A Holiday Gift of Character

Life Experiences is a non-profit organization based in Cary, North Carolina. It offers satisfying work experiences for adults with varying disabilities. By providing valuable services and products to the community, these adults receive the self-esteem of earning wages for their … Continue reading

Now Available: My Published In-Print Books as eBooks

Do you read books in electronic format? From my page on Smashwords, you can now sample and purchase Paper Woman, The Blacksmith’s Daughter, and Camp Follower in several electronic formats, including those for Kindle and Sony eReader. Paper Woman and … Continue reading

2009 Holiday Author Tour

This holiday season, I’ve been on the road just about every weekend. As usual, the Grand Illumination at Colonial Williamsburg, held the first weekend in December, was lovely. Bob Hill, the retail manager at the visitor center bookstore, is such … Continue reading

Author Elizabeth Zelvin on Editing, Critique, and Craft

 Elizabeth Zelvin, author of Death Will Get You Sober and Death Will Help You Leave Him, capped a two-week tour through North Carolina yesterday at the Sternberger Center in Greensboro with her presentation “The End is Just the Beginning: Editing, … Continue reading

Inside the World of Revolutionary War Reenacting

What do spectators see at the site of a Revolutionary War reenactment? What happens behind the scenes after the public leaves the site for the day? In response to everyone who has expressed interest, this post and future posts will … Continue reading

Poisoned Pen’s WebCon 2009

Much will undoubtedly be written in the coming weeks of PPWebCon, the first entirely virtual conference for mystery readers and writers, held in cyberspace 24 October 2009. Poisoned Pen Press took advantage of the full range of existing technologies available … Continue reading

Deadly Divas in Raleigh

“Tea with the Divas” features mystery authors (l to r) Sara Rosett, Laura Bradford, Marcia Talley (president of Sisters in Crime), Heather Webber, and Denise Swanson. Molly Weston organized the tour of these ladies through the Raleigh area. I caught … Continue reading

Creating Archetypal Characters and Suspenseful Plots with the Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey can be a powerful plotting framework for genre fiction. For more than a year, I’ve been teaching workshops on it, and in July, at the Harriette Austin Writers Conference, I expanded the workshop, folded in material about … Continue reading