Between critique groups, writing contests and feedback for friends, I’ve read a lot of writers’ work lately. And the thing that jumped out at me, over and over, is the fact that the majority of those stories have characters whose names start with the letter A.

Andrea

Amanda

Ava

Adriana

Alexander

Andra

Autumn

Asha

Atef

Amara

I’ve met them all.

And I’ve used two of those names myself.

So what’s the deal? Why are names that start with the start of the the alphabet so ...

This was posted by Randy Ingermanson last week and I want to share it here. And this applies to everybody, not just writers.  

Your Creative Superpowers

If you’re a human being, then you’re creative.

If you’re a novelist, then you’re very creative.

There are actually a number of different ways to be
creative. Most novelists excel at some of them. Most
novelists are weak in others.

I like to think of the ...

I attended the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference a few weeks ago. It was informative and social and fun. I could give you a report on all things writerly that I learned, but there have been plenty of posts about that already. Instead, I thought I’d share some tidbits from one particular workshop: Mock Crime Scene. If you like crime shows, you might find some of these nuggets interesting.

Did you ...

Falling in Love with Joseph Smith: Finding God in the Unlikeliest of Places by Jane Barnes
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is a review of the “uncorrected manuscript for limited distribution.”

I was very interested in reading this book. Having grown up in Salt Lake City as a non-Mormon, I was curious about what would bring ...

The Girl Next Door: A Mystery by Brad Parks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a review of the Advanced Readers’ Edition.

Carter Ross is an investigative reporter for the Eagle-Examiner and decides to write a human interest piece on a fellow employee who was killed in a hit-and-run accident while delivering newspapers. Ross discovers all is not as it seems, this is ...

This has been a long, hot, smoky, burny summer. In Colorado we’ve had a record number of days in the 90s, way too many wildfires, an amazing (in a bad way) hail storm that took out our roof and 35,000 others in the area, and, much like the rest of the country, drought. Too much drought. Blech.

That’s enough to want to take the summer off from blogging. Right? Plus the fact ...

Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first Philip Kerr/Bernard Gunther novel and I was not disappointed. It’s an entertaining read with plenty of twists and turns. Also of note, while it takes place in Nazi Germany and certainly addresses the atrocities committed during this time, it’s not *all* about the gas chambers and horrors and darkness. Kerr ...

The Pikes Peak Writers Conference was last week and there are bunches-o-blogs out this week with conference wrap ups. Well, far be it from me to not get in on this action. But rather than essay it, I’m bulleting it. My highlights, in no particular order:

• Meeting and dining with Jeffery Deaver, international best-selling author of thrillers (including the most recent James Bond novel, Continue Reading →
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Margie Lawson

No doubt about it, writing is a tough gig.

It’s tough to make a living, to find an agent, an editor, a publisher.

It’s tough to sit down and do it – how many people do you know who “want to write a novel?” And how many do you know that have actually done it, published or not?

It’s tough for many to announce to friends and ...

This is a review of the Advance Reader Copy

For me, this was a tough read — but let me quickly clarify that and tell you that any book, especially a memoir, that talks about the suffering of children is a tough read for me. That being said, I did enjoy Heart Warriors.

The author, Amanda Rose Adams, shares a very real and personal experience with the reader. She is ...