Blog

Character Sabbaticals

Why are novelists treated differently than the authors of scientific, technical, historical, essay, editorial, and persuasive genre? We, as novelists focus on the emotions of people reacting to their changing worlds. Those responses spark sentiments in our readers, scratching an…

Empty Your Mind

For a new writer, it can be difficult to find space to write your book. I don’t mean physical space. We can usually find a combination of location and time that, for one or two hours is quiet and you…

Creating Your Characters

As a novelist, think of the demand that we make on our readers. Aren’t the consumers of our work themselves consumed? Their lives injected with professional concerns, financial issues, family affairs, and personal matters, they find leisure time squeezed as…

Three Swords – Out February, 2024

Has society made Americans crazy or have crazy Americans built this crazy society? I am entertaining writing a  new novel beyond the three volume Catching Cold Series. In this new book, initially titled Three Swords,  The Jon DeLeon Series, some,…

Writing Catching Cold Vol3 – Judgment

Don’t fight the system. Beat it for the good of us all. The finale of this trilogy Catching Cold Vol3 – Judgment, focuses on three intrepid souls who, following their own tortured  paths, work to do just that.   Dr.…

Clouds and skies

Catching Cold: Volume 2 – Redemption

Redemption is the 2nd in my three volume set Catching Cold series. Here’s the PR blurb. Redemption is the continuing story of these characters using a backdrop of science and corporate intrigue.  As Dr. DeLeon continues to develop new and…

Catching Cold:Vol 1- Breakthrough

In Vol 1 of Catching Cold-Breakthrough,  I wanted to give the lay reader the chance to understand viruses and the immune system, while also showing them that scientists are not automatons but people with a full panoply of problems. I…

Saving Grace

Writing without first flushing out my characters. Developing characters with whom I had no common experience. Dividing my time between writing and trying to find an agent. Faxing an entire four hundred page manuscript after midnight with the inevitable transmission…

Performance Significance

Investment: As a developing novel writer, it is essential to carry out a critical assessment of your writing skills. However, this can be painful in the face of bad reviews. To conduct this evaluation,  you need not just coping skills,…

Emotional Kick of the First Paragraph

After working on my first novel, Saving Grace, for two years, I faxed its final draft in 2006 to my agent. She shopped it around, then recontacted me with nothing but negative findings. In response to my question “What was…