My fellow Dead Darlings contributor and site editor, Cara Wood, sent along these questions in anticipation of the launch of my debut novel, Cottonmouths, on June 6, 2017. Echoing the work of authors like Daniel Woodrell and Sarah Waters, Cottonmouths is an unflinching story about the ways in…
There was a time in my mid-twenties when I contemplated creating a t-shirt that read, “If you can’t be a good example, serve as a terrible warning.” On the back it would say, “Terrible Warning.” Things were not good. My…
My oldest brothers are twins. One of them is named after my father, the first and middle names swapped because my father decided he did not want a junior. James is named after the song, “Sweet Baby James.” Because my…
If you could have any super power, what would you choose? Would you fly? Read minds? As a child, I would have opted for invisibility. But on inauguration day 2017 I changed my mind.
Most of us writers spend way too much time doing this writing thing. Crafting a story. Developing characters. Stressing about arcs and structure. Every once in awhile, like in the shower, more fanciful thoughts will strike me. And lots of…
One of those writing clichés tells aspiring authors to “write the book you want to read.” That may be true, but make sure your book fits into an accepted genre or no one else will read it. As I was…