Write what you know. Every writer has heard that advice — and it makes sense. Obviously, the more you know about something, the better you can describe it. If you can envision what your characters are doing, if you know what they are thinking, you can make that scene come alive. […]

What a great week this has been! Spring arrived… and so did copies of my May book.
Of course, getting copies of Heart of a Thief in the mail isn’t quite as monumental as spring arriving — but it’s a pretty big deal to me. This is the first book of my miniseries for […]

I know it seems ironic to blog about the value of a blog, but since many of you have given me wonderful feedback in the past, I’d like to ask you another question: What, exactly, do you like or dislike about blogs?
The reason I’m asking this question is that some writers I know are thinking […]

Strong heroes — we all love them. They’re those courageous, lethal men who slay enemies, diffuse bombs, and save the grateful world. But do all heroes have to be so glamorous? Can a non-weapon wielding, non-karate chopping man star in one of our books?
I know that depends on genre. The […]

Traditional books are dead. We see that news constantly these days. Book sales are down. Paper books are on their way out. Internet piracy is killing the publishing industry. No one buys books anymore. E-readers are taking over the market.
You couldn’t tell it by our house. We read […]

It’s not often that I’m at a loss for words. But the recent research trip I took to Peru with a group of medical missionaries has left me with strangely little to say. How can I describe such an experience? Was it fun? Not really, although we met some amazing people. […]

Question of the day: If you could only take one small pack on a several weeks-long mountain trek, what would you put in it? What items could you absolutely not live without? This is a question that both the heroine of my current book and I are grappling with right now — […]