What Do Agents and Publishers Really Want? In my career as an author I've faced every challenge you're facing. Having had ten novels published, with sales of over half a million books, I know what agents and publishers are looking for, what they want—and don’t want....

MYTH-BUSTERS Myths can distort and darken a writer's world. I want your creative world to be sunshine-bright. So I offer here some myth-busting to chase away the clouds. Myth #1. It’s Impossible To Get Published These Days This myth says the publishing industry is a...

"I couldn't put it down!" Authors love to hear readers say those words. So do our publishers. But what, exactly, is this mysterious literary essence that hooks a reader? What holds them so hard, they simply must keep reading, often long into the night? I unlock the...

How To Write a Winning "Hook" Do you slave over your story’s opening sentence? Good! That’s what successful writers do: write it, revise it, and tweak it until they’re sure it will fire the reader's desire to know what comes next. A first sentence must be a "hook."...

Writing? An extreme sport? Hell, yes. We rappel up rock-faces of chapters. We raft through rapids of plot. We hang-glide on unstable character arcs, and bobsled down ice alleys of dialogue, then run a marathon of revision. Sometimes, like the fellow in the Stephen...

  A big "Thank You" bouquet to Karen Alison. Karen is a gifted emerging writer who sent me the manuscript of her debut novel for my evaluation. After mulling my comments and suggestions, she did a rewrite, then sent me a testimonial of how happy she was with the...

  I’m a big fan of bestselling author John le Carré, so I’ve often applied admiring adjectives to his novels. But I came across an unfamiliar adjective in a review of his latest book. The critic wrote: “Le Carré’s prose remains brisk and lapidary.” Lapidary? What...

Exciting update! I recently posted here about a fine writer I mentored – Christine Higdon – whose debut novel The Very Marrow of Our Bones was just released. Well, the Toronto Star has just given it a glowing review, calling it “a wondrous book.” Absolutely true! I’m...

The package arrived on my doorstep. A crisp new book, sent by the author, Christine Higdon. Her debut novel. I felt a sweet excitement, because I had mentored Christine in the early stage of her manuscript, and now here was the published book in all its bright...