This post first appeared on Quora March 15, 2020. What makes Annie Wilkes a terrifying villain? The embodiment of our worst nightmares as humans: being vulnerable and at the mercy of someone incapable of kindness. Annie Wilkes is a nurse. We tend to trust nurses. Nurses are awesome (and I’m not just saying that because…
It’s been a pleasing week, seeing how much people have enjoyed my story on Facebook. If you’ve not been following the story, not to worry—head on over to The Macabre Author and go back to the beginning of October to catch up. All told, it’s a less than five-minute read about a severed finger and…
When I tell people I’m a writer, I typically get a slew of questions. Aside from “are you published?” (yes) and “where can I buy your books” (here), I’m tackling the most common ones that people seem to like to ask me, how I feel about those questions, and which ones you should never ask…
ANNOUNCEMENT: There have been a few negative comments on my Facebook page, and I understand. Mostly it comes from people having very little to do in their lives. Luckily the admins and I have been deleting the comments. Generally, I follow the “be nice, be respectful” rule. If you don’t have anything constructive to say,…
Mercy Hospital is coming along nicely. The replacement chapter is about 8,000 or so words from being completed. Then I have to send the manuscripts back out for further editing. So for the rest of this series, I’m keeping the answers short so I can focus on my writing.
If you have a good editor, they aren’t afraid to be brutally honest. When you’re a new writer, that can be intimidating. Well, tough shit. Rip that bandage off right now because if you really want to get published, and you really want your book to be good, then you need to build up some serious tough skin.
So far what we’ve learned is that no one knows where ideas come from, and that writers don’t enjoy talking about how much money they make (and it’s a rude question). This week, in part three of the writer’s FAQ, we get to explore a better question. When I tell people I’m a writer, I…
Last week, I wrote about the number one question that writers get, and this week, I’m writing about the second most common question that writers get, and probably one of the most annoying ones. I’ve found this question to be more common from Americans, who are bottom-line driven. When I tell people I’m a writer,…
When I tell people I’m a writer, I typically get a slew of questions. Aside from “are you published?” (yes) and “where can I buy your books” (here), I’d like to take a moment to answer some of the questions people seem to like to ask me, how I feel about those questions, and which…
I’ll just cut right to the chase here. The biggest mistake readers make is assuming the writer doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we have to take creative license in order to make for a better story or get it to fit into our universe. As I was…
