Features



Us Authors’ Runaway Dream
The world we used to write in and about is gone.

How a Hollywood Screenwriter Transitioned to Writing His First Novel
I had spent my entire career training myself not to do precisely what I was trying to do now.

What Writing My Second Novel Taught Me
How different could writing under contract be?


Rejected?
Here’s How To ‘Friction-Maxx’ Your Thriller Into A Better Book

How to Smash Writer’s Block
Bestselling Authors Share Difficult Moments at the Keyboard and How They Broke Through

I Was About To Give Up On Getting Published
Then Seven Words Changed My Mind

What to Do When You’re Totally Stalled
Like many authors, I dreamed of writing a novel from the time I was really young.

Five Things I Wish I Knew When I Was an Aspiring Author
When I started writing, I didn’t know any of the rules.


The Royal Scam
On the epidemics in our in-boxes, and why we fall for them.

A Scammer Spent Six Weeks Pretending to Be Me
Here’s How Close It Came to Working

The Revolving Bookcase
In writer life, the drawing room is your public face, conferences and festivals and socials, oh my.

The Ghost in the Machine Has No Instincts
By Eric Van Lustbader I’ve spent half a century writing about field agents—men and women who operate in that shadow realm where a misread glance

Social Media and Me
Social media has been one of the most consistent driving forces behind my success.


The Road Not Taken
Decisions in Publishing that We Agonize Over Right Before Falling Asleep

Crossing Genres: Three Authors on Risk, Reinvention, and Creative Freedom
What happens when writers leave their literary comfort zones?




How a Hollywood Screenwriter Transitioned to Writing His First Novel
I had spent my entire career training myself not to do precisely what I was trying to do now.




How to Smash Writer’s Block
Bestselling Authors Share Difficult Moments at the Keyboard and How They Broke Through


What to Do When You’re Totally Stalled
Like many authors, I dreamed of writing a novel from the time I was really young.