I’m going to do something a little off here. I’m going to talk about somebody else’s book, but I’m going to talk about it in terms of how it affected me to work on it. It’s a little crass, I admit, but I’m not doing it to shine a spotlight on myself, to say ‘look...

Have you ever heard the dreaded phrase ‘I didn’t connect with your main character?’ No? Just me? In this short series of posts I’m going to rip into that phrase and look at some reasons *why* people don’t connect to your main character (MC). In my first post on the subject I talked about stakes,...

I want to talk about representation. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking Mike, you’re a white, cis/het, male. Writing about representation is probably a really bad idea. I hear you. Bear with me just a minute. The idea for this post came from a series of tweets by Justina Ireland where she talked about...

Have you ever heard the dreaded phrase ‘I didn’t connect with your main character?’ No? Just me? In this short series of posts I’m going to rip into that phrase and look at some reasons *why* people don’t connect to your main character. One of the biggest reasons is that you might lack goals, obstacles,...

This will likely be my last Pitch Wars post. Unless I write another one. Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back. But I wanted to share the things I learned this year that I didn’t know before. I want to say up front that I’m going to talk about it being hard, but I’m not at...

Warning. If you’re a mentor actually involved in a battle, turn away now. I know this is a stressful time for you. So of course the rest of us are going to have fun with it. And that’s the truth of it. Behind the scenes right now the mentors who are engaged in battle are...

It’s that time. Mentors are preparing to battle for their favorite submissions. A lot of people wonder what that’s like. And who can you count on to give you the behind the scenes truth? Obviously you’d imagine this would be handled with the utmost decorum. Sure. Brenda keeps things calm  throws a live badger into a...

I’ve shared some stunning truths thus far, but today…today we look into the deepest of the Pitch Wars behind the scenes secrets. I’ve talked about cliques. I’ve talked about bands of romance writing assassins. But today I want to talk to you about something else. Because seriously, how long can a guy beat the same...

Somebody suggested that my posts lately have been a little serious. Which immediately led me to the realization that I need to fix that. So I hereby certify  that this post is 100% useful information free. So if you’re here expecting to get some sort of life or writing lesson…perhaps you should move along. The...

Is this any good? Everybody says they want feedback, but really, deep down in that place we don’t talk about, that’s what we really want to know, right? Is this any good? Can I write, or am I wasting my time? And then there’s that question’s insidious cousin. Am *I* any good? Let me say...