My good friend Alexandra Sokoloff, who blogged here the other week, commented once over at Murderati that everyone plotted to a certain degree, and that my first drafts were actually a detailed outline. Right. All 80,000 words of my first draft in a book that usually ends up around 105,000 words. At first, I was willing to concede the point, but recently I was struck by the fact that I really don’t plot my books. It’s not a method of writing I recommend or don’t recommend. It’s simply the way it is. I give a workshop called NO PLOTTERS ALLOWED… Read More

A couple years ago, NYT bestseller James Rollins spoke to my local RWA chapter on blending genres. His presentation was fantastic–not only is Jim a great writer, but he’s also a fun and informed speaker. He suggested that one way to break out, or to write that something “fresh and different” that editors say they want is to take an element from another genre and blend it with the “rules” of an established genre. JD Robb’s books are a perfect example of a blended genre–romantic suspense novels set in the future. They’re truly three genres–mysteries, romance, and light science fiction…. Read More

Sunday night–late–I returned from the Levy Home Entertainment Read This! Author Bus Tour. That’s a mouthful. This was my second time on “the bus” and I can’t decide which trip I liked more! Both the 2006 Kmart tour and the 2008 Meijer tour had great authors and I’ve made good friends on each. This year, I had more people bringing in my backlist to sign, which always makes me happy. Oh–so I’m really sorry I missed Thursday. I really thought I could get a blog posted Wednesday night, but as it was I went to bed at 1 am and… Read More