Authority Through AuthorshipIn this conversation with Fiona Mcvie, I trace the whole path: where I came from, how a career got built on words, and the unglamorous realities of professional writing and ghostwriting. Updated for current numbers, it is the full story…
Character DevelopmentThe wall behind my desk holds books I use, not books I display. Each one earned its spot by getting pulled down mid-project, while I draft novels, ghostwrite for clients, or build handbooks. This is not a best-of list scraped…
Character DevelopmentEvery tattoo tells a story, which is exactly why they work in fiction. A character's body is a text you can read, the scars, the posture, the clothes, the habits they cannot control, each one revealing psychology with no exposition…
Character DevelopmentGhostwriting an anime book for a teenager meant writing in slang and rhythms nothing like my own, where one false note would be obvious to every reader who knew the world. Getting it right meant listening hard and researching the…
Book CoachingI have spent forty-five years writing one fantasy series, Peacekeeper, longer than I have done almost anything else. It taught me more about world-building and magic systems than any craft book could. Here is what nearly half a century inside…
Character DevelopmentRemove conflict and a story stops: characters agree, nothing happens, the reader leaves. It is true in fiction, memoir, and nonfiction alike, when a manuscript drags, the conflict is usually missing, weak, or solved too fast. Here is how to…
Character DevelopmentThe girl boss has no flaws, no arc, and never earns a thing, and she is everywhere, and she is boring. Rey earns nothing; Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Lisbeth Salander are unforgettable. The difference is consequences, flaws, and craft. The…
Character DevelopmentSome books drag you forward by sheer what-happens-next; others hold you because the characters feel like people you know. Plot-driven and character-driven are the two basic engines, and which you pick shapes the whole reading experience. Here are the real…
Character DevelopmentBehind the whisky and the profanity, the Critical Drinker dissects setup, payoff, and character arc more sharply than most paid film critics. The persona is a drunk ranting at a bar; the analysis is anything but. The press files him…
Character DevelopmentSpotless heroes take the high road; anti-heroes lie, scheme, and compromise, and somehow we love them more. Their flaws make them feel real in a way the virtuous rarely do. Here are ten reasons the anti-hero grips us, drawn from…
Amazon & KDPMost books that fail do not fail because the writing is terrible. They fail because the author made avoidable mistakes in structure, characters, pacing, or marketing. Here are the most common problems, each paired with a book that got it…
Character DevelopmentAn election is not a policy debate; it is a story, with the candidate cast as hero or villain and the voter deciding how it ends. Every modern campaign ran on a narrative, not a platform, nostalgia, urgency, a symbol…
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Four short, practical guides on writing, publishing, and selling your book, plus the occasional note when there's something worth your time. No fluff, no daily inbox clutter. Drop your email and they're yours.
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