Once upon a time, I was a lot younger and a lot smarter than I am now. Rules of writing in viewpoint? Ha! I didn’t need lessons from all those tedious how-to-write books. My natural talent would carry the day, my written words would sing, and my genius would shine through. Oh well. Live and learn. I did, the hard way. At least I hope I did. Years later, in 2009, I was thrilled to win a first-place Royal Palm Literary Award … Read More »

It was with some hesitation that I volunteered to take over for the St. Pete Writers Group in January 2015. Observing other leaders fearlessly advance their Florida Writers Association Writers Groups with clever ideas, a seemingly endless resource of quality speakers, and high meeting turnouts made me wonder if I was cut out to be a Writers Group Leader. As a critique group leader, it’s a different set of challenges, but a fairly simple process. In my mind, nothing compared to … Read More »

Backstory is such a juicy element of story, it’s too bad it’s got such a bad rap. Sure, it can fill a plot hole, juice up a reveal, give us an “aha!” moment. Think of Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, “She’s my daughter, she’s my sister, she’s my daughter and my sister.” A single line of dialogue that changes everything. A great backstory, including that one, presents us with the heart of the matter. We know that having a big opening can grab our … Read More »