One of the very best parts of writing a novel is being in “the deep end.”  This is where the story has so consolidated itself as something real that’s happening “now,” that your every hour — waking and sleeping, both — lives the story back to front and front to back.  No matter where you [...]

During what I call the cut and slash, or, more correctly, cut and splice process is when I start ironing out the kinks in the story time-line and the story facts.  Time-lines have always been the hardest for me because, for example, in the present manuscript, things happen in close succession, then jump months to the next [...]

I’m busy working through the final cuts and slashes on a manuscript before I hunker down and begin the editing phase that brings it author final.  One of the interesting things about this process is the objectivity I get about the story flow.  I can see where this part needs to be put earlier, and [...]