2012

I have described writing a novel as akin to building a house. For me, the overall concept is in my mind. The blank paper is the land where the house will be built. Most of the building materials are on the truck waiting to be unloaded. The only problem for me is I do not…

This is my analogy of MY writing process. I am confident that many of the “experts” would take me to task since I am a bit of a “pantser” (flying by the seat of my pants). Anyway–here ya go: Let’s start with “plotting”. For me, I have the idea in my head. The more I…

When I wrote The Priest & The Peaches, I did not anticipate it being classified as historical fiction. The story takes place in the mid 1960s and I grew up in the ’50s and ’60s. I always thought of “historic” as being way before my time, not during my time. The first thing I had…

It seems that Damaris (from GoodChoiceReading.com) was, like me, born and raised in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium. Well, Damaris, I am sure you are a bit younger than I so I imagine if you could step back into my Bronx world (I moved to New Jersey in 1967 when I got married) you might…

I wanted to discuss writing for young readers. Okay, but remember I am not an expert and, to tell you the truth, I am not even sure what it means to be an “expert” in this area. The whole thing seems ambiguous to me. What I mean is this; many books classified YA are fine…

When I was knee-deep into the writing of The Priest and The Peaches I never considered that it might be considered historical fiction. I was of the mindset that I was simply writing a book at the YA level. In my mind “historical” dealt with things that had taken place way before I was but…

I thought about a character interview vs posting something from one of the character’s journals or diary. I immediately opted for the interview format but no one would cooperate. Dancer told me had homework to finish (yeah sure, good one Dancer). Beeker whined that he had promised Lefty and Righty he would help them clean…

Let me begin by throwing out this disclaimer: I do not consider myself an expert in the craft of writing. I say that because I am about to give you some words that relate to character development and the words will reflect how I do it. They do not make it the “right way.” The…