Listen now! What if the only thing holding you back from writing your book was…you? Hear me out. Most of us are carrying around stories that someone told us at some point in our lives. Usually those stories have to do with why we can’t do something, or perhaps why spending our time writing a book...
Writer’s Life
Episode 74: Cozies, coffee and Halloween in July with author Emmeline Duncan
Listen now! Friends, I’ve got a treat for you this week! If you love Halloween and coffee as much as I do, get excited for this episode. I have fellow cozy author Emmeline Duncan joining me on the show today. Emmeline’s books are so much fun. She’s the author of the Ground Rules Mysteries about...
How to project manage your writing with Christine Carron
When I first heard the words “project manage" and "your writing” in the same sentence, my head almost exploded. I'm the kind of person who literally cries when faced with a complicated spreadsheet. The first time someone asked me about a pivot table, I almost had a heart attack. And no, I'm not...
How to know what to write
How do you decide what to write? I get this question a lot. I think people who are deciding if they want to write a book spend a lot of time thinking about the external landscape—trends, state of the publishing industry, what agents want, what’s hot on one bestseller list or another. And look....
The truth about setting realistic writing goals
I’m one of those writers who has to continually psych myself out to get work done. It’s not that I don’t love writing—like, the actual act of writing. I do. I’ve always loved it. When I’m not doing it I have withdrawal. Hence the whole pursuing the writing career thing. But when I feel like the...
Three things writers need to remember about their work
Once, in a job interview, I was asked how or when I knew that I could make a living as a writer. It wasn’t a question I’d thought about in advance. I could’ve answered in a multitude of ways, talked about my passion for books and making up stories and creating worlds that drew people in, made...
Three self-destructive things I’m NOT doing this year
This is what I posted on my LinkedIn page to ring in the new year: Three things I'm NOT doing this year: Efforting (also known as making things harder than they need to be!) Overthinking Doubting myself I didn’t even think much about these things, honestly. I didn’t plan them. I didn’t spend the...
Why the most successful writers don’t always write alone
This past weekend was the New England Crime Bake. It’s a writer’s conference that’s local to the Boston area. It’s also a special conference for me, because it was the one I found when I first Googled “mystery writer conferences” more than 20 years ago when I decided that I was going to write...