Let's say that you finally have an idea for your writing and let's say you have even started to jot down your ideas on a regular basis to give them some shape. Stop! That is all sunshine and rainbows, but your characters and story need a world to give them shape. Without an engaging, believable, and even beautiful world, even the most complete and compelling stories can fall flat. First, what is a world? It may sound like a foolish question, but it is one that has a lot of we

I published my first book at seventeen. At my very first booksigning, a gentleman looked at my book and its title and asked me "what do you know about revenge?". It was an innocent question, but being young, inexperienced, and frankly naieve, I did not have a very good answer for him. People still ask me questions like that, what do I know about the topics I'm writing? After all, I'm young, new to the industry, to writing itself. My books deal with fairly heavy human issues s

People often ask me "what advice do you have for aspiring writers?" or "what's the biggest thing that has helped you be succesful?". I tell people this...just write, and just keep writing. I think people expect an answer that will blow them away. Some may even want a one-hit wonder that will do everything like a magic cure-all pill. There is no magic pill. Writing is hard. Very hard! I have found that the only way to succeed at writing, let alone writing well, is just to writ