Greer Macallister A few years ago, if you’d asked me about the building blocks of great novels, I would have yammered on endlessly about sentences. They can’t be too long or too short or all the same; they can’t be so complex or descriptive that they get in the way of the story; they are […]

Piper Bayard  One of the most commonly used tools in mystery, crime, and spy fiction is physical surveillance. However, it is an art that is not completely understood outside of law enforcement and espionage. As the partner of a 40+ year veteran field operative, I’d like to take you through a few of the basics. […]

Susan Spann Anthologies are a popular way for authors to gain publishing credits, build an audience, and cross-pollinate readership with other writers in a genre. Anthologies may be traditionally-published, author-published (i.e., self-published, either by the entire group or by the author who edits the larger work), or organized by a charity or writers’ group (like […]

June Stevens Westerfield A few months ago the lovely Laura Drake emailed me and said “I’ve got this book coming up, what do you think of the cover I am designing for it?” Ooh, tricky thing here. You see, if you ask me my opinion on something, I will give it. Even if it’s negative. […]

Tasha Seegmiller At a recent conference, I attended a class taught by Ally Condie where she went over the nuances of setting in story. As someone who strives to make my settings rich, and even feel like another character, it was something I was very interested in. While there were many concepts that she discussed […]