Persistence — A Writing Essential

The road to success is paved with persistence, with an underlayment of information and earned luck—being in the right place at the right time with the right credentials. For me, after spending a lifetime reading books, I harbored a secret desire to write a commercial paperback, but the time was never right. Family, community, work,…

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Editing – A Writing Essential

My fifth book, EXECUTION, left my hands and my house at the end of February. It was much like the feeling when a high school graduate leaves for college. The experience was a mix of joy, relief, anxiety, apprehension, and sadness. For me, the creative process and solving problems are at the root of my…

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Letting Go

My draft of Execution, the 5th book in the CL Bluestein thriller Seduction Series, has left my hands, electronically, for those of my content editor. I’m expecting it back with comments and suggestions in two weeks, give or take. This is my fifth time doing this. I expected to be used to it. But no,…

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Endings and Interruptions

I’m down to the last ten thousand pages of Execution, book five in the C.L. Bluestein Seduction Series.  Now I get to plot my revenge, dream up all kinds of murderous outcomes, and choose which ones to use.  Like the other books in the Seduction Series, its major theme is the harm caused by profits…

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Brain games – The Creative Art of Writing

  Writing, for me, is a Brain Game. How to get from here to there, efficiently without leaving out the details, practically without over/under explaining, and safely so my reader is buckled in for the ride, while my characters fight for the world they want to live in and for. Recently, in a wide range…

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Does a Hero’s Gender Matter in Fiction?

Q: Does a hero’s gender matter in fiction? What do you try to do when you write female characters and/or a female hero? What are they like and why? How much physical description do you include and why? What do male authors miss when they write female characters and vice versa? A: Good question. As…

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Revision: a Key Step in the Writing Process

Revision is the process where writers prepare the manuscript for their readers. It’s where I make sure each piece of the puzzle is present and fits, and the gears of the entire story fit with precision and work smoothly. I am working on my fifth novel. I know my main characters, themes, and a loose…

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A Writer’s Dilemma

There is nothing new under the sun. I and every other writer knows this to be true. Sitting in front of a blank screen is not because there is a lack of input, it’s about what bits and pieces to pull out of the ether and mold into a story worth telling. For me, while…

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