Kent Krueger Talks About Writing

Eighteen months ago I interviewed my good friend William Kent Krueger on my Second Sunday Crime radio show —actually it was the show premiere. At the time he’d just started writing his 15th Cork O’Connor novel. It’s now been released. It’s called Manitou Canyon, so now seems like the perfect time to delve into what Kent and I … Read more

Writing Lite Tip 50: Never pay for a review

Writing Lite Tip 50: Never pay for a review. It will come back to bite you.

Enough said? You don’t need to pay for reviews. You can find reviewers online, on Facebook (Check Reviewing groups), Twitter, Google+, and more. Some kind souls have even made lists of reviewers who will review self-published books, but you’ll have to check to see how timely they are. Make sure you craft a respectful, polite … Read more

I Moved to Chicago for the Weather

This is a reprint of an essay that appears in the current Mystery Readers’ Journal, Fall edition, which is all about Chicago. The magazine also includes essays by nearly two dozen other Chicago authors, including Marcus Sakey, Michael Sherer, Jack Fredrickson, Sheldon Siegel, and others. For more, check it out here.  Um… actually that’s a … Read more

Writing Lite #5 — Character Backstories

Writing Lite Video Series

I’m baaack.. with another Writing Lite segment. This time I’m starting a series on character development and how to do it. Today I talk about my favorite technique — writing character backstories. They only have to be a couple of single spaced pages, but they accomplish so much. What do you think?