I recently spoke with the lovely and talented Emily Saldino of Wine Enthusiast on a topic close to my heart: the correct number of olives to add to a martini. In case you are wondering (and no matter what anyone says) the correct number is three. … Continue readingThree Olives. This Is Not a Negotiation.
I have a newsletter. Sometimes I post things to it, though not as often as I should. I did one yesterday. I think it was a super fun one. If you’d like to see it, it’s here. Among other things, I write about the time … Continue readingNew News!
Setting in fiction is one of those topics those of us with fiction on the brain talk about pretty endlessly. What makes it? How do you create it? What do you do with it or without it? For some of us, setting is everything (eg: … Continue readingSetting Things Up
LA Weekly has named me as one of their “Top 15 Authors to Read for 2023,” which strikes me as astonishing. (There are so many great authors out there! ) I am happy about it, though. And if LA Weekly says it, it must be … Continue readingTop 15 Writers to Read
I’m much too candid and tell too many secrets on a recent episode the SinC Writer’s podcast. Interviewer Julie Hennrikus did too good a job! (Spoiler alert: if you listen long enough, I cry.) You can find the podcast on your favorite app, or download … Continue readingAnd then I cried
All of the social medias are reminding me that today it is four years since “Terminal City,” my contribution to the Akashic anthology Vancouver Noir, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story. So much about that is worth remembering. First of all, if … Continue readingRemembering A Trophy Win
Like a lot of people, I’ve been having some fun playing with artificial intelligence via ChatGPT. Most recently, I asked it to recommend books for people who liked my 2021 novel Endings, which is now the first of the Endings series. The third book in … Continue readingIf You Liked That…
Almost everyone who has known me while I’ve been writing novels has heard me say these words. I’ve said them in lectures and in conversations at cocktail parties. I’ve said them to hopeful editing clients and to mildly interested would-be writers on the tennis court. … Continue readingWrite the Book That’s in Your Heart
For me, writing a novel is like a horse race while driving a herd of cattle in the dark. Many years ago, before Negotiating With the Dead came out, I interviewed Margaret Atwood. When I asked her to tell me one thing about the book, … Continue readingWriting A Novel: A Horse Race. Driving Cattle. In the Dark.
Some of the characters in my books have pottymouths. Not a lot but a few. I can’t control them. There they are, going along as nice as you please and suddenly — boof! — something off-color will emerge. I’ve tried to chastise those characters and … Continue readingThe One That Got Away