Life-Transforming Fiction

What Language Do You Write In?

What you talking about, Willis? One of the joys of working with teens over the last few decades has been to watch the ever-changing meaning of words. Each new generation makes its own contribution. For instance, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, my generation hijacked the words trucking, free love, freedom, and changed what it meant to go on a “trip.” A few years later, what used to be “cool” was now...

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Diary Of A Crazy Writer

For Love or Money

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine started out well enough—until things in my life got perverse on me again. A few months ago, I mentioned how one of my stories made it to the final round with a well-known publisher. At the time, I didn’t want to say which publisher in case I didn’t make it into the book. But after several months of waiting, I found out I made it into not only one...
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Quantum Marketing

You’re the Star of the Show, Right?
Uh, No, You’re Not

Back in 2003 I went to a conference led by a multimillion selling author. Fifteen or twenty people sat around him having an informal Q & A. As I passed by I heard one of the attendees say, “You’ve hit the big time. So how do you deal with all the fame?” The author smiled, shook his head, and said, “Sorry, let’s go to another question.”

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Character Therapy

The Ditz

A ditz is someone you can count on not to count on. With synonymous names like flake, space cadet, scatterbrain, and airhead, very few readers would likely want to read a full-length novel about one, but they would make for a colorful secondary character or sidekick. The ditz is often portrayed in films as a blond, buxom, bubblegum-chewing valley girl. Common examples would be Reese 

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