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    • How Much Romance is Too Much?
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    • A Perfect Hatred – Origin Part 1
    • A Perfect Hatred – Origin Part 2
    • Origins of a Character: Maitland “Mai” Fisher
    • Origin of a Character: Alexei N. Bukharin
    • Process of Elimination?
    • Word Styling
    • Origin of a Character: Nelson
    • What’s a Bookversary? And What Does a Free Book Have to do With It?
    • Why I Love Baseball
    • Origin of a Character: The Directorate
    • Origin of a Character: Edwin Terrell, Jr.
    • Origin of a Character: Nathan Hempstead
    • TMWW&R – Part 1
    • TMWW&R – Part 2
    • Clean vs. Dirty?
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    • Interview with the Author – Part 1
    • Interview with the Author – Part Two
    • Where Do Your Characters Go When You Can’t Write?
    • You’re Doing THAT Again?
    • Writing is Scary!
    • Music to Soothe (or Not) the Savage Writer
    • Getting Writer’s Block in the Middle of NaNoWriMo
    • Why I Don't Write in December
    • My Writing Year in Review
    • A New Novella: A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
    • My Dad, Nazis, and War Crimes
    • What Happens When You Type "The End" on a Series?
    • How Does a Non-Spy Write About Spies?
    • Why A Female Protagonist?
    • Life in the Time of COVID-19
    • Why a Female Protagonist?
    • George Smiley vs James Bond
    • Cold War or Cyber War = Russia
    • Q&A with the Characters
    • Books – Why I Love Them
    • A Virtual Tinker Mountain?
    • What Am I Reading?
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    • The Balkans as Inspiration? (Part 1)
    • The Balkans as Inspiration? – Part 2
    • What is This Flash Publishing Thing?
    • What’s Next?
    • Podcasting – But You Won’t See Me on YouTube
    • It’s That Time of Year Again
    • When Planning Goes Wrong
    • The End – Again?
    • Old Spies Don’t Die…Until They Do
    • The Year We Wish Wasn’t
    • Book Plans
    • I Challenge You to a Reading Duel!
    • When is a Love Story Not a Love Story?
    • Why is the Cold War Still So Appealing?
    • A New Look at an Old Novel
    • Revisiting A FACE IN THE CROWD
    • A PERFECT HATRED – REVISITED
    • Recurrent Training
    • Two Days in May
    • Why Novellas?
    • Short Stories Again?
    • Talking a Buyer Out of a Sale
    • Being Uninspired
    • What is a Backlist Anyway?
    • A Most Productive Week
    • Yep, Doing “That” Again
    • Turning Backstory into a Novel?
    • Season’s Greetings and a Look Back
    • 2022 Non-Resolutions
    • NaNoWriMo’s Done – What’s Next?
    • Sensitivity to History in Fiction
    • Should There Be Romance in a Thriller?
    • Ignore History? Not if you Don’t Want to Repeat It.
    • I Stand With Ukraine
    • Getting It Right
    • Balancing History and Story
    • The Aging Writer
    • Distinguishing History from Fiction in Historical Fiction
    • Writing on “Heavy” Topics
    • Why Writers Workshops?
    • Why Writing Prompts?
    • The Post-New Book Letdown
    • A Change in the Flight Plan
    • Needing the Comfort of Writers When the Whole Community is Threatened
    • Art Imitates Life
    • Historical Fiction or Current Events?
    • Trying to Get It Right
    • Current Events or History
    • NaNoWriMo Year 15
    • 15 Years, 15 Wins
    • GETTING IT RIGHT
    • Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
    • Uncomfortable History
    • Why Are We So Captivated by Espionage?
    • The Ethics of Espionage?
    • Switching Genres
  • About the Author
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      • A PERFECT HATRED Excerpt
      • A PERFECT HATRED Excerpt 2
      • A PERFECT HATRED Excerpt 3
      • END TIMES Excerpt
      • END TIMES Excerpt 2
      • END TIMES Excerpt 3
      • END TIMES Excerpt 4
    • Reviews
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  • My Books – and How to Buy Them
    • A Change for the Better
    • A War of Deception – Winner of the 2017 New Apple Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing: Best Historical Fiction
      • Book Group Discussion Questions for A WAR OF DECEPTION
    • My Noble Enemy: A Spy Flash Novella
    • The Better Spy – A Novel in Stories
    • The Yellow Scarf: A Spy Flash Novella
    • Blood Vengeance – A Collection of Linked Short Stories
    • Spy Flash
    • Spy Flash II
    • A Face in the Crowd – A Novelette
    • Series: Self-Inflicted Wounds
      • Self-Inflicted Wounds
    • A Visit From Grandfather Frost – A 2017 Holiday Story
    • Book Magnet – The Broader Concerns of All Humanity
    • Fences and Other Stories
    • Book Magnet: What You Have To Do
    • SERIES: A PERFECT HATRED
      • Discussion Questions for A PERFECT HATRED
    • Book Magnet: A Case of Mistaken Identity
    • Reader Magnet: Settling Scores
    • Love Death
    • SPY FLASH III: THE MOSCOW RULES
    • Old Love Does Not Rust
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NEW – The Better Spy Audiobook

Self-Inflicted Wounds: A Balkans Trilogy

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A WAR OF DECEPTION – BEST HISTORICAL FICTION

First, before you submit to an agent or a publishing house, make sure your manuscript is in its best form possible. That means putting it through a critique group, beta readers, and a professional editor.

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