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Are You Ready For Your Writing Conference?

Writing Conference Benefits and Essentials As writers we are constantly learning and one way to achieve more knowledge is to attend conferences. Not only do we learn new skills, outlooks, industry updates and opinions, but through networking with presenters, speakers and other attendees we gain valuable information, whether we are a novice or an experienced …

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Book Review: Wolf At the Door

Once upon a time in a house deep in the woods of Northern BC, a strong, thoughtful woman invited all her family and friends to Thanksgiving dinner¬—her parents and in-laws, convict brother-in-law, divorcing neighbours, and her two children: ten-year-old Tommy and his teenage sister, Charlotte. There were twelve in all, as one couple didn’t appear; …

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Recipe For Delicious Writing

What do I need to reach the delicious writing goal? You need a host of fresh characters, imaginative plotting, soupçon of back-story, descriptive settings, minimal but creative description, tension leading up to conflict, theme, subtext, allusion, pacing, climax, resolution, logic, whimsy, surprise, and prose.

Does Your Mystery Novel Series Need an Overall Story Arc?

I write my novels using the Three Act Structure, with aspects of The Hero’s Journey. Since the middle act is twice as long as the others, I treat it as a four-act structure. As I finished Winter’s Rage, it struck me that the first three books in the series echoed the first three acts of each novel.