Non-Fiction

For many writers of genre fiction, structuring a book is a real pain point.

The Murder Beats solves that problem.

I have taken everything I've learned about structure in genre fiction, through my graduate studies, my own writing, my teaching at the college level, and lectures I've presented at conferences and to writers' groups about the mechanics of writing. In The Murder Beats, I demystify many different ways of structuring a book of genre fiction, focusing on element such as beats, scenes, acts, tropes and universal fantasies. Liberally studded with examples, The Murder Beats can take your nascent manuscript to the next level.

From Publishers Weekly: The companionship and unconditional love a dog provides can be of especially great comfort.

Bringing together conversations with more than two dozen notable men, including playwrights Edward Albee and Charles Busch, film director Jonathan Caouette and writers Victor J. Banis, Ron Nyswaner and Jay Quinn, this anecdotal anthology shows how dogs have given men love, confidence and support.

I joined with my friend, dog breeder and journalist Sharon Sakson, to bring together stories ranging from comic to tragic to sappy. The familiar joys and trials of sharing life with a dog are all here, including stories of comfort and "extraordinary lessons in how to cope with loss." The sincerity and warmth that comes through in each of these stories is infectious, and the inter-species relationships they describe provide unique perspective on the interview subjects as human beings.

Sharon is also the author of Brussels Griffons: A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual and Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs and Paws to Protect: Dogs Saving Lives and Restoring Hope.