Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes We writers tend to be an odd and solitary lot, lurking in the corners of libraries and coffee shops and playing with our imaginary friends. Though most of us are content with our solitude, we periodically meet up with writer friends or migrate like spawning salmon to conferences, where […]

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. […]

 Piper Bayard Writers have only two motives—we write to say something, or we write to be heard. One is all about us. The other is all about the reader. In a perfect world, good writers combine both the desire to convey information and the desire to serve the reader by “speaking the readers’ language,” giving […]

Piper Bayard It’s December—the month after National Novel Writing Month. We blink our eyes and search around like the lights just came up in the bar. Or maybe our expressions are more like that look a cat gets when a kid puts a paper bag over it for a few minutes and then pops it […]

Piper Bayard Lone Wolf Writers are those who shun critique groups, avoid craft classes, and cross the street when we see volunteer editors heading toward us. We are known for keeping to ourselves and avoiding too many voices in our heads and in our lives. If you're still not sure if you are a Lone […]