My new year of writing and teaching is off to a great start. On January 6th, I signed an agreement with the Arizona State Library Association to become the 2017 Summer Writer in Residence at Scottsdale Public Library. I will be providing a series of six creative writing workshops and will also hav ...

Cirque du Livre 2016: First Page Panel with Tom LeveenThe past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Here is a quick recent author appearances recap. First, I attended the Cirque du Livre Writers Conference in Mesa, where I presented on with Alan Black, Deena Remiel, and Tom Leveen on topics ...

You are a writer. You either write, or you want to write. And if you are truly serious about it, you study and hone your craft.You go to the library and check out all the writing books. Especially the ones written for your chosen genre. You read about plot and character development. You learn about ...

Plot points, crisis, and climax, oh my! I have been reading up on plotting, taking a deep dive into process and techniques, attempting to distill the information that others have provided in books like The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, Building Better Plo ...

Kira, Vaith and Kelmir. Characters in setting.When writing, I start from character, not simply because I think it’s a great place to start—although, for me, it’s mostly character engagement that keeps me reading (or writing) a book or story—but more so because that’s just the way my brain ...

Making emotional connections through writing is always at the top of my list of goals, whether I am writing poetry or prose.When I tell people I am a writer, I get the usual questions and responses. “What have you published?” “Someday, I’ll write something.” “I wish I had time to write.� ...

As with every new book or writing project, there are a lot of things I learned writing The Matriarch's Devise. However, one of the key things I grew to understand on a deeper level is how much trust it takes to bring a story to life and send it out into the world. Here are five things I learned abo ...