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Coming Soon: After Christmas Eve
The folks at Dreamspinner Press, publisher of Until Thanksgiving, have been wonderful. When I finished After Christmas Eve (the prequel), I sent it to them, ignoring the part in their …
Birth of a Catch Phrase
For the first fifty years of my life, becoming a published author wasn’t something I dreamed about. In truth, I never even considered the possibility. To younger me, authors were …
The Party’s Over
The party I call my recovery from hernia repair is drawing to a close. The surgery was a week ago today, and aside from an occasional twinge, I’m feeling no …
My Miraculous Recovery
Yesterday I had surgery — inguinal hernia repair. The operation went well. I feel great today and am getting around fine with little to no pain. In fact, I feel …
Taking My Time
People often say they’re impressed by my productivity. I may look more productive, but as a single man, I don’t have to deal with a lot of the stuff that …
Dealing with Rejection
When it comes to writing, practice makes perfect. The more I write, the better my writing gets. The improvement comes in terms of both the mechanical aspects–grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary–and in …
My Next Project
As a university employee, I’ve been off the week between Christmas and New Year’s since the mid-1980s. Depending on where the holidays fall, I usually add a few days to …
The Devil is in the Details
Over the weekend, I finally finished writing After Christmas Eve. Finding time to write had been the biggest obstacle–never mind that I had loose ends all over the place and no …
Channeling My Inner Romance Novelist
Yesterday I wrote the first draft of what may be the last chapter of After Christmas Eve. The ending has always been a little hazy in my mind. Because the …
How to Write a Novel
If you ask me, there are two basic ways to write a novel. You can either make it up as you go along–a style known as pantsing, as in flying …
