There is a cairn of shames, towered and teetering on his chest, that the slightest movement could lethally topple.

“If the romance plot sets up an enticing question—Will they or won’t they?—the rejection plot spoils everything upfront: they won’t.”

How to name your fictional characters.

Who gets to name an author’s book?When I was readying my first novel for publication, it struck me that writers have far more control over what’s in their books than what’s on them—the cover art, blurbs, jacket copy, but especially the title, where…

How to name your fictional characters.To me the most embarrassing part of writing fiction, aside from telling people about it, is naming your characters. Of course, even “real” names are made up, but in life our names are things we can alter only…