September 6, 2017
I’m always trying something different, sometimes because of outside changes (lose a publisher or hear about a new publishing opportunity), and sometimes for variety (write sexy romances, sweet romances, romantic suspense, straight suspense and thriller). Back in the mid ‘90s, my Silhouette editor told me about a new line that was being created. The idea […]
April 30, 2015
Zenith is the made up name for the town in my P.J. Benson mysteries. Why Zenith? The answer to that is easy. When I started the first book in that series, I was living just outside of Climax, Michigan. In The Crows I wrote about what I knew. But I needed to alter the landscape […]
April 29, 2015
Okay, I’m getting old. That or they’re starting to hire news reporters, financial advisors, and doctors straight out of grammar school. I don’t think of myself as old, but whenever I look in the mirror, there’s this old lady who reminds me of my mother who keeps looking back at me. I wasn’t exactly young […]
April 28, 2015
What can I come up with for X? X-ray, Xanadu, X chromosome, xebec (that’s a 3-masted sailing ship), xylem, Xena… My dictionary devotes barely a page and a third to X words. I have some Xanax in my medicine closet. I use it occasionally to help me sleep when ideas start bouncing around in my head. When […]
April 27, 2015
I’m not a person who enjoys participating in sports. I loved riding horses, but I no longer do that. To simply exercise doesn’t excite me, though I do like yoga. Swimming is okay, but I mostly tread water nowadays. And even though I like the idea of water aerobics, the classes are held earlier than […]
April 25, 2015
I, and most writers, suffer a form of manic/depressive. When we have a new idea buzzing in our heads, we’re euphroic, positive thinkers, and have high energy. Be a finalist in a contest, or better yet, a winner, and we’re on cloud 9. Have an agent tell us we’re wonderful and that she wants us as […]
April 24, 2015
One of the things I’ve learned to enjoy about writing is the unexpected—the sudden appearance of information I need, the unexpected meeting of just the right person I need to talk to. I’ve now reached a point where I almost expect it, yet it’s still thrilling and sometimes unnerving. Some call it serendipity, others label […]
April 23, 2015
I have a Twitter account. @marisSouthHaven. I Tweet. I retweet. I favor tweets. I have no idea what I’m doing. Several years ago I watched Jane Friedman demonstrate how to manage a tweet account. She made it look so easy. I went home and downloaded a program that was supposed to do that. I never […]
April 22, 2015
My protagonist in A Killer Past is a seventy-four-year-old woman. Mary Harrington is a widow and a grandmother, but she’s not someone who sits on the sidelines, knitting and letting others take action. She’s typical of a vast number of women (and men) in their seventies, myself included, I hope. She’s active, both mentally and […]
April 21, 2015
I may now own a miniature poodle, but my heart still belongs to the Rhodesian Ridgeback. I fell in love with the breed back in 1969 when I first saw them at a dog show in Santa Barbara, California. By 1970 my husband and I owned one, along with a rescue dog of mixed heritage, […]
April 20, 2015
Writing a query letter (or email query) is not an easy task for most people. On one page–usually no more than four or five paragraphs in length–the writer must entice and inform. A story must be condensed from thousands of words down to a mere 100-200 words. The query letter must not only give a […]
April 18, 2015
There are a lot of fantastic writers who will never be published. A lot of wonderful stories that will never be available to read. Why? Because the writer gives up, doesn’t persist. One negative comment, a few rejections, a bad review, and the writer is finished. Even the writers who get one book published may […]
April 17, 2015
I think one of the most difficult concepts for writers to accept is that a rejection, bad review, or even a negative critique is simply that one person’s opinion. I can tell myself that, but still my first reaction is “The story sucks,” or “I suck as a writer.” Of course, if a lot of […]
April 16, 2015
I’ve heard some writers suggest to new, unpublished writers that the newbee should write short stories. Their point is by writing short stories the new writer learns how to put together a story idea from beginning to end, hopefully won’t be discouraged by the length or by any rejections, and might have their work noticed […]
April 15, 2015
I think I’ve always loved mysteries. Mysteries, adventure stories, and horses. Of course, most books have a mystery of some sort: Will the girl get the guy? Will the hero save the girl/find the treasure/catch the bad guys? Will the “gang” escape the monster/save the princess/topple the evil monarch? Will Dorothy make it back to […]
April 14, 2015
When I started writing I had no idea I would be writing romances, aka Love Stories. I had never read what was known back then as romances, books published by Mills and Boon, Avalon, Harlequin. I did like happy endings to stories, and I did enjoy the romance that was included in the story. But […]
April 13, 2015
Keep it Simple S***. (Here you can put Stupid or Sister or Son or whatever word that would start with S and fit.) I remember hearing K.I.S.S. way back when I started writing. It fits with query letters. A query that sticks to the basics (is kept simple) works best. No need to brag about […]
April 11, 2015
I started entering and judging contests back in the 1980s. At that time the RITA was called the Golden Medallion, and the score sheets actually had points for various aspects of the book as well as space for comments. I remember my 1988 finalist, A Winning Combination, was marked down for a lack of conflict […]
April 10, 2015
I wish I’d written the Harry Potter books. I’d love to have the money J.K. Rowlings makes as well as the fame she’s achieved. I wish I could produce books as fast as James Patterson does. I wish patrons lined up around the block to buy my books, that my books were on the shelves of all […]
April 9, 2015
If not for my husband, I wouldn’t have a career in writing. Years ago, when I said, “I think I’d like to try writing a book,” he didn’t laugh, or tell me how few people ever succeed in getting a book published, or tell me I had more than enough to do with two preschoolers, […]