Well, okay, maybe not a license to kill. How about a passport? What does that have to do with writing? The passport is for a research trip to India, a setting I’m using in a new novel I’m developing, and I’ve never been to India. Whenever I am forced to deal with the government, I [...]

In doing a Q&A for a writer’s group, I was asked what changes I experienced in publishing since I sold my first book in 1983.
Oh, let me count the ways…
I wrote the first three novels I sold (and a few I didn’t sell) on an electric typewriter. One of those novels was with a co-author. [...]

One of the things I had to learn to do as a career writer was to take vacations—not necessarily going to some exotic place, but to take time off from writing. A vacation for my mind.
For years–my whole writing career until lately–I was obsessed with getting to the next story or to rewrite something that [...]

As a writer, I often venture into unfamiliar territory to make a story ring true. It’s part of my job. There are times when the Internet is invaluable for research. There are times when interviewing a source can give me what I need. But the best times are when I get out of my comfort [...]