It was fewer than 400 words. Barely a page. But I’ve begun my first cozy mystery. I honestly have no idea where it’s going yet. At this point, I’m just introducing characters, getting to know the setting. Regardless, it’s a start and I’m excited to see where the story takes me. I’m also excited to […]
I’m going to be frank. I’ve been struggling to write lately. Specifically, I’ve been struggling to get myself to work on a new draft of my first Jamie and Pip Halloran Mystery, which I wanted to think of as a complete re-imagining of my old first book, Harsh Prey. It felt a little too much […]
It’s a surprisingly cool morning here at my house for this time of year. I’m just praying the temperate conditions hold out until Saturday for my daughter’s wedding. As life is about to get pretty crazy for about 48 hours, I thought I’d take a few minutes and talk about the West Virginia Writers Spring […]
The final draft is written. It’s been edited and proofread and rewritten and edited and proofread again. I’m ready to make a decision. Do I want to send this book off to agents and publishers, or do I want to bite the bullet and self-publish? I’ve tried the self-publishing route and it didn’t go well, […]
If you started your visit to my site on my homepage, you’ll see I am author JD Stephens. I used to be author Joe Stephens, but I took a long break from writing for some pretty life-altering things, such as meeting and marrying the love of my life and adopting her beloved daughter, making her […]
I saw a question on a website for writers about what advice we, as writers, would give to young people who are interested in becoming writers. I may be completely wrong about this, but I feel like I have a slightly unique perspective on this, in that I started writing at a young age (I […]
Book titles are an interesting phenomenon. Some are strictly utilitarian–they are literally descriptive in some way, like Robert B. Parker’s The Godwulf Manuscript or Looking for Rachel Wallace or Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Others are all or part of a phrase or sentence drawn straight out […]
Yeah, I have no evidence whatever to back that claim, but it’s way old. Come back here Wednesday to read an excerpt from the new and improved version of my first ever Shalan Adventure, Harsh Prey! If you’ve never read it, you won’t notice anything other than, I hope, how much you like it. If […]
History buffs or aviation buffs or people like me, who are just meaningless trivia buffs, may recall the story of Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Corrigan, according to History.com, was one of the last of the high flying daredevils known as barnstorming pilots. He once flew from California to New York. That’s not where he got […]
It started one afternoon in seminary when I began writing the opening scene of a book to keep from falling asleep in Old Testament class. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. It all began one autumn day in my college creative writing class. Nope, that’s a lie. It began one day when I came across […]