Education

Writing’s so easy, right? There’s a quote by Hemingway: There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. And who wants to go through the pain and [...]

On a summer’s day in 1799, a group of men were driving cattle from Kentucky to Virginia, along a road known as Boone’s Trace, when the cows suddenly quit the road and rushed into the woods. Once [...]

I have spent the last week or so trying to understand how email marketing campaigns – also known as newsletters – work. Sales and marketing experts say that the humble newsletter is [...]

I’m reading a great book right now called Publishing 101, by Jane Friedman. She is a columnist with Publishers Weekly and writes a very useful blog at JaneFriedman.com. She’s been in [...]

I had always thought of ‘murder in the first degree’ as something dating back to mediaeval times in England. It certainly has that ring to it. But it turns out, it’s not an [...]

I’m going to be speaking to Sisters in Crime in April about book marketing, and my journey through the dizzying world of how to place and sell your book. So let’s start with the basic question: [...]

One of the most absorbing parts of writing historical fiction is the deep dive you make into the small stuff. What did people eat? What kinds of houses did they live in? What did they wear? The [...]

I’m writing historical novels, so I use old maps a lot in my research. Over the last few years, more and more map owners have put their maps on the web, so it’s become increasingly [...]

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the official hardback cover of The Devil’s Half Mile. It arrived the mail the other day – or at last a half dozen covers arrived, in a long flat [...]

Publishers Weekly was kind enough to interview me recently. An excerpt from the interview appeared in the physical magazine, and another excerpt was posted online this week. PWs Lenny Picker [...]