Everyone who attended was pleased with the amount of work accomplished. It's amazing what a person can get done when no phone rings, no laundry buzzer sounds, no spouse pounds in the basement, and no kids interrupt to ask what's for…

SPOTLIGHT UPDATES - LAS VEGAS EXAMINER.COM

It always makes me…

As you prepare for your book to come out, a great thing you can do in advance is to get together a press release, and there are a few sites that will send them out for you for FREE.



The only downside I had with the ones I have sent out is that I wanted to put my contact info as misspoirotatymail.com instead of using the @ sign. Why does this matter? Once that release goes out a bunch of spammers will flood your inbox with a bunch of stuff you don't want or need. Fortunately, they…

LINK:Writers Tricks of the Trade: Y is for You Don't Say…

On Saturday 18 June between 10am and 4pm I will be running an interactive workshop on How to write compelling crime and thriller novels at Quay Arts Centreon the Isle of Wight.



I was asked if I would run this workshop during National Crime Writing Weekan initiative organised by The…

Today I was compelled to write about the nonsense surrounding the Charlie Sheen circus. Two and a Half Men, while not a mystery, is the product of very clever screenwriters and production staff, now out of work because of one man's ego.

Read what I had to say about it today and watch the funny video, "A World Without Writers." Comments right in the box at the end of the column…

Are you getting the most out of your press releases? Harness the "power of the press" and get the word out.

 LINK TO TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE:…

This wasn’t originally on my agenda for today’s column, but yesterday my daughter told me something my grandson said that just begged to be in a column about dialogue. Check it out:

 …

LINK: http://exm.nr/2011conf-lv

Once again the time is drawing near for the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this year, but that doesn’t stop me from singing its praises and telling everyone about it.

I still credit the first one I attended in 2005 as a career changer. Check out today's EXAMINER SPOTLIGHT. I talk about the conference and what I've gained personally from previous ones.…

http://exm.nr/online-LV

Do you get frustrated looking for information? There are so many great resources online for…

Everyone knows about the signings and the crowds of people who come to each. But…

LINK TO TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE: http://exm.nr/JforJigsaw

 We have to make the pieces of our life fit as well as the pieces of our story or articles. When the tab just doesn't seem to be quite right, it's time to regroup, or make a slight adjustment. If we were…

ARTICLE LINK: http://exm.nr/bloc-LA

Sometimes it pays to do generic searches. I wasn’t aware of Writers Bloc, but when it came up in a search for Los Angeles Writers I liked it enough to Spotlight it. Check out this interesting non-profit organization and some of the upcoming programs.

 MORGAN ST. JAMES

Las Vegas and Los Angeles Writing Examiner - www.examiner.com

VP…

LINK: http://exm.nr/writers-rejection

Unfortunately, as writers most of us know what receving that…

I wrote the following article for the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Debut Dagger Award to help those entering for the competition, and thought it might interest readers of my blog here on Crimespace. The Debut Dagger is open to anyone who has not yet had a novel published commercially. All shortlisted entrants will receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries. The…

LINK: http://exm.nr/BforBalance

 …

TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE - LAS VEGAS EDITION WWW.EXAMINER.COM

LINK: http://exm.nr/time-LV

One of the hardest things to do is discipline…