UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO related
Where do you get your ideas?
I am often asked where I get the inspiration and ideas for my stories, especially considering that I’m fortunate enough to have so many ideas from which to choose. A few years ago I wrote a post explaining my process. Since I continue to be asked this question almost more than any other, I thought…
Read MoreBooktopia blurs the lines between author and reader.
Booktopia is a series of literary retreats organized by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, host of the podcast Books on the Nightstand. For the past three years, my wife and I have been coming to Vermont in April to attend these retreats, and last year, I attended Booktopia Santa Cruz as well. I was a…
Read MoreAmazon’s new policy on book reviews did not impact me thanks to the quality of my friends and family.
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 is no longer acceptable. Neither is writers’ reviewing other writers. But showering five stars on a book you admittedly have not read is fine. After…
Read MoreI never know what I’m actually writing about
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 my battles with post traumatic stress disorder, my hatred toward my evil step-father and my longing for my absent father. I didn’t know any of…
Read MoreNever doubt a librarian
Apologies to the Denver Public Library for the previous post today. A librarian kindly explained the purpose of the stamp placed upon my orphaned book: The stamp is a quick way to let people know not to return it to the library. Many times public libraries buy several copies of a book when it is…
Read MoreAn old friend returns
Last night I signed a copy of my second novel, UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO, which the reader purchased at a garage sale in California. The book had originally been purchased for the Denver public library but is now stamped with the words NO LONGER PROPERT F DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY. What I want to know is this:…
Read MoreI can play favorites with my children but not my books
Yesterday a reader in Australia who has now read all three of my novels asked which is my favorite. It’s a question that I’ve heard authors asked many times before, and I’ve heard many of them give an answer. I don’t know how they do it. Choosing between the three books that I have published…
Read MoreIn the company of greatness
My last name may have caused a kerfuffle in the UK, but it always places me in good company on the bookshelf, as one kind reader pointed out to me today:
Read MoreThe music of UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO
My guest post on The Undercover Soundtrack is up today. The Undercover Soundtrack is a blog that invites authors to share the music behind the novels that they write. In some cases, it’s the music that an author may listen to while writing, and in others it’s the way in which music plays a role…
Read MoreMEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND: Foreign news
Two exciting pieces of foreign news related to my upcoming MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND: 1. The UK audio rights to the book have been purchased by WF Howes, an audio and large print publisher based in Leicestershire, England. Since the story is told in the first person, this means that Budo (my protagonist) will…
Read More