The Best Thing I Ever Wrote by Mar Preston

So far it’s the series of short eBooks on “Writing Your First Mystery.” These five eBook primers on the architecture of the mystery novel are close to the best thing I’ve written. Partly because they seem to reach out to the solitary writers out there, maybe a...

Escaping Winter

I’m escaping winter in my California mountain village. So I’m looking for a furnished rental place of some kind in Ventura, California. It’s not so easy because I want to bring my two cats along. Landlords have had bad experiences, and I understand that....

The Swag From A Writers Conference

A contrast in what I took home from two writers’ conferences I attended recently: the Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA) conference in July 2016 in Las Vegas;       And, Bouchercon 2016 the worldwide mystery conference in New Orleans in 2016....

Why not give up if your books aren’t selling?

Liking a book–or not–is subjective.  It may be something as simple as the setting is a place where a reader may have broken up with an old girlfriend. Your reader picks up your book and the first five pages remind him of heartbreak. That is not a judgment...

The Perseid Meteor Showers – 2016

Last night I witnessed the Perseid Meteor showers from a nearby peak in the Central California mountains. A huge, yellow half moon hung in the sky overhead and the stars were bright. Of course my friends and I were not the only people excited about seeing the best...