[Back]
What it doesn't do is make you a better writer or guarantee that your novel is good enough. Knowing people doesn't get your book published if it's not a book that someone thinks can be marketed and sold. But don't let anyone tell you that it doesn't make a difference. Knowing people can make your path easier. It can get you taken more seriously. It can help you understand where you want to go, what to expect when you get there, and how things work or don't work and what you can do about it.

And it's not that hard.

[Forward][Back]
I don't want to call this 'stepping up' to novels because short stories aren't a lesser thing. Sometimes they don't even take less time. But they are a different thing. I talked a bit in a previous post about where I think short stories have helped me write novels. But there are definitely places where they're a different process and where the writing is different. Some things about writing novels I only learned by writing novels.

[Forward][Back]

I wasn't entirely sure where to put this post in the order of things. I started writing short stories before I had dogs, but I didn't sell until after. Dogs and good writing--for me, they're are inextricably intertwined.

Weird, but true.

[Forward][Back]

This is Novel Spot and mostly I think I'm supposed to be talking about novels, but I wouldn't really be talking about my path to publication if I didn't take a brief side trip and talk about short stories. Let me start with this--I love short stories. I love reading them. I love writing them. I wish I had more time to write short stories. I miss them. I miss the creativity, the challenge and the process. I don't mean to say that I don't love writing novels, because I do.

[Forward][Back]

So, I grew up in a great place with parents who loved to read and a love of books myself. But I didn't, particularly, aspire to be a writer. My brothers and sister and I wrote plays which we performed for my parents, my grandmother and the neighbor who lived a half mile down the road (because she was just that lucky). A friend and I wrote journal entries from our future (and amazing!) selves that we passed back and forth during Latin class in eighth grade.

[Forward][Back]

1. I learned to read before I went to kindergarten. This is the advantage of an older brother.

2. We went to the local library (which was tiny!) once a week. Kids could only check out seven books at a time, but it was nearly always possible to talk my mother into checking out one or two more as emergency backup books.

[Forward ]
One of my basic life assumptions is that everyone knows what I know. We all watch Downton Abbey right? (For the record, I haven't seen a single episode. I know! I hear it's great).

And beyond that, people grow up in different countries, different parts of the country, different climates, speaking different languages and from vastly different socioeconomics groups. So, it's not a good assumption--that we all know the same things. But I think my brain figures, well, I can communicate with everyone, why wouldn't we know the same things?

[Back]
Hot Stuff is my newest novel with Oceanview Publishing and it involves a murder in a celebrity restaurant in Miami. Often times I pick a location, visit it several times and try to be as accurate as possible in my description of that locale. The last book was Too Much Stuff, and it takes place in Islamorada, Florida. I had to do all kinds of research in the Florida Keys. I hate that.

[Forward][Back]
Do you read when you write? Of course. I get great ideas from reading other people's work. I don't steal them; I kind of use twists and turns that appeal to me. I don't borrow the characters, but I like to see how another writer approaches a problem or scene. How did anyone get into writing? By reading.

I know some authors who don't read when they write. They'll say that they don't want to be influenced by someone else. And again I ask, how did you start writing? By being influenced by other authors.

[Forward][Back]
Writing is a solitary business. Woe is me, the lonely writer who is cooped up in a small office with only the sound of my keyboard clicking and...
I yell out to my wife. "What's another word for collaborate?"

"You've got a thesaurus on your computer."

"How do you spell thesaurus?"

I'm writing, all by myself and I hear the roar of the crowd.

"Did Ohio State score a touchdown?"

"Why don't you come in here and watch the game."

[Forward][Back]

[Forward][Back]
Flying to Sarasota several years ago I sat next to a young lady who was the CEO of a software company that developed programs to thwart computer hackers. This woman told me that the systems they developed were so sophisticated that no one, with modern technology, could break into a computer once the software had been installed.

I was intrigued and asked her who her clients were. She proudly told me that a number of government agencies used the software. So I asked how the software was installed.

[Forward][Back]
The trouble with writing Florida mysteries is that real life in this state usually trumps any fiction. With the election now over, remember the "hanging chads"? Political sabotage at its finest. The Elian Gonzalez incident with Cuba? Casey Anthony, who walked on a charge of murdering her child? How about the Trayvon Martin shooting by an overzealous neighborhood watch guy or the lost gold from a train wreck in Islamorada? I'm sorry, that last one actually is one of my mysteries from the novel Too Much Stuff.

[Forward ]
I wrote my first novel in the fourth grade, and it was widely read. Read in the fourth grade class and to be more accurate, I wrote one chapter in this novel. But I was part of a grand experiment, and I still believe that this is one of the reasons I write today. Because I learned it was possible.

[Back]
Breaking the Code: a Father’s Secret, a Daughter’s Journey, and the Question That Changed Everything (Sourcebooks), came out on 11/1/11. What a whirlwind year it has been. After spending years gathering my father’s stories and writing the book, I began a new phase; marketing. Authors generally dread marketing. I’ve found it to be a lot of fun. And I’ve learned so much along the way.