The Crotchety Old Man

Category: Writing

  • New Home for an Old Story

    DsP Publications releases No Good Deed tomorrow. It’s been available for preorder since January from the publisher, and since early March from Amazon and other outlets. The first edition was published as After Christmas Eve by MLR Press in 2013. My four novels include enough romance — barely — to have been picked up by romance…

  • Whippersnapper Blog Tour and Giveaway

    To celebrate the release of Whippersnapper this coming Friday, I’m doing a giant, three-week blog tour. As part of the tour, I’ll be giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon. For a chance to win, visit any of the sites participating in the tour. The tour will take place from today through February 19.…

  • TTFN, Luke Tanner

    I’ve been not working on my current work in progress for several months. “I haven’t been” sounds like maybe someone or something else is to blame. “I’ve been not working” puts the responsibility where it belongs. Months ago, I wrote the first three chapters of the first book in the Luke Tanner, Private Eye series.…

  • Sentimental Favorite

    Before 2011, penning a novel was something I never thought I could do. Dreamspinner Press will release Whippersnapper, my fourth novel, on January 29th.  I’m proud of all my stories, but I have to admit, Whippersnapper is a sentimental favorite. Each of my four novels has challenged my writing ability and pushed me out of my comfort zone. In…

  • Writing Pet Peeves: Point of View Issues

    Point of View is the perspective from which a story is told. A writer may choose to tell a story in first person (I was born) or in third person (he/she was born). I suppose second person (you were born) is possible, but is more appropriate for personal letters than works of fiction. Whatever the…

  • Method Writing

    Writing a novel is a process. The path from conceptualization to completion can vary. No two of the many authors who I’ve talked with about their process approach the task the same way. My process has been different for every novel. Or so I thought. Upon closer inspection, a single thread runs through the beginning of…

  • First Round Edits

    Labor Day weekend, I took off an extra day from the day job. Four days is a nice block of time to get some writing done. I planned to make progress on my new mystery series. The first book in the series — my fifth novel — is a bit more complicated than previous projects, so…

  • About Whippersnapper

    Figuring out who I am as a writer has been an ongoing process. Rather than selling out, trying to write a different kind of story has freed me from self-imposed constraints. The result is a story far more “me” than any of my previous novels have been. Opinions about which is the best story vary,…

  • Finding Myself in My WIP

    A bit of me goes into everything I write, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. Reading my novels gives you some idea of who I am and how I see the world. Mental health professionals who read all three probably see enough to offer a diagnosis. Since penning my first novel, I’ve struggled to figure out who I am as a writer.…