I’m Being Judged… by the Derringer Awards Every year, the Short Mystery Fiction Society holds the Derringer Awards. Judged by volunteers from the society’s membership, these competitive awards recognize short mystery stories published that year. The judging process and program management are a lot of work and I’m always impressed at the volunteers who bring […]
Christmas Strikes Back A few years ago, I became interested in scriptwriting. Like many people, I assumed that after a lifetime of watching movies that writing them couldn’t be that hard. I’ll pause here for your laughter to die down. Specifically, I was interested in Christmas movies and why they sucked. Which is unfair, one […]
An Announcement Last month, I blogged about having to scramble to pick a new pen name after the reader-tested and selected name was snagged out from under me. Cue the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair. I was upset because I had every intention of using the pen name for a series of new […]
A New Pen Name for a New Project As some of you may remember from earlier in the year, I was on a writing and submitting spree. Novella’s, short stories, writing contests—I was on a writing rampage! And with some spicier romance novellas in the collection, I asked for your help picking a pen name, […]
The Inspiration Behind Emergency Exit The opening of Emergency Exit, book 3 of the Valkyrie Brothers series, was actually the first scene I wrote in the series. Ash Valkyrie sneaks into the building (because… reasons) via the service elevator and due to the loud vent system Harper Smoak has a misunderstanding about which party the […]
Plotting all the Plots Recently, I came across a call for a short story anthology focused on murder mysteries that took place in the workplace. However, the stipulation was that the death be dependent on that working situation. As a graphic designer, unless I accidentally stab my business partner to death with my college-era bone […]
What Are We Publishing? Publishing is always a bit of a game, but sometimes I feel more like I’m racking up publishing “points.” This year, I’ve found myself with some unexpectedly free writing time. I wrapped up writing the series I was working on (the Valkyrie Brothers) and I didn’t have a next grand project […]
When You Get Stuck Between Floors When I start writing a book, I often have a specific scene in mind. For Between Floors, book 2 of the Valkyrie Brothers series, I didn’t. I knew generally what the plot was and who my characters were, but I didn’t have the scene that locked me into the […]
What’s in a Pen Name? I recently have had the opportunity to submit to a dark romance anthology. For those that don’t know dark romance could be defined as a subgenre of romance that explores the messy, complicated, and sometimes twisted side of love and relationships. Dark romance is not my usual genre. A lot […]