James D. Best

Today, NFReads published my author interview . They ask good questions, so if you want to know my dark secrets, take a gander. Just kidding....

No Peace is one step closer to publication. I have used the same editor for eleven books, and once again, I'm beholden to her f...

The Washington Post has an article on “ The 23 most unforgettable last sentences in fiction .” Many critics and readers focus on th...

Curiosity.com published a list of writing tips from Mark Twain. Now, Twain never actually published a list, but his letters provide...

Charlie Jane Anders wrote a piece for io9 about How to Write Descriptive Passages Without Boring the Reader or Yourself . Her article inclu...

Murder mystery fans like to figure out whodunit. It’s why the genre is fun, and enthusiasts hate it when the author rigs the game. No und...

Joseph Heller's Outline for Catch 22 How much planning should there be for a novel? Should there be an outline? Should you compose ...

Jennifer Cody Epstein published, “10 Rules for Rewriting History” at Writer Unboxed .  As a historical writer, I found the article help...

Many seem to believe if they just got a proper set of instructions, they could be a good writer. Many famous writers like Mark Twain, Georg...

Mark Twain didn't like James Fenimore Cooper’s writing. Wait, that was far too mild of a sentence. In his article “Fenimore Cooper'...

Aspiring writers frequently agonize over words, sentences, and paragraphs. They want to get every piece of it right. Because they admire gr...

Kim McDougall of Castelane, Inc. recently wrote to  ask for permission to re-publish  on the new  Castlelane website   an article I wrote f...

We had a great visit to the Big Apple. Father/daughter cruise around Manhattan, grandson playing a double header on Randall's Island,...

A couple weeks ago I posted an article about Elmore Leonard's great opening lines. I also mentioned that my Steve Dancy Tales opening l...

Flavorwire published a list of writing tools used by famous authors . I was disappointed in the article because they failed to ask me about...

In a previous post I wrote about giving the reader a clear signal that the point of view was about to change. It all depends on how yo...