I saw a post on a forum yesterday about why a person should be a reader, and it made me want to add my own arguments. And what's a blog for except to say what I want to say at any given moment?

As an ex-English teacher, I spent years trying, sometimes with success but mostly not, to convince high school students that reading was not only good for them but fun as well. I guess it's something a person has to learn for himself, and it often takes a while. My father didn't begin reading…

SILENT COUNSEL Tour – September 20

Borders

Paramus, NJ

The day started on Long Beach Island, where Sylvia and I usually enjoy a nice, quiet, post-season week by the ocean. That’s the secret, of course. Do it after Labor Day. LBI summers, for sure, have their good points, but they have the crowds, too. Late September, though, is just…

The queries and packets have been shipped out by the agent to six publishers. Let's see if anyone bites.

Normally, what happens in the book world is that someone writes a manuscript. They then try to find an agent, which is usually a lengthy process. Send out queries. Some politely tell you basketweaving might still be an option, or something of that nature. Maybe some invite you to submit more, and you do. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the average search time for an agent is six months.…

Posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I love the expression, "Children have imaginary friends. Adults have imaginary enemies." I honestly don't remember having any imaginary friends when I was a kid, but my daughters certainly did, and other parents have told me great stories about their kids' imaginary friends.

I have been thinking about this because my younger daughter (in her 20s, working and putting herself through college) has a friend in need. If the guy didn't have bad…

Several people I've met in the writing business got their start not by the traditional write-a-letter-get-an-agent-who-will-find-a-publisher method, but by entering a contest. Contests are a good way to get noticed, to see if your work is noteworthy, and to achieve publication.

Sometimes you win, and that's great. Winning the better contests in any given genre usually means publication, and that's great. But some I've met didn't win the contest but still caught the attention of an…

SILENT COUNSEL Tour - September 19

Borders

Scarsdale, NY

Let’s face it. Summer’s almost gone. There aren’t too many beautiful, sunny days left in the season, so the magnificent weather on Wednesday afternoon made the drive out to Scarsdale a treat. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to be on my motorcycle—but…

posted by Doranna Durgin

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Belle Dog, who has been confined to a crate for several weeks in the wake of a severe flare of her spinal disk disease. Well, I pull out the leash for her potty breaks, but these have hardly offered her the freedom she craves.

Belle, as it turns out, does not live in…

I don't know about anyone else, but life keeps getting in the way of my writing. Just about the time I plan on having a whole day to hammer out the plot details of a project, something comes up that calls for me to be somewhere else for a large portion of the day. Maybe I'm weak-minded, but it seems that once I've spent several hours in a store, a car, a meeting, or a public building, I can't drag my mind back to the proper set for effective writing. At best I get some editing in, but very…

I just returned from a trip filled with firsts. My first trip to Denver; my first time doing the "face" thing with booksellers, asking them to remember my book and perhaps schedule me for an event next March when LIFELINES debuts; my first Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold conference; and my first ever keynote speech.



Can I just say, Wow!!!



I was nervous about all of the above except visiting Denver. Turns out that was the only thing I should…

Nothing like having a reviewer burst your euphoria about having a new book out by letting you know about an error on one of the pages. Actually I appreciated her doing that. Ironically, I got the message on my Blackberry while I was in Tampa at the WOW conference. My editor was there too and I told him. What he's decided to do is correct the error and issue a second edition.

I have copies of the "first edition" of Judgment Fire with the mistake and I am offering them to…

Scarface Billy saw me before I saw him.

"Hey Roll-yer-own. What's up, tramp?"

I said "Hi" with my chin, and set my duffel down by his park-bench.



I didn't expect to see a familiar face in Portland when I crawled out of the boxcar that morning. Night Eyes was sleeping off a drunk under an over-pass when I slipped away and hopped a freight out of Seattle the night before. She wouldn't cry when she woke-up. Citizens cry. Tramps just move on.

Scarface aimed the neck…

Hi All:

Here are some pics from my recent Reading/Q&A/Signing Event at the Perquimans Library in Hertford, North Carolina, hosted by the Friends of the Library. We had a full house, the Q&A session lasted over an hour and I sold out all the books I had there. As the Director of the Library said, "It was a very enjoyable experience all around."…