Newsletter 005, December 24, 2021 Hi — (About the image above) I took this picture while Minay and I were walking through my mom’s neighborhood on Martha’s Vineyard in late-December 2000. She and her husband, Bill Sen, had moved there a few years before. We normally visited her there in the summer, so this let …
Newsletter 004 – December 10, 2021 Hi — (About the image above) This was taken inside the Grove Arcade in Asheville, North Carolina. It was the first indoor shopping mall built in the city, in 1929. It has been thoroughly remodeled and modernized. Minay and I were in the city to visit my friend, Jerry …
Newsletter 003, November 26, 2021 Hi — (About the image** above) By the beginning of November 2003 I had already written a scene involving a character named Billie Crowder. The scene was set in a courtroom, but not in any particular time or place. In the middle of the month I traveled to Arizona to …
You’re facing the blank page, and nothing’s happening (either in your mind or with your fingers). No words are appearing on the screen (I almost said “on the page,” but my tech-geek gene stopped me). Writer’s block has arrived. Or has it? True writer’s block, I think, is more feared than experienced. Let’s pause for …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] I have (over the past two years) written a few posts about the idea of using the phrase “What if” as an idea generator for developing a plot. “What if” novels are often about large historical events, like Kennedy’s assassination, the D-Day invasion, or the …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] As part of an online meet and greet with other authors, we were all asked to introduce ourselves by answering a series of questions. These were mine. Where do I write? I have created a corner space in our study, no windows near the corner …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] Disclaimer, regarding the post below: No, I wasn’t texting and posting while driving. I wrote this in the present tense after the fact. It’s about 3:30 pm, and I’m on I-45, the freeway in Houston that runs north and south through downtown. South of downtown …
[Originally posted on my former blog, Michael Runs the Gamut] The most common question writers get asked is “where do you get all your ideas?” Every writer has a different answer, but many times what happens is the author read or heard or saw something that sparked an idea, and that usually followed by them …