Reading, wRiting, and Roaming with Author Valerie Biel

Joe jumped behind the wheel of his car. He felt like he’d been swimming in his morning coffee, a triple-shot death wish, extra sugar. From the passenger seat, Susan watched him, thinking Joe looked beyond hyper. What was wrong with her best friend?

Yes, dear reader, I committed a writing faux pas in the above sentences. I shifted POV in the same paragraph—within two sentences, even!

I read something similar on the first page of a new mystery release, unfortunately.

Sigh.

What’s a writer to do when cautioned against narrative POV shifts but then sees the very thing in a book from a major publisher?

During the last months, I’ve been revising... Continue Reading

My four favorite books from the past two months include a poignant middle-grade novel, a beautifully written adult fiction, a spiritual book about connecting with nature, and a wonderfully suspenseful, twisting thriller.

But there’s this other thing I did that I need to talk about … it makes me feel guilty perhaps because it was so indulgent. I binge-read 49 other books (all in the same series), one after another after another. It was lovely, but I have so much guilt, because I have a rather large stack of other books waiting to be read and reviewed. But this binge of books taught me a few things about series writing and myself, which I share further into this post. First, let’s celebrate four excellent books:

I didn’t become a coffee drinker until my forties. How did I survive without it? I’m an early bird, so coffee, my computer, and my characters are what I’m about at five o’clock in the morning. Also, I love local coffee shops. They’re great places to meet friends and make notes about writing projects. (I can’t write in public spaces, though. Too distracting. When I write, it has to be in a quiet spot without noise or diversion.)

I’m a member of a writer’s group where we share chapters of our mystery-novels-in-progress. We have different writing styles, characters, and plots, but one location we write about is similar: The coffee shop.

Coffee shops are our “third place.” A home-away-from-home where... Continue Reading

THE BIG 5 BECOME THE BIG 4

HARPERCOLLINS ACQUIRES HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT TRADE DIVISION

5 AUTHOR SIDE HUSTLE IDEAS

ARTISTIC JEALOUSY IN THE TIME OF QUARANTINE

FEATURED ARTICLES

The Big 5 Become the Big 4

It’s been in the works since late last year, but it looks like now it is official. Penguin Random House will acquire Simon & Schuster for $2.2 billion. (You may remember that Penguin and Random House merged back in 2013, reducing the big 6 publishers to the big 5.) The other three are Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and HarperCollins. Kirkus has a comprehensive article on the merger. There’s plenty of... Continue Reading