The Magic of Storytelling

I live in a village of maybe 2000 people in the mountains of central California, seventy miles beyond the Los Angeles sprawl in the Los Padres National Forest. There’s a few restaurants, no movie theater, no mall, or much organized entertainment. It’s called Pine...

The Freedom of Finishing Your Novel

I’ve just sent off my sixth novel to my editor and my two best and trusted writer friends. I am hoping to get insightful comments that help me better this mystery. It is the second in my series about a Kern County Sheriff’s Detective investigating a murder in the far...

Who’s the Villain in The San Bernardino Mass Shooting?

Like a lot of people today, the day after the San Bernardino mass shooting, I find myself depressed. I can’t work on my novel. I ate a whole package of Graham crackers, and I’ve been checking the online news every half hour or so. Last night was the regular weekly...

Finishing Your First Mystery

Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve  written a lot of words, some pages, some chapters, which are causing you a lot of pain. It feels like you’ve done a lot of thinking, a lot of typing, but it isn’t a book. You know that. And you’re about to give up. In the...