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I have to open with a story. There I am, working on the 14th novel in my Miranda Chase air-crash-investigation thriller series. I wanted the U.S.-based characters to be near the opening action in Sweden, but not in the fray yet. Training? Vacation? Hmm… do they ever go to conferences? Google led me to the International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI). They meet globally once a year …

Welcome to 2024, a year that whispers promises of new beginnings and unexplored horizons for authors. For a moment, I want you to imagine this year as a blank canvas, awaiting your vibrant stories and bold dreams. This isn’t just another spin around the sun—it’s a call to adventure, a summons to leave behind your lack mentality and step into a realm of abundance and boundless potential. The nar…

Tis the season . . . for planning! There’s very little that I love more than a shiny new year, all empty and ready to fill with wonderful plans. December is the perfect month to take some thoughtful time to identify our goals for the next 12 months and then ponder how to best reach them. That’s never truer than when it comes to selling our books—plotting our marketing for the next year is essen…

It’s been a little less than a month since the NINC conference kicked off, and I have to admit that I’m still processing everything I learned. While I was not able to be at every workshop, I attended quite a few—and more than that, I talked to many people, and I listened to so many smart folks at both the UnCon and the PostCon. Not surprising to me—or to anyone, probably—the two buzzword phrase…

In January 2020, the novel American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins hit bookstores after months of positive reviews and being selected to Oprah’s Book Club. Then Latinx critics called out the book detailing a Mexican bookseller crossing the U.S. border to escape a drug cartel as perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Cummins is not Mexican, although claims Puerto Rican heritage, and critics repeated what th…

It only takes a cursory perusal of today’s news coverage to happen upon a fight about book banning. It seems to be increasing in frequency, which is concerning to those of us who write books and believe in the freedom of expression. Like most aspects of human progression over time, book banning goes in cycles. And we repeatedly have to push back against it. The beginning of book banning Chinese…