I write my novels based on events from my own life. This means that when I was in the midst of the second book, Brigadoon Moon, and living less than a mile from the World Trade Towers, that when 9/11 happened, I stopped writing for six months.
It taught me a valuable lesson. I can’t write [...]

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I’d already heard of stage fright; in fact, been there, done that. I even know how to handle it, but page fright? Never. My friend Barbara Winter tweeted this mid-February:
joblessmuse Fun suggestions for getting unstuck. RT @MildlyCreative 7 Playful Ways to Overcome Your Page Frighthttp://bit.ly/a7HbuX #writing from Twitter 2/17/10.
Thus was I introduced to Ken Robert [...]

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So what’s an author to do when she’s written six novels in ten years? How does she keep track of the facts first of all? And the nuances second?
Here’s just one example. In each book, my protagonist has to sing a little song about the ludicrous nature of her given name which is Mexicali Rose [...]

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This is a speech I give to every writing client I ever have.
Creative mind is totally, completely, absolutely (could I be any clearer?) different from editorial mind. I should probably repeat that. Creative mind is totally, completely, absolutely different from editorial mind.
Do you have this in your own experience?
I’m no brain surgeon, by any stretch, [...]

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I don’t know any other writers who write the way I do.
I call it writing to plot.
First, I never, ever start a novel from a cold, white page. After I finish one, before I even read it over, I start the next one. That way I’m always in the middle of a novel. I usually [...]

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So, at long last, format. In this case, the Mex books needed an external editor. I finally hired a swell one, Toni Amato. He edits all my books before they go out. For how to find him, read on.
One of the truths of being a writer is that our minds fill in the blanks. We [...]

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Everyone who read “Mex” loved her, and even so, I knew the book wasn’t in the right format. Still, I kept rereading and rewriting Oklahoma! Hex while I moved back to New York City and established my spiritual therapy practice as well as doing various day jobs.
By then I knew that each book included several [...]

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I probably would never have begun if I had known that my mother was going to die. If I’d known that, I’d have finished the book I went on retreat to write, gone home to be with her, and never have attempted fiction. Well, I didn’t know it, and isn’t that the way of the world?

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