Suspense/Mystery/Thriller The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse 380 pages. Penguin Random House The setup for The Sanatorium was so promising. British detective Elin and her boyfriend, Will, travel to the Swiss Alps for her estranged brother’s engagement party. Her goal is to confront him about their little brother’s mysterious death...

Notice in the title I used the word ‘ease’ instead of ‘overcome.’ That’s because I don’t have a crystal ball, and I haven’t overcome imposter syndrome. There are many days where I feel like I’m a big fake. As much as I’d like to get rid of it, I...

Last week I talked about When to Give Feedback, this week let’s talk about how. Most writers, at some point, will find themselves in a quid pro quo situation with feedback. Critique groups usually expect you to give feedback in order to get it. And writer friends may ask...

One of the first assignments I’d give as a writing teacher would be to have my students write a journal entry on why they want to be a writer. I encourage you to do this now. Remember back to when you first wanted to be a writer before you...

I recently saw a tweet asking if you should give unsolicited feedback to a friend. Clearly, the person wanted to be helpful but also wanted to be considerate. You’ve probably found yourself in a similar situation wanting to balance fixing something and keeping your friendship. As you can imagine,...

Fiction Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 353 pages. Atria Books. A bank robbery turns into a hostage situation. Told in the witty way Backman wrote A Man Called Ove, Anxious People tells the story of two cops, a bank robber, a real estate agent and seven hostages. All of...

Writing is a skill that is generally learned over time from exposure to stories and the practice of writing. However, I think some of us want to forget the practice part and go straight to the finish line. I’ve heard the advice to treat writing like a job. Take...

Nonfiction/True Crime Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann 338 pages. Doubleday I can’t believe there was a time in my life when I wouldn’t read nonfiction. If I still thought nonfiction was boring, I would have missed out...

A part of me has always known that writing endings is one of my weaknesses. However, it wasn’t until reading this Writer’s Digest article that it hit home. In tip two, Audrey Wick tells us not to submit stories with “to be continued” endings. That phrase gave me a...

For me, writer’s block falls into two categories. The first one is most identifiable — fear. I fear so much. I fear that my writing won’t be any good, that it’ll offend someone, that someone will take it the wrong way, that it sounds too deep or not deep...