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El Niño and BLIZZARD (the novel)
As you’re undoubtedly aware, a powerful El Niño is expected to exert heavy-handed authority over our weather this winter. And before I go any further, please, please, please remember El Niño is NOT a weather phenomenon. It’s the name given to a particular Pacific Ocean temperature regime. El Niño exerts an influence on weather patterns,…
Read MoreCASCADIA–SLEEPING GIANT
Cascadia. If you live on the West Coast, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, the name will register with you. If you live elsewhere, it probably won’t, unless you happened to have read the article in the July 20th issue of The New Yorker titled “The Really Big One.” Turns out L. A. is off the…
Read MoreEL NINO AND EYEWALL
The Atlantic hurricane season is off to a stumbling start this year and doesn’t seem destined to become much better . . . or worse, depending on your viewpoint. So far, only three relatively flabby (but soggy) tropical storms have popped up, Ana, Bill, and Claudette. The Pacific basins, in contrast, have been spitting out…
Read MoreWHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DIDN’T LIKE “GONE GIRL”?
It wasn’t that I didn’t like GONE GIRL. It was that GONE GIRL just never got going for me. I plowed through about 40 or 50 pages of the novel and raised the white flag. Not because the writing wasn’t good, quite the opposite. It was exquisite. Gillian Flynn can write circles around me and…
Read MoreA LOLLYGAGGER OF A HURRICANE SEASON?
The 2015 hurricane season forecasts are out (see Weather Channel graphic below) and the consensus is that activity in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico) is going to be an underachiever. So, what’s that mean for you if you live along or plan on visiting the Atlantic or Gulf Coast this…
Read MoreSOUTHERN APPALACHIAN WOLVES
There are no wolves in the southern Appalachians. There probably haven’t been in over a century. They do, however, make a guest appearance in my most recent novel, Blizzard. In the book, I think I adequately explain their presence. What’s more interesting, perhaps, is how the animals made their way into the story in the…
Read MorePERPETUALLY AROUSED ZOMBIES?
I got an email recently from the VP of my publishing company, Belle Bridge Books, detailing the marketing challenges faced by smaller presses, like Belle Bridge, and relatively unknown authors, like myself. The VP, Deborah Smith (a New York Times best-selling author, BTW), harbors a great deal of wisdom and a laugh-out-loud sense of humor. Her comments…
Read MoreME AND STEVE BERRY
Steve Berry is an international, mega-best selling thriller novelist. According to his website, he’s sold 19 million books in 51 countries. Me? Another 18.9 million copies and I’ll be right there with him. I’ve met Steve several times, but let me make it clear, we aren’t necessarily BFF. If we were to meet again, he…
Read MoreGRABBING 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…
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