Colleen M. Story My first book is scheduled to come out the last week in September. It’s an interesting time for me. As I look back over the last nearly 20 years of writing (I’ve worked full-time as a writer since 1997), I realize I’ve had a lot of illusions about what this time would […]

Kathryn Craft Turning Whine Into Gold Today I am a brand-new, improved model of “Kathryn Craft, Author” thanks to the Women’s Fiction Writers Association retreat in Albuquerque this past weekend. I am no stranger to the benefits of retreating. Each spring and fall for the past eight years I’ve hosted writing retreats for women at […]

Kate Moretti We’ve all seen the examples: Wizard School, Dinosaur Park, Titanic. Don’t shudder everyone, high concept is back. Whether it was ever “out” is somewhat debatable. We see it on agent’s manuscript wish lists, in rejection letters, in publisher submission pages. Everyone seems to want a compelling pitch, to heck with characters and world-building […]

Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes No one wants to read about a fictional nice day. Great fiction is about one thing, and one thing only . . . problems. And lots of them. Problems keep the pages turning, and the heart of a problem is conflict. Without conflict, there is no plot, which is […]

James Preston In Back to the Future, Marty McFly's mother's kid brother asks "What's a re-run?" Marty replies, "You'll find out." Pop quiz: What was on TV when Marty said that? I am old enough to remember that if I missed an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" (BTW if in your mind you heard the […]