The Thanksgiving story that pops into the heads of most Americans involves a myth regarding early Massachusetts settlers called Pilgrims and Native Americans called Wampanoags. It’s a problematic story that has caused the American Thanksgiving holiday to come under fire for decades. Which is a shame, because Thanksgiving is not a bad idea for a holiday. Other nations have done well with it. Here in the USA, we foolishly linked it to a poorly understood 404-year-old historical event. My wife, New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan, published a book about this issue some years ago. Some of the stuff I learned during the writing of that book forms the basis for my SleuthSayers post today. The post is entitled…

It’s Halloween, which reminds us all that death is a thing! Sometimes those who die are writers, which raises an interesting dilemma. In the US and other countries, the copyright on the work of a creative person survives 70 years past their death. That’s both good and bad. Good because…

As far back as 2010 bookstores, book clubs, and other orgs started asking my wife and I to talk to various groups about the publishing business. We started most of those events by reading off a list of book industry statistics, just to give wannabe authors a sense of what they were up against.

• A third of the U.S. population leaves high school and never reads a book again in their lives.

• Forty percent of college grads never crack a book after getting their sheepskin.

• More than 70 percent of Americans have not entered a bookstore in the last year.

So why on earth would you…

Even before I wrote for a living, I read and absorbed the advice that dropped from the lips of writers. I’ve amassed a collection of these gems on my hard drive over the years. This week, in honor of the back-to-school mentality that permeates my soul at this time of year, I thought I’d dig in the files and see if any of the quotes I’ve saved actually makes sense, decades after I collected them.

You know what I discovered? The oldest quotes are the most useless. The one I harvested earlier this year is gold. And I would have expected better from the talented writers and creatives who uttered these words.

The words of wisdom come from people such as…

I’ve written another article about dogs, this time about how dogs are used in various ways the world over to help humans. They are, as I point out, probably the second most employed species on the planet. This article builds on the premise I laid a few weeks ago at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog, when I shared some fun facts about dog noses. If you love dogs, you will want to check this story out.

The post is called…

I’m over at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog, today, talking how dogs and humans came to be pals, and other amazing facts about canine noses. I don’t think you’ll want to miss it if you are a dog lover.

The post is called…

Next year is the 250th anniversary of the United States, which means it is necessarily also the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. I know a lot about that document, thanks to the research I did several years ago to write a book about the signers of that hallowed document. Today, I’m talking about a lesser-known individual associated with the Declaration—Timothy Matlack—the man who actually hand-wrote the document that all the Congressmen signed…

The photo above depicts a writer, hiding from the world. The sort of writer who wants their literary agent to “take care of them.” To see to the business side of things so they, the writer, can “just write.” The sort of writer, in other words, who makes me want to frow up.

One of the small things an empowered writer can do to take back the night is to stop putting their agent’s name on their website. It makes sense if you’re a name writer, and it makes sense in certain other situations, but in general, a newbie or mid-list author would be better served keeping intel to themselves.

Here’s why…

The key to lasting success in this business is multiple income streams. One of those streams can be licensing for film adaptations.

The topic came up recently on one of the writer boards I subscribe to. Hearing short story writers talk about film adaptations and film money reminded me how much I’ve learned about the topic over the years, witnessing the licensing conversations about the work of Denise and my ghostwriting clients.

I dug through my files, did some research, and put together an article discussing this topic. If you’re a writer who has written even a single book or short story, you will want to read this…

Back in September, the weekend Hurricane Helene destroyed my town, I was off in Charleston at a book event where John Lennon’s lawyer was talking about his latest book.

It was a fascinating story, and since we’re both guys from the New York area who relocated late in life to the American South, we hit it off.

Jay Bergen later visited Asheville to do an event at the authors-in-conversation book chat my wife runs in our town. Jay was a hit, mostly because he’s a great raconteur and his book—about the intellectual property suit in which he defended John Lennon against a mobster—reveals him to be an equally fine writer.

I’m talking about his story today at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog, which is right up our alley, seeing as…