your book?
• What is your goal for your book? What do you want readers to take with them?
• How do you develop and differentiate your characters?
• How (or when) do you decide that you are finished writing a story?
• What is the easiest part of the writing process?
• How much of yourself is hidden in the characters in your book?
• What words would you like to leave the world when you are gone?
• How long had the idea of your book been developing before you began to write the story?
• Feeling Small
• Is Irritation & Frustration a New Stage of Grief?
• The Internet is Attacking Me!!
• Putting the “Who” in Whodunit
• Big Brother, Thy Name is Facebook
• A Day for the Broken-Hearted
• How Do You Discover the Books You Want to Read?
• Celebrating Twenty Weeks of Daily Blogging
• How To Keep From Having Too Much Exposition in Your Novel
• Is “No Promotion” Really so Hard to Understand?
• Building Better Plots
• Grief: Overflowing Into the Empty Places
• Super Bowl Overview
• A Cook’s Tour of the English Language by Rod Marsden — Part III
• A Cook’s Tour of the English Language by Rod Marsden — Part II
• A Cook’s Tour of the English Language by Rod Marsden — Part I
• My Baby Bonsai Forest
• How Did You Do the Research for Your Novel?
• What inspires you to write a particular story?
• Meeting the Challenges of the Second Year of Grief
• Grief: Being Ripped in Two
• Is There a Message in Your Writing You Want Readers to Grasp?
• Balm to a Writer’s Bruised Psyche
• Three Things Television Tells Us About The Future of Writing by Dale Cozort
• Grief: Feeling The Absence
• “Just Right” and The Power of Three
• There is Something Totally Bizarre About Grief
• As a Reader, What Would You Like to Ask a Publisher?
• Grief: Yearning for a World that Makes Sense
• I Wish I Was, I Wish I Were
• My Grief Book is One Step Closer to Publication
• How to Make Transitions From Scene to Scene in Fiction
• Appalling Remarks People Say to Those Who Are Grieving
• It Makes It Seem as if It has too Many Its
• First Look at the Cover for My Grief Book!
• The Conundrum of Grief
• Who Gets to Define What is Art?
• Perplexed by the Anything-Goes Publishing World (Part II)
• Perplexed by the Anything-Goes Publishing World (Part I)
• Top Five Things I’ve Learned About Twitter
• Book Bits #114 – Kudos to Beauty & the Book, Roald Dahl stamps, William Gibson, Queen Elizabeth
• Rubicon Ranch: A Collaborative Novel
• The Five Major Challenges We Face During the Second Year of Grief
• A New Pattern of Grief
• North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
• Grief: Looking at the World Through a Camera Lens
• Writing a Book I Didn’t Know I Was Writing
• Life’s Little Bonsai
• Starting From Scratch
• After the Waiting Comes the Dread
• Waiting for the End of the Year
• The Power of Grief
• The Gift of the Bonsai
• Grieving the End of This Year
• Grief Update: Twenty-one Months
• Are You Playing The Kindle Game?
• You’ve Got Mail!!!
• Christmas and Grief: Creating New Traditions
• First the Bread Wars, Now the Book Wars
• What Grief Taught Me About Love
• Voyage of Discovery
• Is the Book Business Dying?
• Letter to Book Reviewers
• Thinking Through My Fingers
• Grief is a Gift
• I Don’t Feel Your Pain
• What Do You Say to Someone Who is Grieving at Christmas?
• When You’ve Seen One Shopping Center . . . You’ve Seen a Mall.
• All the Elements of “Daughter Am I” Meld into a Life-like Drama
• Rethinking Ways to Think About Grief — Part II
• Rethinking Ways to Think About Grief — Part I
• Ten Things I Know to Be Absolutely Certain
• “A Spark of Heavenly Fire” Embodies the Essence of Christmas
• Grief: Counting the Days, Weeks, Months
• Growing into the Woman I Am to Become
• Introducing Joylene Nowell Butler, author of “Dead Witness” and “Broken But Not Dead”
• The Awesome and Awesomely Terrible State of Grief
• Make Every Character Count by Dave Ebright
• Getting a Grip on Grief
• Is There too Much Promotion on Facebook?
• Short Story Contest. No Entry Fee!
• Have You Ever Seen a Goose Do Anything Silly?
• Burning My “If Only”s Behind Me
• Grief’s Growing Pains
• Grief: Defragmenting and Making Room for Something Wonderful
• Action Scene from “A Spark of Heavenly Fire”
• Gathering Patience for the Lonely Years Ahead
• Grief Doesn’t Take a Holiday
• Waiting For the Guests to Arrive
• Giving Thanks for Words
• Today I Am . . .
• System Restore for Our Lives
• Can Characters Really Change?
• Dellani Oakes, A Denizen of My Online World
• Without Changes, You Have No Story
• Grief Bursts
• The Miraculous Resurrection of the Suspense/Thriller Writers Group on Facebook
• Proving I Am Human
• Here is My Point: There Needs to be a Point When it Comes to Writing
• Blogging Day #49 — Hard Rock Cafe
• Is It Necessary to Want Something?
• Hurrying Through Grief To See What is On the Other Side
• The Symphony of a Life Gone By
• Introduction to Beth Groundwater, Author of “A Real Basket Case”
• Have You Ever Felt as if the World Were Backward and Upside Down?
• Do Blogs Need to Have a Single Topic?
• Happy Birthday, Roy Rogers!!
• Short Story Contest!!!
• Let’s Talk About Rhythm in Writing
• I Am Not Grieving Inappropriately
• Kindle Sale! Get Any of My Books for Only $1.99!!
• Wishing You a Happy, Horrible Day
• The Man Who Married a Bridge
• Saturday, My Sadder Day
• Occupying Wall Street, the Desert, and Small Spaces
• Life Goes On Even if the Whole Thing is Flawed
• Describing the Nondescript
• Angie’s Diary — A Great Site For Readers and Writers
• Another Great Blog to Bookmark!
• Be Sure to Bookmark Malcolm’s Book Bits Blog
• The Editor’s Blog — A Remarkable Resource for All Writers
• I’m Declaring This Blog Reader Appreciation Day
• Proving to Myself That I’m Real
• What Does Not Destroy Us Makes Us Stronger. Or Weaker. Or More Fearful
• What To Do When One of Your Beloved Pieces of Art Glass or Pottery Gets Broken
• Gotta Love That Spam!!
• Does Curiosity Automatically Create Conflict?
• More Names Than One: Fiction Made Real
• Life Needs a Laughtrack
• Does Anyone Really Want to be Good? Do You?
• The Not Quite Good vs. the Not So Evil
• Writing Is the Great “As If”
• Facebook Has Finally Defeated Me
• Codependency or Interdependency?
• Learning How To Occupy Myself
• Inviting You to Enter a Short Story Contest
• The Soundtrack of Our Lives
• Introducing Sheila Deeth, Author of Flower Child
• Flying on My Own Four Wheels
• Write the Most Terrible Stuff You Can
• Dancing With Eddie Cochran
• Maiden/Mother/Crone — The Mythic Stages of a Woman’s Life
• Grief is NOT Self-Indulgent
• Putting a H.A.L.T. to Grief
• Halt and I’ll Shoot! (Adventures With Firearms)
• Letter to a Grieving Friend
• NRA Women on Target Instructional Shooting Clinic
• ‘The Top 5 Mistakes I Find as an Editor’ by Smoky Trudeau Zeidel
• S.O.S. — Dance Therapy
• What Your Doctor is Doing While You’re Sitting in the Waiting Room
• Seeking Stories that Live Within Us by Malcolm R. Campbell
• What to Say When You Remember a Word You Couldn’t Remember
• Joylene Nowell Butler Likes DAUGHTER AM I!
• Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty? Who Cares?!
• 500 Days of Grief
• Celebrating Friendship Day the Blog Jog Way
• Tomorrow is Blog Jog Day!
• Following Grief Wherever It Leads
• A Search for Meaninglessness
• The Silent Language of Grief
• Multi-Asking
• If Cowboys Had Wept . . .
• Post-Traumatic Tress Syndrome
• I Thought I Was Through With Grief, But Grief Wasn’t Through With Me
• M.I.C.E. (Types of Stories)
• Grief Group Update
• I Got Kicked Out Of My Grief Support Group
• A Great Love Story
• Driving My Grief
• Surviving a New Stage of Grief
• R.U.E — Resist the Urge to Explain
• I Am a Fourteen-Month Grief Survivor
• Stellar Review for Light Bringer
• Immersing Myself in Southern/Island Culture
• St. Simons Island Lighthouse
• Dazzling the Audience
• Leaving on a Jet Plane
• What’s Next? Updating My Life.
• Grief Update: Looking For Adventure and Whatever Comes My Way
• Scribbler’s Retreat Writers’ Conference
• I Am a Thirteen-Month Grief Survivor
• Advice to Aspiring Writers
• Grief: Blindsided by Lilacs
• Wonderful Review of Light Bringer
• On Writing: Tell, Don’t Show
• Lincoln, the Quintessential Politician
• Myth and History of The American Civil War
• Guesting at Grasping for the Wind!
• Grief Update: A Yearning as Deep as the Black Canyon
• On Writing: Ruling Passions
• A Life-Long Quest for Truth
• On Writing: Family
• Light Bringer Has Finally Been Birthed!!
• I Am a Twelve-Month Grief Survivor
• Keeping Vigil
• Grief: Counting Down to the First Anniversary
• Grief and Remembrance
• What Do You Do With A Bad Review?
• Searching for a Blog Identity
• On Writing: Rules of Magic
• Final Edits, Perhaps
• Going Along for the Ride
• Standing Tearfully on the Cusp of . . .
• The Ferris Wheel of Life
• The Joy of Lost Words
• I Am an Eleven-Month Grief Survivor
• Surprised by Grief
• She Said Sarcastically
• Excerpt from Light Bringer — Ghost Town and Ghost Cat
• The First Terrible Anniversaries of Grief
• Will Traditional Ways of Selling Books be Effective in the Ebook Era?
• Searching for a Genre
• Advice to the Newly Bereft
• Free Ebook! No Strings (Or Pages) Attached
• I Am a Ten-Month Grief Survivor
• Authors Who Reject Publishers
• Dear (Deleted) — Conversation With a Marketing Expert
• Trying to Relight My Life
• Diving Off the Deep End
• It’s a Breeze!
• Grief Update — Throwing a Tantrum
• Why Write?
• Getting a Life
• Grief: The Great Yearning
• Grief Takes as Long as It Takes
• New Year, New Beginning?
• Building Hopes and Creating Dreams
• I Am a Nine-Month Grief Survivor
• A Gift For You!!
• Getting Sass From My Character
• The Gift of Possibilities
• Time to Change Your Password!
• Unexploding a A-OK Life
• Win Free Books For A Year!
• Excerpt from Light Bringer by Pat Bertram
• Letting It Be
• Let It Be . . . Me
• Grief: Loose Cannon on Deck
• Owing His Memory?
• Finding Inspiration From Uninspiring Sources
• Thinking While Writing
• I Am an Eight-Month Grief Survivor
• NaNoWriMo Winner!
• A Thanksgiving Card for You
• Grateful Even in Grief
• Rubicon Ranch Preview
• Tell Them Pat Sent You
• Blog Jog Day: Introducing Light Bringer
• Tomorrow is Blog Jog Day!
• No Wisdom, Just Words
• There’s Plenty of Grief to Spread Around
• Ready or Not, Change is Coming Your Way
• Grief: Denying Denial
• Introducing Rubicon Ranch: A Collaborative Novel
• Grief: All Things Considered . . .
• Writers: Be Bold!
• Amanda, Amanda, Amanda
• Don’t Mess With a Grieving Woman
• Opening a Vein
• Healing the Split In Ourselves
• My Topsy-Turvy Writing Life
• Desert Revelation
• Excerpt From My NaNo Novel
• Even Fearsome Creatures Have Enemies
• Feeling Disconnected to My Characters
• How to Respond to “How Are You?”
• The Simple Truth
• Greening the Desert
• Spontaneous Stupidity or Vision Quest?
• I Am a Seven-Month Grief Survivor
• Grief: Cleaning Up the Past
• Many Shades of Grief
• Is Hate a Stage of Grief?
• Introvert or Extravert?
• I Am a Six-Month Grief Survivor
• Is Twenty-Five Weeks a Long Time or a Little Time?
• Recording Your Character’s Voice by Aaron Paul Lazar
• The Healing Power of Stories
• Snake in the Grass
• Sucker Punched by Grief
• I Am a Five-Month Grief Survivor
• In Grief, There Will Not Be Closure
• Sorry For Your Loss
• One Woman’s Grief
• Grief is Not a Medical Disorder
• I Am a Four-Month Grief Survivor
• Comes the Dawn
• Write for the Dead Whom Thou Didst Love
• Grief’s Milestones
• Nor All Your Tears . . .
• Rewinding My Life
• Grief Has It’s Own Logic
• Thank You For a Heartwarming and Heartbreaking Day
• I Am a Three-Month Grief Survivor
• Wisdom of the Wombats
• Staying in the Moment
• Twelve Lonely Weeks
• Making Sure Our Novels Are Worth Reading
• The Long and Winding Road of Grief
• Surprised By Life
• Yes. I Can.
• Tempest Tossed
• I Am a Two-Month Grief Survivor
• Misconceptions About Grief
• Blogs I Never Wrote
• Personal Totem Pole
• Coming of Age in Middle Age
• Consuming Words
• “Daughter Am I” Giveaway. One Day Only!
• Blogmania! “Daughter Am I” Giveaway
• I Am a One-Month Grief Survivor
• The Best Thing About Writing Fiction
• The Problem With Grief
• Blogmania — One Day Only. Mark Your Calendar!
• Grief Update
• Review of More Deaths Than One
• A New Form of Kidnapping?
• Baby Steps
• What to Say to Someone Who is Grieving
• The Next Big Step
• Live Chat About Writing
• Death For Dummies
• Searching For Happy Memories
• A Tribute to a Fallen Mate
• Grief Is It’s Own Country
• Remembering
• Funeral Blues
• Words Matter
• A Meme By Any Other Name Would Be As Confusing
• DEAD WITNESS IS WORTH EVERY PENNY by Joylene Nowell Butler
• Surviving Facebook
• Even Comment Spam Can Sometimes be Tasty
• Prolific Blogger Times Three
• I Smell a Blog Coming . . .
• Making Time, Finding Time, Having the Time of Our Lives
• The Scent of Channel Number 5
• I Asked and You Answered. Thank you!
• Brag Time!
• Interview Questions Wanted
• Whole Lot of Forgetting Going On
• Wishing You a Boring, Perfect World
• Language of the Fan Decoded
• Way Cool Review!
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #6
• MY WEBSITE IS DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS!
• Ugly Book Cover
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #5
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #4
• Books Make Good Christmas Gifts
• The Place is More Than Scenery
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #3
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtakes #2
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtakes #1
• Writing About “Ahem”
• Frivolous Post Month
• I’m Not Waiving Any Moral Rights I Have in My Blog!
• Questions About Writing Stories
• Sharing a Thanksgiving Day Card With You
• Grateful to be an Author
• Three Chances to Win a Copy of DAUGHTER AM I
• Snow White and the Seven Old Fogies
• Treasure Hunt!
• The Mythic Journey Behind Daughter Am I
• Creating Perfection
• My Books, My Way — Yay!
• Three Discussions with Me!
• Judi Fennell — Going with the Flow
• Googling Sex With Your Sister
• First Lines and Free Time
• News from the Blogosphere
• Daughter Am I Blog Tour — Final Week!
• Tweet-y Bird
• Message in a Blog-gle
• Thinking Inside the Box
• Musings From My Notebooks
• My Journey As a Writer
• Live Chat and Dead Darlings
• A Store Walking Down the Street
• He Mumbled, Groaned, Hissed, Spat, Purred, Whispered
• Blog Tour — Update and Downside
• Big Bird and the Military
• Tripping Over Words, Rocks, and Other Things
• Writing as Conversation with Readers
• Interview and Giveaway!
• I Fear, You Fear, We All Fear
• Plagiarism?
• Persisting in Delusion
• Writer Am I
• What Hooks a Reader — Blog Tour Day Ten
• Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 Update
• Welcome to the Business of Writing
• Reviewing Interviews
• Haven’t a Clue about Cluculz
• ASK PAT
• Dialogue with Pat Bertram
• Snow White and the Seven Old Fogies
• Following the Quest in Daughter Am I
• Pat Bertram, Gangsters, and ‘Daughter Am I’
• Blog Tour 2009
• DAUGHTER AM I HAS FINALLY BEEN PUBLISHED! LET’S PARTY!!
• What’s in a Name?
• Your Cyber Sins Follow You Everywhere
• Help! I Need Topics for My Blog Tour!!
• Book Blogs and the FTC
• I Had an Epiphany Today!
• Daughter Am I Is Finished!
• Where Is Everyone?
• Researching Gangster Lore for Daughter Am I
• When Did the Realization “I Am an Author” Hit?
• THE BLUEST SKIES YOU’VE EVER SEEN ARE IN . . .
• My Fruitful Summer
• Happy Bloggiversary To Me!
• Research: When Good Books Go Bad
• Jock Stewart and The Missing Sea of Fire — Part I
• Do Blog Tours Live Up to The Hype?
• How to Tell When Your Novel is Finished
• Okay, I Admit It. I’m Jealous.
• Aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!!! Now I Have to Write a Review!
• My Wonderful Surprise!
• How Do You Choose the Books You Want to Read?
• “Now That My Book is Out, What is the First Thing I Should Do?”
• My Brand New Cousin and My Brand New Book
• The Themes of Our Lives
• Lisping Dialogue
• Free Ebooks!
• Blog Talk Two
• I Need a…Gulp…Outline
• On Writing: Looking Up
• Distilling the Essence of a Story
• Why Mistakes Happen
• Whew! Now I Feel Safe?
• Writing, Blogging, Promoting — My Aha Moment
• More Blogs Than One
• Catapulting Me Into BetterSellerdom
• It’s a Birthday Party!
• The Magic Of Mysteries: The Art (And Joy) Of Misdirection
• Keeping It Real in a Fabricated World
• To Trust or Not to Trust?
• Something Ew and Different
• Is Anyone Really Writing the Great American Novel?
• Words of Healing, Words of Fun
• I Received an Invitation to be a Speaker at a Writer’s Conference!
• Creatures of the Corn
• Claire Made Me Do It
• Sun-Warmed Apricots and A Court of Western Kingbirds
• A Shocking (And Embarrassing) Reality
• The Apollo Moon Landing, The Dish, and Me
• Wringing the Ings From Our Things
• No Whine, Just Champagne Writing Discussion
• Sex SCENE not SEX Scene
• Sex Scenes: Self-Concept and Sex Concept
• Sex With Sister Tips — Writing Tips, That Is
• Sex With Sister Tips. Um…Yeah
• Twits and Tweets
• Pat Bertram and Malcolm R. Campbell Discuss the Writer’s Journey
• The Writer’s Journey
• Call In and Talk to Me! I’m On Blogtalk Radio
• Self-Editing — The List From Hell
• Waiting For an April Time
• Where Do We Go From Here?
• Not Whining About “No Whine, Just Champagne”
• Stream of Consciousness Blogging
• 30% of More Deaths Than One — Free at Smashwords
• When Did the Realization “I Am a Writer” Hit?
• No More Secrets
• A Whiff of a Treat and a Bit of a Cheat
• Becoming Pat Bertram
• Tips For Writing a Short Story
• Pat Bertram And Lazarus Barnhill Discuss Writing as Destiny
• The Most Unexpected Truth About Writing
• Unreal Characters From Real Life
• The Living Language of Dying
• “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?” Silly Question, or Not — continued
• Pat Bertram Is Two Years Old Today!
• “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?” Silly Question, or Not?
• The Transformation of the Hero
• DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories, My Life and Times with a Remarkable Gentleman Actor
• Puzzling Out Promotion
• On Writing: Perseverance
• Negative Reviews: Are they Always Negative?
• On Writing “Shadows”
• A Stranger on My Own Blog
• Submitting to Literary Magazines 101: Professionalism
• I Enjoy Keeping Men Up Late at Night!
• My First Review!!!!!!!
• Developing A Smell-O-Meter: How Do You Tell If What You’ve Written Is Good?
• Goddess of Poetry: Patricia Smith
• Conversation With Marshall Karp, Author of Flipping Out
• Titles: What Makes a Good One
• Steel Waters by Ken Coffman — a Sort-of Review
• “Was It Bizarre Reading a Sex Scene Written By Your Sister?”
• My Novels Did Not Make the Earth Move. Or Did They?
• “A Spark of Heavenly Fire” Has Been Kindled
• Bertram’s Global Blog Blitz
• Blog Exchange with Pierre Dominique Roustan
• More Deaths Than One Book Trailer, Fun, and Games
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Puzzles, Games, Sudoku
• HALLELUJAH! MY NOVELS HAVE FINALLY BEEN PUBLISHED! LET’S PARTY!
• A Letter From an Agent
• On the Eve of Publication…
• A Thrill of Books
• The Book Reviewers’ Lexicon
• Joe R. Lansdale’s Act of Kindness
• Is Genre Writing an Endangered Species?
• De-Was-Ing a Manuscript and Other Editing Woes
• Today I am a Published Author. I think.
• The 600-Pound Gorilla in the Publishing Industry
• Writing and Well-Meaning Friends
• The Wolf’s Side of the Story
• A Two-Ton Ice Cream Cone
• Help Me Plan My Big Book Bash
• Deception Detection: The Truth About Lie Detectors
• Serial Killers and the Writers Who Love Them: Facts about Popular Myths
• Last Day for the “More Deaths Than One” Contest
• A Spark of Heavenly Fire Update — Copy-Editing Hell
• Final Proof of A Spark of Heavenly Fire?
• Writing Discussion: Beverages
• Did I Really Write a Feel-Good Book?
• Blog Exchange
• “More Deaths Than One” Contest. Win Free Books!
• A New Era in Publishing
• Where We Stand on Selling Non-Fiction vs. Fiction
• What is Talent?
• On Writing: Characters and Group Mentality
• On Writing: Characters and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• On Writing: Characters and Grief
• Story
• McBooks
• From Conception to Birth: One Book’s Journey to Publication
• Speaking of Writers . . .
• Heroes, Heroics, and Heroism
• Writer’s Block? No Such Thing
• Author Cheryl Kaye Tardif is “Finding Bliss” on her iPhone 3G
• Rejection Letters. Just Goes to Show . . .
• Who Are Your Writing Influences?
• Feeling Like a Guest on My Own Blog
• Wahoo! My Hero is in the Zoo.
• The Future of Books: The Problem of Filtering (Part 3)
• The Future of Books: The Problem of Filtering (Part 2)
• Future of Books: The Problem of Filtering (part 1)
• Duh
• When Writing Suspense, More is More
• On Writing: Style and Cadence
• Cashing in on the Book Business
• Nothing For Christmas
• Describing a Winter Scene — Again. And Yet Again.
• Describing a Winter Scene — Again
• Becoming My Own Genre
• Writing Discussion: How Do We Make Our Writing the Best We Can?
• A Writer’s Life (Guest Blog by Bestselling Author Michael Palmer)
• Pat and Mike (Couldn’t Resist the Title)
• My Sort-of Interview with Author Michael Palmer
• Discussion of Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules For Writing Fiction
• Building a Story from the Inside Out
• Immigration of Characters
• Meaningful Names
• A Terrible Writing Accident
• Writing Dialogue Isn’t an Exact Science
• Style: The Search for a Voice — NWJC Writing Discussion #44
• Sneak Preview of My Book Covers.
• Heart of Diamonds
• Interview with C.A. Milson, author of The Chosen
• Drabbles and Dribbles
• Waiting for the Ball
• The Story Behind “Stalking Susan” by Julie Kramer
• Book Blogs, a Bibliophile’s Dream
• The Slamming of the Doors
• The Proverbial Cliché
• Ranting And Writing
• Is Writing Worth the Effort?
• Join the Suspense/Thriller Writers Group on Facebook
• As a Writer, Where and How Are You Dropping Your Pebbles?
• Burying That Old Half-Empty/Half-Full Glass
• What If People Like My Books?
• So You Want to be an Author
• Writing Discussion: Playing Fair With Your Readers
• Sports As Story
• Good Witches Should Never Try to Be Very Good — A Halloween Fable
• Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing Fiction
• De-Creating a Sea Beast
• You’ve Written “The End.” Now What?
• On Writing: Color Your World
• On Writing: Finding Your Style
• How Do You Create an Experience for the Reader?
• Writing Discussion With Cliff Burns — Part III
• Writing Discussion with Cliff Burns — Part II
• Writing Discussion With Cliff Burns — Part I
• Setting the Scene
• Why NaNoWriMo?
• How do You Solve the Problem of Exposition in Your Writing?
• When a Writer Defaults — Muse on Writing
• Do You Want People Studying Your Book in School?
• Finding the Dunce in Redundancy
• Depth of Character
• E-publishing , Print on Demand (POD), and Kindle Markets–Are They The Wave Of The Future?
• The Art of Perseverance
• On Writing: Finding the Words
• Finding a Reason to Write
• My Novel Writing Month
• Diatribing Show-n-Tell — My opinion on writing
• Free Exclamation Points for Everyone!!!
• Would You Like Me to Interview Your Characters?
• Getting a Word in Edgewise
• How Do You Choose? Or Why I Wrote This Novel
• Happy Bloggiversary to Me!
• Writing Dialogue
• Where Do You Insert Dialogue?
• A Writer Writes. Always?
• On Writing: Food
• The Meaning of Gestures
• To Outline or Not Outline
• What Kind of Blogger Are You?
• The Very First Book. The Very First Time.
• I Do Not Have Writer’s Block
• On Writing: Choosing Your Subject Matter
• Critiquing: How to Critique Another Writer’s Story
• Writing to the Extremes
• How Often Has This Happened To You? (Close Encounters Of the Buffalo Kind)
• On Writing: Deconstructing Descriptive Passages
• Savor the Moment: Inspiration for Writers
• Grammar Guide for Self-Editing
• Draggy Dialogue? Reeking Repartee? Why the Chit-Chat Can’t Be Idle
• On Writing: Muddling Through the Middle
• Writing Is an Adventure. Be Bold!
• Write Lofty and Carry a Big Chisel
• What Is Writing Like For You?
• Writing Is No Laughing Matter
• Reverse Mentoring
• Kamikaze Editing
• More Rejections
• Coloring Your World
• De-was-ing My Manuscripts
• On Writing: More About Character
• Making a Character Come Alive
• Faith and Fiction
• On Writing: How To Use a Character Profile
• Voice: Being Yourself in Words
• The Novel Only You Can Write
• Creating a Character — Part VI
• The Setting Should Be Integral to the Story
• What Do You Want to Say to Your Readers?
• A Writer’s Mythical Journey
• Conflict is Collision
• On Writing: Questions to Ponder
• On Writing: The Name of the Game is “Hurt the Hero.”
• An Itty Bitty Ditty
• Writing Sex Scenes
• On Writing: The Body Doesn’t Lie. Or Does It?
• She Says, He Says; She Does, He Doesn’t
• Your Mother-in-Law, the Sociopath
• The Fun of Writing: the Passion, the Puzzle
• On Writing: Accomplish Your Scene Goal and Get Out
• Writing Dynamic Descriptions
• Form is not Formula
• Contracts, Publicity, and Everything Else You Want to Know About Small Publishers
• Self-Publish Or Not
• Writing the Perfect Character
• The Mystery of Mystery Novels
• Why Should I Read Your Novel? Why Should You Read Mine?
• Stories, Cliches, and Finding the Truth
• A Reason For Now. A Reason For Later.
• It’s Not the Will to Win, But the Will to Prepare to Win That Makes the Difference
• Follow the Rules or Don’t Follow the Rules
• The Road to Rejection is Paved with Bad Beginnings
• A Band-Aid For Writer’s Block
• The Most Wasted Day of All is That on Which We Have Not Laughed
• A Writer Writes. Whenever.
• How Do You Create Characters That Readers Will Fall In Love With?
• The Most Powerful Tool at a Writer’s Command
• On Writing: The Mythic Journey and Answering the Call to Adventure
• The Mythic Journey: Star Wars, Tin Cup, and Me
• On Writing: Flashing Back to Flashbacks
• What the Color of your Vehicle Says About You (Or the Character in Your Book)
• Finding a Beginning to a Novel
• On Writing: A Character’s Emotions
• On Writing: Embracing Playfulness
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Green and More
• Can the Setting Be a Character in the Story?
• Describing a Character the Easy Way
• Filling the Needs of the Story
• Words Yipping at My Heels
• How Do I Write? Let Me Count the Ways.
• Grubbing For Readers
• Storytelling and Storytellers
• One Word at a Time. That’s All It Takes.
• Five against one hero. Whap. The hero is down. The end.
• Humor Metamorphosing into Horror Metamorphosing into Allegory
• Characters Butting Heads
• Sex in Books is Like Serial Killing
• Dialogue Envy
• Imploding Lifeless Descriptions
• Books Are Not Movies
• Humor Metamorphosing into Horror
• Blogging is Morning, Writing is Evening
• Our Prose is Immortal Prose — Not
• Describing a Winter Scene
• On Writing: Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks
• Learning to Write by Reading
• Another Boring Blog by a Make-Believe Author
• Writing is Like Riding a Bike — When You Fall Off, It Hurts
• A Classic Catch 18
• “Can I Be a Novelist?”
• The Blue Jeans Philosophy of Life and Writing
• On Writing: Coeds with Intestinal Fortitude Eating Veggies
• And the Tension Builds . . . Yawn
• On Writing — The Theme’s the Thing
• Not Exactly a Rave Review, But a Fair Assessment
• We Read Fiction to Make Sense of Life’s Disorder
• Mafia Cat Rejects Hilter. Hitler Breaks Off German-Italian Alliance. War Ends.
• A Rejection So Pleasant It Was Almost an Acceptance
• On Writing: Gifts from the Muses
• Creating a Character — Part V
• Creating a Character — Part IV
• Creating a Character — Part III
• Creating a Character — Part II
• Creating a Character — Part I
• Cook’s Cutting-Edge Plots and Cookie-Cutter Characters
• Unblocking Writer’s Block
• In the Beginning: Starting to Write a Novel
• Writing Without a Reader is Like Kissing Without a Partner.
• On Writing: Giving 110% 24/7
• Basic Tenets for Good Writing
• On Writing: Basic Story Structure
• The First Commandment of Writing
• On Writing: How Not to Begin Your Book
• The Language of Storytelling
• How to Write a Query Letter
• On Writing: Dealing with Compliments and Criticism
• On Writing: How to Deal With Rejection
• Your Quest for Publication
• Lift Yourself Out of the Slush Pile
• A Necessary Skill to Learn on the Way to a Publishing Contract
• Is a Standard Publishing Contract Worth Aiming For?
• And Lydia Loretta Stark Was Dead. Again.
• Seeing the Story World Through the Eyes of Our Character
• Writing Suspense: More is More
• Writing is About the Choices We Make
• To Prologue or Not to Prologue
• You Might Be a Writer . . . If You Agonize Over Commas
• The Origin of the Grim Reaper
• Conflict: Desire Thwarted
• What Kind of Book is This?
• On Writing: Telling and Showing
• Describing a Scene in an Interesting Way
• He Said/She Said: Speaker Attributes
• The Importance of Mentoring
• Whose Story is This?
• The Scan Test: Paragraph Size, Italics, and Dialogue
• Hooking a Reader
• Cultivate Subtlety: Throw Out Your First Chapter
• Conflict: Where a Story Begins
• Be Your Own Editor
• Write Intelligently Until You Become a Bestselling Author
• A Halloween Story in Miniature
• Coloring Your Way out of Writer’s Block
• Cheat Your Way to a Colorful Character
• The Most Important Writing Technique to Master in your Quest for Publication
• What do you call an unpublished writer?
• The Slang Game
• An Image Fit Only for a Horror Movie
• The Power of Three
• Colorizing our Characters
• Reading the Beats
• In Publishing, as in Life, Timing is Everything
• Stories are our foundation, as necessary to us as love.
• Capturing the Attention of an Editor
• Writing Your First Book Second
• Scarlett by any other name would have been sweet.
• Knocking on my blog’s door for lemonade and gingersnaps.
• Our Most Cherished Beliefs are Bunk
• A secret agent so secret even he does not know he is a secret agent.
• Bucketeers, scams, conmen
• The Fickle Gods of Fashion
• You can be a bestselling novelist, but do you really want to be one?
• Some darlings are hard to kill
• The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, Moves on
• Unkilling another darling
• Kill your darlings
• The moving finger writes, and having writ, continues to write.
• The Match King
• Cool Guys are C…C…C…Cool
• As the ax descended, she struggled in vain.
• The Art of Procrastination
• Aspiring Writer