What’s Gracie up to next? Here’s a sneak peek at the next book in my Gracie Kinkaid Mysteries, “Death Follows After”: When Mountain Search and Rescue expert, Gracie Kinkaid, begins to suspect that a local 15-year-old girl who has gone missing is connected with the violent death of a friend, she’s plunged headlong into an insidious [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
“Death Follows After”
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Search and Rescue, Writing, tagged Books, Creative Writing, Death Follows After, Don't Get Dead, Fiction, Gracie Kinkaid, MLRowland, mystery, mystery series, Outdoor Skills, Search and Rescue, Wilderness Survival, Women in Search and Rescue, Women Writers, Women's Issues, Writing on February 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Got Rejection Dejection? Part 2
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Books, Creative Writing, Don't Get Dead, Got Rejection Dejection?, Literary Agents, MLRowland, New Writers, Rejection, Rejection Letters, Writing on December 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I received so many comments on the “Got Rejection Dejection?” blog that I started thinking about why we’re singing the rejection blues in the first place. What are some of the reasons our writing gets rejected by agents or publishers or producers? Here are some ideas for you to consider: 1. Are you realistic enough about [...]
It CAN Happen to You (The Rule of P’s)
Posted in Search and Rescue, Books, MLRowland, Blogging, tagged Search and Rescue, Wilderness Survival, Search & Rescue, MLRowland, Don't Get Dead, Survival, Gracie Kinkaid, Death Follows After, SAR, So That Others May Live on December 16, 2011 | 12 Comments »
I started this blog as a platform by which to promote my new mystery series about Gracie Kinkaid, a woman on a mountain Search and Rescue (SAR) team. I realized, however, that I’ve written a lot more blogs about Writing than about Search and Rescue and maybe it was about time to do another post [...]
Sometimes More is Less
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Blog, Books, character, Creative Writing, Dialogue, Fiction, MLRowland, Writers, Writing on November 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I remember from an acting class (long long ago and far far away) that the key to great acting isn’t in the delivery of your lines, it’s in your reaction to your fellow actors delivering their lines. Similarly Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer, said about creating characters in writing: “From Ernest Hemingway’s stories, I learned to listen within [...]
Got Rejection Dejection?
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Books, Don't Get Dead, Dr. Seuss, Fiction, Literary Agents, MLRowland, Rejection, Rejection Letters, Writers, Writing on November 20, 2011 | 195 Comments »
In the doldrums because your latest book (or poem or screenplay or article or play or essay) has been rejected by a publisher (or editor or agent or production company or magazine)? Remember this: you’re keeping company with Dr. Seuss. Yep. That Dr. Seuss. According to this great blog, One Hunded Famous Rejections: ”Who could reject Dr. [...]
Factual Errors in Fiction
Posted in Books, Factual Errors in Fiction, MLRowland, Search and Rescue, Writing, tagged Books, Factual Errors in Fiction, Fiction, Hiking, MLRowland, Natural History, NY Times Bestsellers List, Search and Rescue, Writers, Writing on November 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I quit reading a book recently because I found 6 natural history errors in less than 2 pages. Without really trying! Ack! In one section of this book, the author is describing the desert outside of Phoenix, AZ. 1. She talks about a “…flock of canyon wrens…” Canyon wrens are normally solitary (or hang out in pairs [...]
If They See (or Smell or Taste or Hear or Feel) It, They Will Read.
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Books, Creative Writing, Death Follows After, Don't Get Dead, Fiction, Gracie Kinkaid, Imagery, MLRowland, Writing on November 7, 2011 | 16 Comments »
Images. Images. Images. That’s what a note I wrote to myself said to remind me to evoke imagery when I’m writing. In other words, use the most descriptive word possible to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Create a sense of place. Suck your readers in. Place them smack dab into the middle of the scene, so they experience it from [...]
Exercising your Creativity
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Books, Creative Writing, creativity, Fiction, MLRowland, Writers, Writing on September 1, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Just as you can physically exercise to build bigger muscles and do mental puzzles and other activities to build brain power, you can exercise to facilitate your creativity. Here’s one of mine. It’s so easy and flexible you can do it anywhere: in class, in the library, on the bus, in church on the back of the [...]
Character Building (No, I’m not talking about myself)
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged character, Fiction, MLRowland, Plot, Research, Writers, Writing on August 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
When I’m starting a fiction project, I sometimes find that everything that comes BEFORE I begin writing–the bios, the research, the plotting–is DRUDGERY! I want to get right to the WRITING part of writing. Here’s a fun (I think) idea for building fictional characters. I created it when I was writing a sci fi screenplay with multiple characters [...]
To use it or not to use it (the Thesaurus, that is)
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged Books, Creative Writing, Fiction, MLRowland, Synonyms, Thesaurus, Writing on August 27, 2011 | 7 Comments »
I use the Thesaurus. There. I’ve admitted it. I’ve come clean. Bared my soul to the world. And I’m not ashamed. Purists deride using the Thesaurus, branding its use cheating somehow. Why? I’m not sure. I love words. Sometimes, when I’m in the mood and have the time, I spend an inordinate amount of time searching [...]
Homegrown Ideas
Posted in Books, MLRowland, Writing, tagged MLRowland, Plot, Writing on August 11, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Looking for an idea for a plot or subplot? Try checking your local newspaper. Today SW Colorado law enforcement caught 3 Florida fugitives on I-25 south of Pueblo. Two brothers and a sister had robbed a bank and shot at a sheriff’s deputy in Florida and were on the run. They were brilliant enough to try to [...]
