Detective Parrott When I wrote Murder in the One Percent, released in 2018, I wanted to tell the story of a group of insanely wealthy financial wizards who find themselves at an opulent party, but one of them wakes up dead. Because it was a murder…
Grange Day George Cates and his sister Effie had a milking herd in East Vassalboro, Maine for many years. He was very active in the local Grange. Grange is a movement from the mid 1800s to promote animal and food husbandry and to promote the…
My friend Marina is like a celebrity in our local running community. Everyone knows her. During recent races, as I’ve run alongside her, we can’t go far without someone cheering her on or calling out her name. I stand quietly beside her…
How to Take them into your Story Seeing the children amazed by your story, laughing with your characters, and lifting their hands to take part in the tale is the best reward for a children’s writer. That’s why I love presenting my children’s…
Authors use props—objects, food, music, accessories, hobbies, animals, and many other things—to support their characters and move them through different scenes, and they use props to provide subtle cues to the reader as to how to feel about the…
With the launch of my fourth novel, “The House Always Wins,” in October, 2017, I’ve been in full promo mode for the last four months. Luckily, I’m a marketing guy in real life, which may give me a leg up but doesn’t make the task any…
If you request a review from a busy book blogger, you are likely to be put in a months-long que. Popular bloggers can’t keep up with the requests they get, and some of the biggest bloggers get paid by large publishers to review books. What chance…
After years of contemplating, I dared to enter the prestigious, but challenging world of the “struggling authors’ society”. I always wanted to write children’s books; I finally figured out what I wanted to write about. Now, that my…
Long before my first book was published, I read-up on the best practices for autographing books. My wife thought I was crazy for spending so much time on this topic considering I didn’t have a book that needed signing, but the information learned…
Congratulations, you’ve published a book. Are you ready to sell an experience? Publishing houses have limited time and resources so authors, self-published or otherwise, wear many hats. In part or fully, the job of promoting and marketing a book…
