Where Ideas Come From

October 6, 2015

One of the things any writer hears often, probably the most-asked question unless you are speaking to writing students, in which case it has to do with finding agents or publishers, is along the lines of “How do you get your ideas?” Some people have been to enough...

What Are You Doing, Writing a Book?

September 30, 2015

Sept 29 was the release of the mass market edition of THE PROPHET, which, I have to say, looks handsome in its new jacket. I like the imagery – the empty football field under the lights, a dark unknown town somewhere beyond. That suits the tone I had in mind opening...

A Note on Character and Voice

August 6, 2015

When I wrote books in first-person, I inevitably heard readers tell me that they thought I was Lincoln Perry. He and I were one and the same. Not the character, of course, but the voice. I’ve heard numerous writers, all of whom I greatly admire, dispute this notion...

Bounce Across The Beartooths, September 2010

July 1, 2015

 Bounce Across The Beartooths, September, 2010: The daily log of an intrepid expedition. Day One: Easton and I are met in Minneapolis by the third of our four-man party, Captain Bob Bley. He mentions that his real first name is William, but that he changed it after...

Return to the scene of the crimes…

July 3, 2014

Now this is what a book tour should be like! I’m sitting at a table outside of the Bearclaw Bakery in Cooke City, MT (year-round population 110 at last census, it is a CDP or “census-designated place”) and a friend I met last year, Cathy Pate, (whose son, Nick, played...

Farewell to a great friend

February 5, 2013

I lost a great friend this week named George Juergens. A retired professor emeritus of history at Indiana University, George was introduced to me years ago by my writing mentor, Bob Hammel. We had regular lunches for years, first in my days at the newspaper in...