James D. Best

I like westerns and I like Quentin Tarantino films, so I had high expectation when I rented The Hateful Eight . Bummer. It's not ...

Six tips on writing from Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to fin...

Mark Bonner edits great tributes to western films. Previously, I posted his video, Westerns Forever . As an amateur film maker, I know these...

Henry Miller, circa 1930 As someone who admires storytelling skills, I’m not a fan of Henry Miller . He wrote stop-and-read-again sente...

Hemingway never published advice for aspiring writers, but he spoke or wrote enough about writing that Larry W. Phillips was able to ...

Fame is but 70,000 words away Recently I talked with an aspiring writer who felt unsure about her first novel. She asked how I starte...

Kailua Beach and The Mokolua Islands The Jenny's Revenge manuscript arrived back from my editor. I happen to be in Hawaii visiti...

Some author’s dread poor  reviews from  readers. I like to hear what readers think and find I learn more from critical reviews. Besides, wh...

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters. Speed bumps take readers out of the story. The final throes of revising Jenny’...

We're off to San Diego to escape winter in Nebraska. If the body is willing, I also hope to get in a little surfing. Actually, we d...

In a Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Stephen King presents 20 writing tips. Most famous writers offer ten or perhaps a dozen tips, bu...

I’ve contended that word of mouth is the greatest marketing tool available to authors. Word of mouth includes book clubs, online recommenda...

I self-published The Shopkeeper in 2007. It seems like a lifetime ago, but in indie-publishing terms, it was an eon. I stumbled into i...

Goodreads has added “Ask the Author” to its website. The new feature allows readers to ask questions of authors, and I have enable...

A relative asked for advice on how to publish a math book he had written. I've included my answers below in the hope it might help ot...

Now, this is fun.

He did. On the evening of February 27, 1860, Lincoln gave a famous speech at Cooper Union. This was a political speech made before New York...

I prefer to write my stories before doing significant research. (Except for Tempest at Dawn , which required advanced study and planning.) ...

Saving Mr. Banks Last night I watched Saving Mr. Banks for the first time. Screenwriters like to write scripts about writers. Unfort...