As the author of what you might call “fake-crime” stories (i.e., murder mysteries), I know better than most the universal appeal of violence, literary and otherwise. There’s a frisson attached to the danger, to the horror; a sort of schadenfreude that someone else died, not me; and of course the…

Here’s the nightmare scenario: you write a novel with more than one timeline, because… whatever (we’ll talk more about that in a moment). The reader picks it up, chooses their preferred timeline, and skips the other(s) altogether.

Ack. How can you tell a story that’s clearly best told with multiple…

Most writers think they’re struggling with their writing, when what they’re actually struggling with is their thinking.

It doesn’t feel like that, of course. I’m thinking just fine; I just can’t write.

Well, actually, you can write. You’ve demonstrated in the past you’re perfectly capable of turning out writing that…

Key takeaways:

Associate your brand with positive feelings for optimal engagement
Create material that’s emotionally compelling for better sharing
Deliver a story around your brand
Shift focus from traditional sales thinking
Use emotional hot buttons for best results

What we’re now calling emotional branding isn’t new. Dale Carnegie developed famous…

Sometimes stories take us to difficult places.

Some of the most powerful works of literature are the ones that take us to the darkest corners of our worlds and our minds. But consider the Yiddish saying, “Anything can be survived if it’s part of a story.” …

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about liminal spaces.

Liminality is the borderline area, the frontier, the place that—as a Lewis Carroll character might say—is neither here nor there. Rites of passage move people through liminal moments. Borders move people through liminal places.

That liminality is on my mind because…

I walk down my street at night and listen. Mostly, since the pandemic, what I’ve heard is silence, a dog barking, perhaps a door slamming. Before that (and returning, no doubt, once it’s over) there was too much to hear: parties and laughter, raucous shouts and revving engines. But sometimes…

As a writer, I have a tendency to believe that words are everything. I’m not always wrong. One of the most important things I’ve learned over time is this: everything starts with a sentence. Seriously. …