After a long and laborious process (well over a year late), my next book, Sins of the Father, is finally available starting tomorrow, 11/27/2025! Why did it take so long to get this creative masterpiece out the door? Life. Plus a laborious editing process where the perfectionist in me went back a thousand times over and over tweaking, nudging, and caressing the words to make them as engaging and actual as possible.
Tag Archives: process
History…Repeats
Today’s sharing with all of you explores how history influences my writing and how it provides inspiration and relatable themes for what I share with my readers. I integrate actual events into fictional narratives, and much like history often repeats itself and shapes our understanding of the present, it also shapes me as a writer. History also shapes you, so I encourage my lovely readers to reflect on your own stories and reshape the future of your narratives.
Prophesy of the Mind
What comes next as a writer produces sweat on the forehead. People ask the question and want to know. What to say can be a complex answer, as the road ahead is never quite straight. For me, it is something that has so many forks down the way that I have to pause. What is next for me? The answer, or the potential path, could change based on so many factors. The future will tell.
The “Scene” of Death
As writers, we live and die by our words.
Particularly, the avenues we choose to formulate and describe a scene in a chapter become critical ways for us to convey emotions, fear, and acceptance for our readers to relish in our books. There are formulaic frameworks, tried and true structures, even the dreaded copycat of previous works. Pick your poison. Each comes with its own set of dire consequences.
I like to wing it.
Fuel for the Imagination
What fuels your brain? That is a question writers get asked.
A lot.
For some, it is a hard one to answer concisely, as we writers get our inspiration from a variety of sources. For others, it is a quick reply steeped in direct language that paints a great picture.
When Real-Life Feeds Fiction
Every writer finds inspiration in some some sort of real event or memory. It is the nature of the beast.
That is not to say that we use our lives in totality and turn every single aspect into a plot point or scene in one of our books.
No, not at all.
But, we need reference points, or at least, most of do. We do not all write about our lives and entangle it in our works. Though, I would be hard-pressed to say that I do not include tidbits of my world in my novels.
The Depths of Research
First person research.
It is one thing to pick up a book (surprise!) and read descriptions and information that you then decide to use as background or pieces of the puzzle to your writings.
It is another thing to dive headfirst into the weeds so to speak and get your hands dirty.
Well, for the last few weeks, I have been silent. Not a word written since my last blog post. That includes work on my #wips. I have been neck deep in research, activities, tasks, and utilizing my hands, all in the name of my craft to ensure that what I write about it grounded in knowledge and my own expertise tackling subjects I will use in my plots and stories.
It is something I have always done.
Surviving an Author Event
Surviving an Author Event. I did it! I managed to survive, although a bit mentally scathed, my very first author event. Talk about an invigorating, heart-pounding, palm sweating, life changing experience that I will forever cherish and remember. If you have never had one for your book, you need to do it!
Ending 2021
Greetings loyal readers! As I finish out the year, I wanted to take the time to sit and write as it has been some time since my last post. A lot has transpired, good and bad, that kept me from sitting down and putting words to screen. Like many of us, life occasionally throws wrenchesContinue reading “Ending 2021”
Enough “Said”
I do not like the word “said” at all.
There, I said it.
To me, it is the go to word utilized in writing when you just can’t find the right descriptive to use. That’s not to say I do not use it. I have and will in the future. It simply lacks any feeling or emotion. All it performs in my mind is to denote that a person spoke some dialog.
Jason McDonald 