GRABBING THE READER
I preach it all the time in my critique group, so I don’t know why I have such a struggle doing it myself: grabbing the reader in the opening few paragraphs of my book; embedding him or her immediately in the drama. Eventually, I always get things sorted out, but I usually have to get “slapped…
Read MoreSO WHAT’S IN A TITLE? SALES, FOR ONE THING
Lately, I’ve been asked a lot if the ongoing Ebola crisis–tentacles of which have slithered into our homeland–have done much for the sales of Plague. In short, no. I suspect the reason for that is that people don’t know the novel is about Ebola. It’s certainly not obvious from its title. If you don’t know, Plague is about bioterrorism, specifically…
Read MoreWHY I DIDN’T COMPLETE MY SUMMER READING LIST
At the beginning of summer I posted a blog detailing my reading goals for the season. Now that the hours of daylight are dwindling and the leaves are starting to don their autumnal hues, I guess it’s time to see how I did. Not that great, it turns out. I had nine books,…
Read MoreSLICING AND DICING MY “BABIES”
Rewriting. It’s not my favorite part of the writing process, but it is integral to it. Movies often depict authors as being finished with their work when they type THE END. Time to celebrate, right? Nope. In the real world of writing, that’s probably only half way home. Any experienced scribe will tell you writing is rewriting. …
Read MoreSO WHAT ABOUT THIS EBOLA BUSINESS?
The deadly Ebola virus has been making headlines recently, especially in Atlanta, Georgia, where two Ebola victims from western Africa will be placed in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital. Emory, by the way, is adjacent to the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC. Some people are quite concerned that we now…
Read MoreYEA THOUGH I WALK
Darrell Huckaby is a retired educator, renown columnist, accomplished author, Southern humorist, lay speaker in the Methodist church, and one heck of a good storyteller. He also has Stage 4 metastatic prostate disease, cancer, for which there is no cure. YEA THOUGH I WALK is Darrell’s story of his battle with that disease. It’s a…
Read MoreMY SUMMER TO-READ LIST
Ever wonder what a thriller writer reads? I obviously can’t answer for every such author, but here’s my to-read list for the next few months. I don’t know if publishers deliberately target this time of year for big releases, but it certainly appears that way, at least this year. To me, it seems like the…
Read MoreA WRITER/METEOROLOGIST’S REVIEW OF SUPERCELL
As many of you know, I’m a meteorologist in novelist’s clothing. (Or is it the other way around?) Well, whatever. I majored in atmospheric science in college and took a couple of courses in creative writing. I think I did fairly well in them (it was a long time ago), even though I recall being…
Read MoreTHOUGHTS ON CRITIQUE GROUPS
In a recent blog, I discussed the importance to a novice writer, one with aspirations of becoming professionally published, of not trying to learn the craft in isolation. I strongly recommended interacting with other writers. One of the most common ways of doing this is to become part of a critique group. There are some…
Read MoreTHE BIGGEST MISTAKE BEGINNING WRITERS MAKE
There is an abundance of guidance available–books, blogs, hand-outs–that illuminate the steps or “rules” to becoming a successful writer. Be warned, however, as NYT Best-Selling Author Steve Berry says, “The first rule is, there are no rules.” Similarly, there’s a plethora of material out there for novice writers, whether wannabe novelists or nonfiction authors, that…
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