I have no definitive favorite first line of a novel, though I am partial to the first line of Slaughterhouse-Five: "All this happened, more or less." Also, Fahrenheit 451: "It…
One of my wife's friends told me yesterday that she reads this blog daily and feels like she has an oddly intimate relationship with me as a result. Then she…
I’m not sure if other authors feel this way, but most days, I don’t feel like a real author. It's ridiculous but true. I’ve published three novels – two with…
My son asked me to read my novel, Unexpectedly, Milo, to him. "Too long," I told him. "No pictures. Let’s find something else." It also has an awkward and explicit…
My wife was checking out books at the library when a woman stepped up beside her and handed Unexpectedly, Milo to the adjacent librarian. “That’s my husband’s book,” Elysha said.…
A few years ago, I posted a list of all the jobs I have held in my life in chronological order. It was an interesting exercise that I highly recommend.…
I’m often asked where I get my ideas for books, which is an understandable but impossible question to answer. There is no well of ideas. There is no secret formula.…
Once you publish a book, you never know where it will go. A friend found a copy of my second novel, Unexpectedly, Milo, in a second-hand store last week. I…
You may have heard that Amazon has a new policy when it comes to online book reviews. From a piece in The New York Times: Giving raves to family members…
Long after I finished writing my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, I discovered, only after my wife and therapist pointed it out to me, that I had written a book about…