historical mystery

#5onFri: Five Tips for Writing a Historical Mystery

I love a good mystery! And I especially love a good historical mystery.  Who killed the Princes in the Tower? (Hint: It was not Richard III.)  Did Princess Anastasia survive the murder of her family?  Was Elizabeth I really a virgin Queen, or did she allow herself to be seduced by the dashing Robert Dudley?… Read more »

writing fiction

#5onFri: Five Tips for Writing Fiction

As an author of three published novels and over thirty short stories, several of them award-winners, I have acquired a sense of how to approach a writing project and finish it. I taught myself about writing fiction by learning from mistakes and the way I erred in my early years as a writer. I’m still… Read more »

no

#5onFri: Five Ways to Make NO Work for You

After three months of back and forth on a book proposal for a book idea they pitched to me, their “no” was short and to the point: The marketing department doesn’t think you have a strong enough platform to sell books. I was devastated. I cried big, ugly toddler-sized tears for days. The bitterness lasted… Read more »

Title Image: Five Ways to Capture Your Golden Butterfly

#5onFri: Five Ways to Capture Your Golden Butterfly

I’ve always believed that a story idea is a magical butterfly that flutters around and lands on the one person that has the magnificence—that perfect combination of experience, perspective, emotions, heart, mind, and desire—to bring the story to life in such a way that reflects the writer’s soul and captures the reader’s heart. If a… Read more »