The Catholicity of Monsters

The Catholicity of Monsters

This post originally appeared at Dappled Things. Exactly two years ago, I was honored to inaugurate the Deep Down Things blog with a post about why I love Halloween.  I suppose it is only fitting, then, that my debut novel, Jennifer the Damned (which is about...

The Beach As Muse

Writers always tend to believe their best writing happens in paradise.  Whether it’s a mountain chalet, a cabin in the desert, or a condo overlooking a stretch of glowing white sand, we all love to dream about the “Writer’s Retreat.”  Peace.  Quiet.  Writing.  Aah!...

A Farewell to Shouts and Whispers

This post originally appeared at Dappled Things [During the Christmas Truce of 1914, a] British Daily Telegraph correspondent wrote that on one part of the line the Germans had managed to slip a chocolate cake into British trenches.  Even more amazingly, it was...

The Birth of An Idea

Where do ideas come from?  I don’t think anyone really knows.  We have all experienced the moment of, “Aha!” that seems to strike like a bolt of lightning, as if from some external source.  But no matter where ideas come from, a writer cannot afford to be without...

Introducing The Warble

Welcome to The Warble, my new blog where I sing about writing (and maybe some other things, too.) Technically, I suppose I will be writing about writing, but singing and writing are so inextricably tangled up in my brain, I can’t tell them apart anymore. Long years of...